This is MA on a junior racer, U16, in this post I am sending the MA to his father. Billy is in the US junior development pipeline. He's well coached, I know his coach, he is using mostly PMTS. However more stringent attention to detail is required, for him to reach the next level. You can read this analysis as I wrote to them.
Dear Mr. Billy,
I caught some runs of Billy (fake name), training in September, you have on You Tube. I like the exercises with the hands on the hips, we call that the "Angry Mother" exercise. And when practicing this he has good control of his tipping and upper body to support the angles. I can also see his efforts toward counter tipping or "Counter balancing" in the exercise, this is all good. At this level it is good skiing and good performance. Now the, "However" comes into play from what I see needs more work and more refinement emphasis.
My first question before I go much further is, where was this training day relative to his canting changes? I see the right boot (left turns) is slightly soft, which means it needs to be tipped out. The left foot turn is better, very close.
OK, back to the movements. In the exercises which later shows up to a greater degree in slalom training. He comes out of his Counter acting hip relationship, (squares up) before the turn is over, right at the transition. Which means he is already square to his skis in or before edge transition. This should not be happening. He should work on holding that counter acted relationship through the transition and transfer to the uphill outside edge, LTE and get balanced before changing edges. Next, due to this squaring up of the hips, a number of other compensations have to follow, and they are, extension off the outside ski (or a push) and also pushing the new outside ski flat before he balances on it. This makes him late for establishing balance and pressure for the next turn.
I see signs of this happening in the exercises, but it is very subtle. As with everything, when higher stresses and performance is required these little things get magnified, like in actual gate running.
I like the fact that he went back to the exercises the next day, they are exactly what his technique needs. I would have him focus on the refinements I mentioned, so to become stronger with the good technique he is using and so he can hold onto that technique more consistently in gate training. We know that at some level technique will always be tested when gate training. The best skiers in the world are able to maintain it longer, while still going faster. Regards HH.
This is an example of MA I do with racers that come to our shop for alignment. Obviously a relationship develops before this kind of interchange can happen. In this case, I've been doing the alignment on him for 4 years. Recently Sarah Schleper asked me for help with her skiing. She is racing at Seolden next Saturday. Coaching via the internet.