Moving Fore/aft Balance

[Max_501]

... the only thing in Tux I missed was some form of gate skiing, even a brush course would have been great especially on thu/fri.

Yeah, gotta love the brush courses. Maybe join us at the PMTS race camp in 2008?

[Tommi]

Yeah, gotta love the brush courses. Maybe join us at the PMTS race camp in 2008?

Max,

I'd love to and Jay almost talked me into it, but the time of the race camp is a bit problematic for me. Maybe I'll pop in Colorado area some winter. Or if I'll have a business trip to the US..then definitely some skiing, 2.

T2

[Max_501]

Bumping for our new forum members. The first post by HH may be the most information packed post to date.


And here's a great post by Joseph that goes well with this topic:

I thought that I would add my two cents about boot flexing and ski bending, for what it's worth.

For those of you who have not met me, those who have can vouch for the fact that I am not big. About 5'7" or 5'8" depending on the shoes. I am also about as skinny as Harrison--"skinny skiers unite!" Yeah I'm in that category and weigh about 130-135lbs depending on whether I remember to eat or not.

My recent ski setup is as follows. I ride a head TiN97 boot. On the sticker on the back. The head flex rating goes from 9.1 in the soft position to 10.1 on hard. I have the front plate installed for added stiffness. The cuff has been riveted twice to help prevent it from flexing. I'm not sure how my boot relates to the range of flex on the back, but I know that it's stiffer than the 10.1 rating. Recently I have been skiing an Elan wood core ski from a few years back in a 188--a big ski for a little guy. It is long and stiff and beefy with a turning radius somewhere in the 20's (it is of the generation of shaped skis that was called parabolic and didn't provide the radius printed on the ski).

If someone asked me to flex my boot indoors, you might get a mouse squeak out of the plastic--but little or no movement.

I've also been skiing on relatively flat terrain here in the east--gentle stuff. However, when I get my body stacked skeletally over my boot and ski, I have been crushing the ski boot and bending that monster of a ski into a very tight railed turn (slalom ski tight). It is certainly not that I'm heavy or strong, the reason that I can flex this boot, is simply that I have learned to put myself in a skeletally strong position over the boot. This flexing of the boot comes as a result of me pulling my feet back under my body. Good racers all do this. It is paramount to succeed in racing that a skier not break at the hip, and when one learns how far they actually have to pull their feet back, they will get a feeling of power from the skis that was never there before. It isn't me who crushes my boots or bends the skis, it's the G-force that builds in the turn as I tip my ski on edge and do not give in at all to the force that is building as the ski bends. That combined with my momentum from the previous turn ends up forcing my boots to flex and my ski to bend. I pull my feet back, until the femur of my stance leg is vertical to my spine--straght up and down. My stance foot ends up behind my hip during the first half of the turn.

If you would like to try and incorporate this into your skiing, read more on Harald's first post on the thread--Moving Fore/aft balance. For you experts out there, this is one of Harald's best posts ever on this forum. There is real skiing power for you if you can access this move.

I have watched Harald, who is not much heavier and a bit taller than I am, absolutely crush his full blown Head RD race boot. I have also had the benefit of skiing behind him often. The femur of his stance leg--no matter how angulated he may get in a turn--is as vertical to his spine as it is when he is standing in the lift line. Watch great racers, like Bode and Herman and you will see the same during the first half of the turn (that is if Bode isn't flying through the air in the first half of the turn). This comes from an active effort of pulling the feet under the body, The result--the ski boot flexes almost effortlessly and certainly passively--even for skinny skier's like Harrison and me.

What I am getting at here, is that I do not consider height and weight quite as important (in the equation of whether a boot is too stiff or soft) as a skiers skill at putting their body in a strong position over the boot. This is a skiing skill that like all other skills in skiing, must be learned. It does not come overnight.

Start by pulling the feet back farther than you ever thought was necessary. Then pull them back some more, and some more--and then more. That should get you to the point where you are just approaching the place where should pull them back more.

Have fun--Joseph

[h.harb]

Wow! I forgot about all this great stuff that's on the forum, re-reading the gems on this forum; I can't explain it. It's like having special glasses, (like 3D glasses) , looking into the truth of skiing. When I read the gems on the forum, I sometimes think, man this stuff is worth real money, but it's free. Wow, People pay big money for crap everyday, here you get the good stuff for free.

[nickia]

Good post! We need to have a sticky "Resources" thread to contain links of all great threads.

[Max_501]

Bumping for our new forum members. The first post by HH may be the most information packed post to date. Read the full thread, its loaded with important information.

[arothafel]

Great thread. The feeling of pressure on the feet/shins (not the ski) through different aspects of the turn is really helpful. Thanks for bumping this to the top.

[Max_501]

Bounce. Needs to be a sticky.