4 Years breaks - MA for Nickia

Re: 4 Years breaks - MA for Nickia

Postby nickia » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:36 pm

Ken wrote:
Max_501 wrote:
nickia wrote:I have been working on one leg balance, free foot management, and one footed release.


Your hips are not included as part of the CA/CB movements which is making it difficult to release. There are several things you can do to address this but start by reading HH's detailed explanation of tip lift.

Why the ski "Tip" lift is important, for all skiing levels?


Stand with one foot sideways on a stair step or on a thick book. The other leg dangles. Lift the hip on the side you are not standing on. Lift it way up, let it way down, up, down, up, down. Change sides, repeat, repeat. Remember this movement for when you're on the snow. Stand up now, feet together, push one hip forward. Your upper body rotates at the same time. Straighten, rotate from the hip upward, straighten, rotate from the hip upward. Change sides, do it more. This is counteracting. Remember this movement for when you're on the snow.

On the snow, ski like in video 6, slow & easy, everything working well. Add the counteracting by pushing the inside hip forward as you're pulling the inside foot back. Hold the counteracting position all the way through the turn until the release, then immediately counteract the other way as you start the next turn the other way. Add the hip lift as you lighten the inside foot. Repeat, repeat, repeat. More movement is better, but even if you're stiff and can't go very far, give it all you've got. Add counterbalance where you bend a bit in the mid section as you counteract. As the speed & forces increase the amount of counterbalance needs to increase. Add one new movement at a time, practice that until you have a good handle on it, then add another new movement. Learn these on terrain that is not challenging.

For your one foot drill, try lifting the inside ski tail just an inch or two off the snow. Tip it, tip it more, tip it more and more and more as you lighten and flex the leg more and more (suitable for the angles you're developing), that little toe edge of the shovel just lightly sliding along the snow. Add the maximum counteracting and hip lift, and suitable counterbalance, as you drill.

I'll try the ski tip lift this weekend. Something new for me...it'll be interesting to find the movement and timing.


Thanks Ken. I will try the dryland hip exercise you mentioned.
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Re: 4 Years breaks - MA for Nickia

Postby Max_501 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 6:36 pm

nickia wrote:Can I simply just add a tip lift movement to any release such as OFR/TFR or this movement can only be done during a high speed/high energy carving release?


Start your release by lifting the tip (rather than the tail) followed by the typical inside foot management including tip/tuck/pullback. You should have a slight tail lift by the fall line.
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Re: 4 Years breaks - MA for Nickia

Postby nickia » Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:42 pm

Max_501 wrote:
nickia wrote:Can I simply just add a tip lift movement to any release such as OFR/TFR or this movement can only be done during a high speed/high energy carving release?


Start your release by lifting the tip (rather than the tail) followed by the typical inside foot management including tip/tuck/pullback. You should have a slight tail lift by the fall line.



Thanks Max. Will try this tomorrow on the snow.

I did few more dryland CA exercises and found one revelation. I'm right foot dominated and tend to stand on the right foot with right hip forward and body facing 45 degree toward the left. This motion is done unconsciously on a day to day basis such as standing and waiting in line or sitting on a chair.

However, on the left side, when I stand on the left foot with left hip forward and body turns to 45 degree to the right and looking at that direction, my brain could feel a sense of "strangeness" because I can no longer see what's on my left side without tiling the head. This phenomenon happens even standing stationary at home. This feeling is more pronounced on the snow. Even turning my head to look toward the left feels less familiar compare to turning my head to look to the right. I think this explains why I felt like I "couldn't" see when I do left turn CA.

I will incorporate the following to my day-to-day life:
1. When sitting down and using the computer, sit on left butt and the body is 45 degree to the right. Turn the head to the left to face the screen
2. When standing, put more weight on left foot and turn left hip forward and face body more toward the right
3. Practice turning my head more to the left side
4. Turn the body to the right and head to the left while doing activities at home

I could already feel my brain working extra hard when I tried to focus on the left side.
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Re: 4 Years breaks - MA for Nickia

Postby nickia » Sat Jan 21, 2017 11:20 pm

Just want to post a quick update before bed:

I started to train my left eye yesterday and it greatly helped my left turn! Here is what I've done:

1. Turn my head more toward left on day-to-day activity
2. Turn my head toward left on chairlift and look at the scenery on the left
3. While doing Angry Mother, with body CA, while turning left, turn my head to the left so I can see what's in front and what is above of me


Result:
1. I noticed a lot of details and things I've never paid attention to before (the trees on the left, the shape of the cliff on the left). It is amazing. On my first charlift tonight, I even felt some fear as if I was riding the chairlift for the first time.
2. I could feel my brain working hard and processing all these new sensory information when I was using my left eye to perceive the environment.
3. My left traverse turn felt a lot more comfortable and natural now.

I also did two runs of Tip Lift as suggested by Max but the result is still inconclusive due to lack of time. I will do more of this tomorrow.
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Re: 4 Years breaks - MA for Nickia

Postby nickia » Tue Jan 31, 2017 8:27 pm

I continued my works on left turn and tip lift.

With tip lift, I'm not sure if I'm doing it properly but I found that by lifting the entire ski to release then do a deliberate pullback move where the tip will drop, my turn improves. I find that pulling back movement is much easier to perform this way compare to just lifting the tail then try to pullback. This change is inspired by Harald's phantom move demonstration in fore/aft DVD. I watched it frame by frame and notice the entire ski or at least the front was lifted then quickly pull the foot back to cause the tip to drop. Here are the screen captures: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5072&start=15

I always performed the tail lift and pullback as one motion and never saw it was a two-step process until now.

As for my left turn, my left ankle has less range of motion than right. It turned out my left leg and hip also have less range of motion than right. I confirmed this by performing stationary tipping exercise indoor in front of a full length mirror and observed how far my knee and fermur turns and rotates. Using the same foot tipping pressure, my left knee moved less than my right. For the left knee to achieve the same angle as the right knee, I had to exert more tipping pressure on the left ankle than right. I read something about weaker gluteus minimus could cause A-frame from another site (Harald also posted something about gluteus minimus on this forum but I couldn't be sure if there is a connection to my problem).



Some exercises I'm doing:

1)Indoor extreme tipping: I tip my left ankle in ski boot and ski to the maximum angle and compare the knee angle with my right. I also focus on hip flexibility
2)Non-ski exercise: I practice opening and closing my left hip as much as I can while I'm watching TV to increase the flexibility
3)On snow exercise: I try to tip my left ski on edge and hold it there while waiting in the lift line. I also do 10 reps of left ski maximum stationary tipping after getting off the chairlift and perform 10 reps of edge stepping of left ski. Funny story, I was doing some edge stepping in circle with one ski near the chalet area. One nice kid offered to help thinking I was stuck and couldn't get my ski off. :lol: Getting better requires us to check out ego and be willing to do "embarrassing" exercises that are beneficial.
4)Chairlift exercise: I tip, pullback my left ski, draw to stance ski and hold that position for the duration of the chairlift. This is my inspiration:
Image


Results:

I don't have video confirmation yet but I feel more confident in left turn engagement. I can also roll my left ankle as fast as my right ankle now which was not the case prior these ankle and hip exercises. The hip exercise helped me in holding the left ski and keeping it tipped during left edge locked turn.

My left ankle is a bit sore from all these extreme tipping movements but I think it is good to stretch it out.
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Re: 4 Years breaks - MA for Nickia

Postby nickia » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:30 pm

I've been working on my left turn the past month. After getting my alignment done at HSS and diligent practice, I think my left turn has improved.

Some insights:

1. CA was lacking on left turn; once applied, edge hold was better
2. CB was lacking on left turn; currently consciously trying to improve it
3. Dorsiflexion was lacking on left turn; it is much easier to hold the left ski to LTE when dorsiflexion is applied with tipping. Dorsiflexion also helps me to keep the free foot back when used in conjunction with tipping. The muscle on the front of the lower left leg burns after some intense dorsiflexion skiing. The left foot tipping never felt quite right compare to the right. I think the primary cause is I tip my right foot with dorsiflexion and left foot without. After applying dorsiflexion to left foot tipping, the sensation almost matches the right foot.
4. Keep free foot close to stance ski even when carving. There was a tendency to separate my feet during carve (horizontal separation). Today, I felt my legs are touching each other the first time while carving. It was a new feeling :D
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