Using my Head

[Bluey]

I heard/read a suggestion that when skiing bumps, try to imagine there's a low ceiling above you so that you concentrate on keeping your body/knees bent so that the top of your head effectively is just missing scraping the imaginary ceiling.....the object was to get better body position/centre of gravity & fore/aft balance in bumps.

Has anyone tried anything like this or does this advice have hidden flaws?


My only comment is that PMTS concentrates on the feet and kinda works its way up the kinetic chain but it tends to stop at the shoulders.
I've read a bit about the Alexander Technique ( AT ) in respect to body positioning/posture and it concentrates on the head/neck and works its way down the kinetic chain but stops at about the hips.
By way of background, The AT also specifically uses the concept of scraping the TOP of your skull against an imaginary ceiling as you walk etc in order to correct posture.
Effectively to do this, you need to align your head so its parallel with the imaginary ceiling then you need to comfortably stretch your neck up a bit to just touch the ceiling which then causes the whole uppper body to suddenly align its posture into a straighter back.
I'm told AT is good for better posture as well as better breathing eg asthma.
In respect to skiing, proper skiing posture/ Upper -Lower Body Coordination ( ULBC) is important.


Any thoughts on all of this??

[Bob Dylan]

I tried it but I hit the imaginary ceiling planty of times. Once I even went through the same!

[gravity]

I like using that tip. It really helps me get more active with the lower body.

How 'bout skiing an increasingly narrower corridor? Start with 5 feet and bring it down to 2 feet wide. It really helps with ridding the mind of shopping for a turn and is a great tool for speed control in as much as there's less speeding up and slowing down.

[gravity]

Damn, I love bumps.

[I forgot my name]

Of course Gravity you love bumps. That's why when Mr. T proposed one-ski-skiing you counter-proposed side slips as one of the best drills.

[gravity]

BUMPS ...the rock and roll of skiing.

[-- SCSA]

Hi Bluey,

What up!

Yeah, I tried that one and I think it's valuable. But I'm a PMTS guy (here comes dogma accusations from gravity... ). So I just focus on learning/using the stuff that's...PMTS!

Yeah, I know. I only know/practice one thing. But I'll tell you this. For just about every good tip I've heard outstide of PMTS -- and I have some good ones -- there's a PMTS tip that's does the same thing. So to keep things simple, I just focus on PMTS. And, if I start thinking about other tips, I forget about PMTS and start to make -- lousy turns!

So bluey, I'm not sure of a PMTS tip that says the same thing. But if you flex your legs and follow the UBC movements, you're accomplishing the same goal.

Be cool,
-- I better get to work now...

[Bluey]

Ok....I'll have another go at this.


I appreciate I may not have got my dart into the zone on this one.....as yet..... but I'm trying to compliment ( spelt with an " i " ) what is already part PMTS.

Here's the preamble..... ( Hint : "Page Down" to find what I'm suggesting..)

How does one achieve good Upper Body Co-ordination ( UBC) ?

Breaking this question down I asked myself...... Where should the Upper Body ( UB ) be during a turn??.....the easy/quick answer was, it should be coordinated with the lower body.........sorry....that answer doesn't go far enough for me.....and only concentrating on the correct position of the hand/arms for the poles is still not the full answer.......


I appreciate there should be very little movement of the upper body but I'm looking for the external clues to tell me whether my upper body has the right posture ( read atheletic stance), 'cause if it doesn't, than my balance is being compromise

I'm not trying to be pedantic but PMTS spends a heck of a lotta time focusing and discussing detail about becoming conscious of what the lower body is doing, which I'm thankful for, but what about the upper body??.


The visual external clues I'm using are the poles being at Home Base and after that, I working on my general upper body posture......and that's where the Alexander Technique / "scrapping the very top of my head up against the imaginary ceiling" comes in..........


That's the end of the preamble.........

OK......Here's the deal......
Before I start my ski run I do a "Body Check" to ensure my upper body is already set up to meet my lower body's' needs......(if you start wrong, then it's only gunna get tougher.....).
Therefore, if my head/neck is aligned down thru my chest/shoulders then my arms are better placed for HomeBase..... and it flows down from there into my abdomen and hips.........
So, if during the turn I want to check my upper body coordination, I can quickly check the head/neck alignment.
If it's not right, then I can quickly find the "right" position with throwing/making my upper body into a pendulum of compensating actions to get it back into balance.....and tight control over balance is one of the things PMTS is about.



That's it.....enough said.


It works for me. I'll leave it there.


Bluey