Did a 2 hour clinic with the head Masters coach at Cannon

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Did a 2 hour clinic with the head Masters coach at Cannon

Postby Basil j » Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:50 pm

So my daughter race for the Franconia ski club at Cannon and they have fundraisers every year. This year there was a 2 hour masters race clinic available so I bid on it and won.i did not mention PMTS till the end of the clinic.
The gentleman I did the clinic with runs the weekend training programs at Cannon, so i was very interested in learning how they train master's racers and also because they are tied to the FSC that my daughter races in, I was curious to the ideologies and techniques they promote in their programs.
We did not do any race training in a course, but rather worked on free skiing drills that I could bring into the course. I told him that my main goal was to learn how they coach my daughter so I could be supportive in her development.
We started with some free skiing on some easy blues. He followed me down and then discussed my skiing on the chairlift ride back up.
First the good-He felt that I had an excellent athletic stance and was making nice round carved turns. He also noticed that for the majority of all my turns, my weight was on my outside ski and I was leaving only one track in the snow.Good stuff. He also noticed that I had pretty good inside ski management, my shins were parallel through the turn and I had decent counter rotation and good body positioning.
Not so good-he also did not like that I got on my old LTE before starting my new turn, and said that will make you slow in the course. He said I pole planted then went into the float or flattening of my skis. He want me to hit the float or flatten my skis simultaneously with the pole plant. He also felt that I was too upright and not using enough pressure on the front of my boots. What he wanted me to do was pole plant and flatten my skis at the same time, tip my skis to start the new turn and use front boot pressure and tipping to load the ski and manage the turn shape.He did not want me to extend. Instead he wanted me to lighten or flatten the ski, and then slowly build pressure throughout the turn and be patient in letting the turn develop vs trying to make the skis turn.He liked that I flexed to release pressure and I stayed nice and low.
We did some garland drill and javelin turns and he really had me focusing on my hands, as when they dropped low, I would lose pressure off the front cuff of the boot.It was just he and I,so i did not get a chance to do any video, but i found it interesting that he did use some good terminology.
He liked that I "unweighted"" my inside foot and focused more on that foot instead of weighting my outside foot. He liked that I turned the small of my back to the inside of the turn and that my upper body stayed facing perpendicular to my ski tips.He did not like a narrow stance and how I transitioned with a minimal pole plant that in his mind did not trigger or initiate a progression of movements.( i thought i was, but I guess I wasn't)
I asked what they had U14's focusing on and he said the same basics. Good hand management,Good stance and posture, out side ski pressure, parallel leg shafts and good patience through the turn.
Nothing earth shattering here, but it was nice to get a honest perspective from the group that works with the local racers.I have noticed that by adding more awareness to the pole plant and the "Float", keeping my hands in my line of sight and more awareness to boot cuff pressure with patience, that my turns feel a little more locked in, consistent, rounder and have a little better cadence to them. Nothing really anti PMTS or pro PSIA, just fundamental stuff that I was getting a little sloppy with. I have not really changed anything much, but rather tweaked a bit and it was fun.
Basil j
 
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