For all those who don't understand how to interpret WC skiing and should probably refrain from using world cup examples as a basis for their assumptions until they do. This is for you, happy valentine.
Alignment is so individual I have to take it case by case. But generally, knock kneed skiers are usually (but not always) more flexible, but they have to use more counteracting to reduce the inward rotation of their knock-kneed leg. When you are too Knock-kneed, it means you use more femur rotation to the inside, CA holds that back.
However, Hirscher, Herbst, even Benni, and all other slalom skiers need and use lots of CA, they are set up totally bowlegged and yet still use tons of counteracting. So the conclusion is, in tight turns close together, CA has to be used to control rotational forces, developed by the inherent actions, needed to perform in this event. These guys use the heck out of their feet and they have incredible feet, I think you discount or are unaware of this important concept.
Now in real life, in tight round close together turns, more counter is beneficial, because you can hold the ski on edge and make it grip to get a real release. That is PMTS, you can deviate from PMTS and use many other forms of ski technique that involve no or less counteracting, but justifying that you need less CA, can only be based on performance, (video) not assumptions or feel. A sure sign that a skier is compensating for not CA the hips, is lots of tip lead. That unfortunately doesn't act as an effective substitute for the right way to CA.
In skiing with more connected turns closer together like slalom, you have to use more counteracting.
In order to use less CA, if you want to use Cuche here it’s OK, but it has more to do with the "strength of your feet, and tipping ability of the feet to hold the edge, and less to do with whether or not you are bow legged. Well set up skiers who are toward bowlegged, all CA in slalom. And no knocked knee skiers are alive and skiing on the world cup, without lots of CA.
That's why I don't use skiers like Cuche, even in GS, they are skiing 50 mph at times and Cuche doesn't do as well in the tight GS courses. He does well in the longer stretched out courses and especially when it's a Swiss coach who sets.
The reason I stated and explained in depth, in my previous post to you, why the Cuche type skiers don't have relevance, for this discussion, is because some people will often use based on, "the less counter is good" reasoning, as a way out, to stop attempting CA or not teaching it at all. The excuse, I want to avoid on this forum is,
That it is, now OK, to no longer work on counteracting, because Cuche doesn't use or need it.
However he does use it, and I'd guess you need to use it more than he does. I'm sure your feet are not as strong as Cuche's feet.
That's how these things get started and work there way into skiing systems and people's understanding. Look at PSIA and CSIA they think that square and pole plant shoulder rotation are OK. Check the other thread to discover how well those movements work for that guy. We teach the opposite, so I'm drilling this point, to make sure this doesn't happen here. Don't you see I'm trying to keep the thinking here clear and from going in the wrong direct?
I don't think I left any confusion about where PMTS stands in these examples.
Many people would like to use examples like yours and justify "waist steering" for instance. In skiing there is probably a contradiction for every technical statement, but there are always logical reasons for those contradictions. Many people are drawn blindly and sucked in toward the wrong interpretations of skiing. Not here!
So that must be why, with the corrected alignment, working at countering less, feels much more stable and balanced to me now.
Where did I pull out this statement and this assumption?
This statement is an assumption and can be misleading and can sound like justifying, for using less counter. It also “assumes” you are already using too much counter, how do you know? It is precisely these types of statements that drive me crazy.
Especially, notice the word "feel", in that statement, I think there are many gigabytes on this forum devoted to how your own "feelings" are the worst way by which, you can judge your own skiing performance.
That is why I require relevance and accuracy to back up wide sweeping statements. The mini photo of Janka only tells us his hands are together, his shoulders are still countered, but it's very hard to see in that photo. Your statements about Jancka and Cuche coming square sooner or faster require much more supporting evidence, before I buy into that statement as well.
Although for any skier, who is using extension, you don't need as much CA, if you are using an extension rather than a retraction, to get to transition. If you end a turn square in recreational skiing, you are forced into an extension to get out of a turn, however this is not a release. If you are a world cup level skier, skilled and gifted, with the feet and ankles of that quality, you may not need to use or hold CA as much, in speed events, because there is more time between the gates, to extend. And speed events are not what we do in recreational skiing, and it's not PMTS. So therefore, they have little relevance to everyday skiers.
Bottom line is, bring video, without it, you are just going round in circles.
