Marlies Schild

[h.harb]

She is the best and 6 Austrians in the top 10, let the games begin.

[h.harb]

Schild Killed it. Name the ways.
1. Narrowest stance
2. Little toe edge tipping, in the arc and toward the new turn
3. Never a big toe engagement
4. Never pushing off the big toe edge
5. Holds the counter, before the release

Sorry Maze and Schiff the Queen of slalom is back. Some of you may remember when I said last season, that the quality of slalom on the women's side of the World Cup is weak, and that's why Maze can be top 5 and Shiff can win. Well, the Queen of real slalom is back, and if she isn't injured, she will win slaloms again, by 2 seconds, she is in a different class.

[Max_501]

Harald, I've been watching Marlies with my kids. She is incredible. You can easily pick out all the Essentials when she skis. She is so smooth you don't realize how fast she is going.

[h.harb]

She is probably better at pure PMTS than Hirscher. I've noticed lately Hirscher is jumping on his new edges instead of tipping into them. Right now, I'm concerned about what I'm seeing in Hirscher's skiing.
Even for a skier like Hirscher, you can lose your touch, your finesse, if you try to force things rather than relaxing into movements.

[h.harb]

Marlies takes another race slalom in Lienz. She is now the most successful slalom skier in history.

[arothafel]

Nothing more than curiosity.... BUT...

How do two women from two different countries, with different coaching, different equipment, etc. just stumble upon these movements? Did their bodies just naturally move toward PMTS type movement patterns? Was it dumb luck? Are you secretly coaching them, Harald?

Even more odd is that the other women don't seem to be attempting to ski like Schild. Perhaps they are too ingrained with their own particular movements...(bad coaching notwithstanding) but, then again, Matt changed his movements at least twice -- and is winning again.

Schild has been racing and winning with pretty much the same movement patterns for as long as I have been following her (5-6 years). Amazing that she is not every coach's case study on how to race slalom and win.

[h.harb]

Did their bodies just naturally move toward PMTS type movement patterns? Was it dumb luck?

Great skiers want to find the most efficient way to make a clean arc and get through transitions without holding back. They develop this kind of skiing mostly on their own. In Austria, they get immediate help if they go off track. In the US they languish until they figure it out on their own. Look at Mancuso, it's terrible to watch. Look at Maze this year, it's hard on the eyes to watch her ski, yet no improvement yet. If you listen to the commentary on Universal sports you will understand the level of ski coaching in the US. In my opinion it's still in the dark ages. Lewis is connected to the highest levels of US coaching. And this is all he can come up with???? It's not because he wants to sound incomplete as a technical commentator, it's because he doesn't know any better.

Even more odd is that the other women don't seem to be attempting to ski like Schild.

They think they are copying her. They just don't know "how much deeper the understanding of skiing has to be" to access Schild's movements. It's not about stomping harder on the outside edge, skivoting, getting your hips up, moving your hips forward, or extending. That is what most of the US kids hear.

What all this demonstrates is that PMTS has to be studied, understood, even if you just tried copying it, you'd be ahead of what is currently taught. PMTS came from racing, but only the best racers of the last 20 years, the ones that are revolutionary and refined. PMTS did not come from every racer. To me Tomba and Gunter Mader had the biggest impact on modern skiing. And then came Hirscher and Schild.

[h.harb]

It's so refreshing to watch Schild ski, it's a thing of beauty. Her release and her inside foot and leg management are so perfect.

[h.harb]

In the last 25 turns, in the 2nd run, Schild beat the field by 1 second. She has yet to ski "all out" in two runs. If she does get back to being able to do it, she will begin winning slaloms by more than 1.5 seconds. THis is how dominant she was before her injury.

Last season, I stated often it's not Maze or Schiffrin winning because they are so great, it's because the women's level of slalom has dropped without Schild. Even with Schild still working her way back and not yet at her max potential, she is winning. What is the difference?

Schild has emphatic outside ski retraction and flexing at the release of every turn. This is so obvious, but few coaches know how she achieves it. This is worth 1/50 of a second on every turn. She has the narrowest stance, this allows her to manage her inside ski tipping and pull back. She keeps the inside ski lighter for longer in a turn, than any of the others. The others except for her sister and Zettel all use the inside ski to lean on. Even Shiffrin stance falls away (feet get too wide horizontally) and she ends up on the inside ski, this takes much of her rebound away for the release. Unfortunately, both Zettel and Bernadette went out with potential podium runs in the bag.

[h.harb]

http://harbskisysems.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-does-maries-schild-do-it-best.html

[Max_501]

Schild is poetry in motion, a true technician of the highest order. Somewhere I heard or read that Shiffrin studies Schild so I expect we'll she a change in Shiffrin's skiing once she has a chance to work on her technique. That said, it is hard to make meaningful changes during the race season.

[h.harb]

Schfrin's set up is softer, until that changes the wider stance, with a little more edge slip, will continue.

[Max_501]

Schfrin's set up is softer, until that changes the wider stance, with a little more edge slip, will continue.

With any luck one of her friends or coaches will see your tip and do something about it.

[h.harb]

Much of what Schild and other skiers at the best levels know is that the risk of keeping weight "off" the inside ski and playing it with Counter balance in the High C, pays off with a very strong edge grip and energy at release with rebound. Fundamentally, if you have reservations as to how well your outside foot, ski, will hold once into the falline, you are going to back off and step into the inside ski, too early. The same goes for pushing the inside foot forward at the falline. Ligety in slalom is one of the worst offenders of the forward ski push. To me it shows they don't have full confidence in their outside foot holding.

There was a funny moment when a few USSA coaches piped in on my Hirscher analysis on Facebook. They thought and sated that, pushing the inside foot forward was a positive move. How far off that organization is in skiing understanding is astounding. Can't blame the PSIA for that, if you invited them into your den.

[HighAngles]

It's really surprising just how many WC level skiers do not have a strong top of the turn. I find myself watching the racers this season and really paying attention to what's happening in their releases. Very few racers really establish a balance change to the new stance ski (on the LTE) before the ski is in the fall line. Those that do have this skill have much less chatter in their outside ski through the belly of the turn. They're also more progressive in how they work with their edge angles. Obviously sometimes the course set forces some ugly skiing to come out, but I just cringe when it's really obvious that a racer can't trust their outside ski in the turn and the reason why is painfully obvious.