The whole Enchilada

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The whole Enchilada

Postby Harald » Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:55 pm

There have been many good single suggestions for WFTH. This post is less an instant solution or remedy for WFTH than it is a discussion of the process of movement development and understanding. It may be helpful to WFTH, but it is more intended to develop a complete picture of the skier as in the photo. You will find references to words or movements that are described in the Expert Skier Books and PMTS Instructor Manual that I won?t go into great detail explaining.

The skiing in the photo is very easy to analyze, but not always so easy to correct. I think with the ?movement? advice received on the forum, (if one uses it) one will realize that either you can performance immediately and or you have some things you need to practice.

A skier may determine after the first few attempts that the advice wasn?t very useful, but the advice is correct and will produce great results, if one sticks with it.

We at HSS have heard from hundreds of skiers who have developed the Phantom Move on their own by reading Expert 1. They find it easy and sensational that they could change their skiing immediately from a book.

Although Tommy?s advice seemed difficult to completely understand, his basic premise is correct.

Tommy, I think the following description of proper dynamic balance will include, I think you will agree, part of what you wanted in your explanation.

Other Tommi, I totally agree with your analysis of the narrower stance and weight distribution description. The world cup is still lifting the old downhill ski and often picking up the inside ski in turns.

Miles, the bike handle bar example is one of the ways you can describe how to create ?Counteracting Movements?. We use many variations on your theme to explore and convey the ?Counteracting Movements? necessary for intermediates to reach advanced, aggressive skiing.

Learning a new or different way to balance your body and keeping it balanced comes easier to some than others. The photo shows a skier putting himself out of balance by leaning and banking away from the outside ski. In this situation the outside ski loses and decreases pressure as the skier (in a turn) begins tipping, leaning, and banking the whole body. The result of this movement approach is poor arcing ability of the outside ski.

There is no ?Counter Balancing? of the upper body. Counterbalancing creates body angles. In the photo, there are no body angles, that?s the bad news. If one wants to create a tighter, more controlled arc, the answer is, remain more balanced on the outside ski or stance foot.

In the photo situation, if the skier lifted the inside foot (if it were possible in this situation), the skier would fall over. He is not balanced on the outside ski. When you separate and advance the inside foot the way as demonstrated in the photo, the center of mass moves away from the outside ski, this way of moving, reduces ski use. If a skier does this in every turn he/she cannot string together a series of turns that control speed.

The good news is, if skiers want to advance their skiing, it will be very helpful to learn to raise the inside ski at all times, in any turn. This action of raising the inside foot requires that one establishes proper upper body positions and balance and keeps balance on the stance ski; this is created by starting with movements at the base of the kinetic chain.

Base of the kinetic chain movements begin at the feet by tilting the feet, boots and skis, before you lean the whole body into the turn.

Expert skiers, in a turn, can almost at will, lift the inside ski without falling.

Expert skiers create body balance and body angulation (for lack of better word) ?before?, and, as they set up the turn. After they sense this balance is in place, they let their center of mass move away from the outside ski into the turn center.

There is a huge difference in turn performance between developing pure or unassisted balance at the very top of the arc, as opposed to steering and skidding the turn and ski until the natural forces of the slope and momentum assist balance. The essence of the High C turns is early establishing of pure balance.

The everyday skier rarely knows how or tries to establish balance before they twist the skis into a turn. The twisting comes from learning Wedge Christie and using Steering based systems.

There is a huge distinction and difference between these two descriptions of balancing in skiing and by using the correct method you will achieve huge changes in turn and ski performance. The effective way is to employ proper ?Counter Balance? and ?Counter acting Movements?, before body inclination begins. Balance is set up in transition. Steering and wedge based approaches destroy balance in transition. It is for these reasons that wedge based systems, which also teach steering, are dead ends to skiing improvement.

The simplest way to use this information is to go skiing. Keep your inside ski somewhere near the outside ski and try to make turns while lifting the inside ski. Using this approach requires that the upper body search and find its balance point.

If you want to introduce the balancing sensation more progressively, try traversing with the up hill ski lifted first. Keep fighting to learn how to balance with the foot or ski lifted. This is often challenging. Often skiers feel like they need to contort the body to stay balanced. Contorting the body into a counter balanced situation over the outside ski is what will make the difference. The reason this can be a struggle is because the skier fights the process and is using muscles that are untrained in balancing.

Have a look at some of the ski tips in my Book 2 or on my web site. You can see the difference between a leaning position and one that is balanced. Try the glove, ball or car washing sponge between the boots exercise for example. It will not only keep your feet in the right place, but your base of the kinetic chain movements will develop and angulation all the way up your body will improve dramatically.

Some cues for upper body counter balancing are, when engaging the edges for the new turn, tip the little toe side of the foot toward the little toe edge side of the ski and the falline. Tilt your upper body the other direction. Keep your jacket zipper vertical.

Other quick tips or reminders to live by:

Tip your feet, do not turn your skis.
Develop a sense for transfer of balance from foot to foot for each turn.
Tilt the skis to their new edges, then wait, find balance, before moving with the turn.
Keep the back of the skis following the tips.
Begin on moderate slopes that are easy for your level of skiing.

I have not mentioned alignment but, as I wrote in Book 1 many skiers can learn to improve while still out of alignment, but eventually there is a limit.
Harald
 
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