Harald , how about some info .

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Harald , how about some info .

Postby jclayton » Wed Nov 24, 2004 4:21 pm

How about some interesting info. from the camp with the racers . We've being having lots of posts lately dabating theory and definitions what about something we can get our teeth into .

I'm getting a bit impatient I guess you are compiling something .

I might have mentioned it before but it would be very interesting to see some footage of racers doing training runs with some commentary from you perhaps .
skinut ,among other things
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Postby Harald » Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:31 am

Jclayton, I would love to respond to your question and give a complete run down of the last two camps, one was a Masters racing camp and the other was a PMTS instructor camp. Here is at least a beginning, so we can get the ball rolling. First, I will describe some of what happened at the PMTS instructor camp. We had topics that ranged from Movement Analysis to Upper and Lower body coordination, Skiing Improvement, On snow alignment evaluation and a Getting out of the Wedge as topics. . We have been using V1 soft ware for two years and it is very helpful. Dartfish is another product like it, but it is more complicated, expensive and doesn?t offer that much more.

I find that PMTS is evolving. We have from our teaching at these camps and the others over the past season, evaluated the plateaus of skiers and found some very interesting technical gaps and now we have implemented solutions. We have refined PMTS movements and exercises topics that address what skiers have been omitted or weakly developed.

Since we began implementing, our refining approaches, and using these approaches in the more recent camps, we have seen objective, quantifiable movement changes and improvements in both skiers we know and in those that are new to PMTS. Many were trained in other systems, so it takes time to flush out some of the old movements and habits.

Approaches:
We are evolving PMTS and strengthening areas where skiers seem to be wanting and fragile. We have added much content to the progressions and exercises that involve upper and lower body co-ordination and upper and lower body counter balancing.

Transitions:
We always begin movements with the feet and ankles and support the movements with upper lower body co-ordination. The weakest part of intermediate and advanced skier?s repertoire is the transition. PMTS has a number of new exercises and complimenting movements developed specifically for the transition. The feet and ankles can only hold and create ski angles to the extent that the upper body supports the angles created at the feet. If the upper body produces too many inefficient movements or non supportive directions, the feet and ankles are not strong enough to hold the angles by themselves.

Mechanics:
In transition, if a problem originates due to lack of foot tipping, or the skier has emphasis on leg rotation, or if foot steering is prevalent in transition; those actions can wash out ski engagement. Just like an eraser, the thin lines of a possible clean, carve line, are wiped out. We employ an active but co-coordinated release with the feet tipping off the edges and the upper body coordinating with these foot movements. This may sound simple, but I have found few skiers with this ability. When I say few, I mean almost none, not ex-demo team members or full cert level skiers. PMTS trained instructors at the Blue level either do have the co-coordinating movement in their skiing or usually learn it in a few training sessions. I think this is a missing art and a huge hole in ski teaching. Just as big, as the lack of instruction and understanding of movements ten or twelve years ago that involved development of tipping from base of the kinetic chain. Before PMTS.

I know I will have to clarify the use of counter acting movements and exercises, as there is much confusion and little understanding about this movement. I am not talking about counter rotation. In PMTS, we use efficient movements that support the engagement of the skis by foot movements. Counter rotation is just as debilitating when used incorrectly as steering or rotary movements are. We want the feet to achieve the movements which develop the ski angles that can be held and maintained. Counter acting movements in PMTS are mid to upper body movements that reduce rotation of the upper body and allow time for the feet to tip the skis for the new turn. (As in the float phase we control any aggressive movements to allow time for the body to tip with the skis toward the new radius it will follow inside the arc that the skis make. If upper body movements, even small ones, interfere with the moment when the skis are flat to the surface, engagement is delayed, and the turn is lost.

Going through transition is a problem for many skiers. We try to have skiers realize that a ski on edge doesn?t need steering input and skis when on edge, are not steering. We do this with a series of static exercises first.

Steering the skis while they are on edge reduces or eliminates the hinging properties available at the edges that increases or decreases ski angles. By hinging, I mean the act of lowering the ski from an angle to raising the ski to an edge angle while the ski remains in the same grove. The hinge point, like a door on its hinges can be seen at the skis where the edges contact the snow. If you perform this statically in a traverse position, you can see the hinging effect of the skis. Raise the skis to a high edge angle. Keep the same position and lower the skis to almost flat, without allowing the skis to skid or slip. As you rock the skis on and off their edges with foot tipping, notice the skis behave like and with a contact point at the engaged point in the snow. The engaged edges can be said to be hinging from the contact point, both on the uphill little toe edge and the stance ski big toe edge.

If the body is slightly countered and skis are not steering, hinging can be very balanced and controlled during and for transitions. If steering, any kind, whether it be leg rotation or foot steering occurs, it will interfere with clean, accurate precise edge hinging in either the releasing or engaging phase. This is what we notice in most skiers. At the release the mid or upper body is either rotated (square is rotated). This maybe due to hand arm and shoulder use to move the pole into pole plant position or over emphasis to prepare the upper body for the next turn, before the skis are ready for the releasing phase. Few skiers have the ability at the end of a turn to keep the skis engaged, pressured and carving. Either the upper body, or mid body reacts to the forces and isn?t in the strong enough skeletal position to hold the bottom of the turn. Some coaches and instructor will tell their skiers to finish the turn, but this isn?t so simple, unless you co-ordinate during the transition at the beginning of that turn. More on these topics and solutions later, I have a ski appointment I must prepare for now..
Harald
 

Postby milesb » Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:45 pm

Oh great, something else I'm doing wrong! I think I just went down a couple of notches on the ability scale :D
YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH78E6wIKnq3Fg0eUf2MFng
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Postby jclayton » Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:57 pm

Ho Ho ,
the more we know the more we find we don't know . The higher up we get on the ladder the longer it gets . Much more fun than being self satisfied and stagnating don't you think Miles .
skinut ,among other things
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