by John Mason » Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:13 am
For the PMTS lurkers - this excellent clip shows what PMTS teaches as the "weighted release". People reading the posts here and on Epic may get the impression the Super Phantom release is the bread and butter turn and even in HH's post about working with the ski team this week HH is describing the SP turn and not the weighted release.
In this clip you appear to see something that contradicts PMTS as you often see the new outside leg in the air at the top of the turns instead of the inside leg.
This is what PMTS teaches as the weighted release. In this release you still activate the release by strong tipping of your old downhill ski, but rather as a "phantom move" you actually do it with all your weight still on that leg. The result is a similar transition to the Super Phantom in that your body is drawn accross the skis for good skeletal alignment for the new turn. The BTE of the new outside ski is not engaged at the top of the turn, nor is it used at this point as this ski may even be in the air at at this point. The BTE engages as the g forces build in the new turn.
This is just about as oppisite to what non-pmts'rs do in their skiing.
1. in TTS skiing the outside BTE is engaged early, often with no release having occured - both BTE's engaged at the same time. (take a look at Jay's videos"
2. in PMTS Super Phantom, the BTE of the new outside ski is engaged at the very top of the turn and passivily due to the body's alignment caused by the early phantom move
3. in PMTS Weighted Release, the BTE is engaged on the new outside ski as the g forces build. The tipping of the old downhill ski/new inside ski still leads the turn (the biggest single difference between PMTS turns and tts turns).
2 and 3 can be mixed in the weight distribution as desired - the commonality is the tipping of the downhill ski in the last portion of an ending turn towards it's LTE as the key component to create a release.
I played around with this at race camp this summer. It's quite a different sensation than the SP turn. I personally like the SP turn the best. The weighted release is a more "active" move while the SP turn, at least in my limited experience, feels more "magical" (turns changing with no energy expendiature). That's probably due to the fact its simply easier to tip to the LTE with little weight on that foot and "fall" into your new turn, rather than doing the same with all the prior turns g forces on that leg.
HH also has great video of the weighted release in his 2nd DVD.
Question for the PMTS group? Which style turn do you do and like yourself? SP, Weighted Release, or a modification between the two extremes