What movements helped to show best time in slalom on Friday?

Re: What movements helped to show best time in slalom on Fri

Postby h.harb » Sun Feb 16, 2014 3:39 pm

Thanks or posting this, I don't have any major issues with this skiing, it's rather clean for the level. There are lots of good things happening, but just not enough great things. However it's about 2 seconds off of Hirscher and Felix Neureuther per run. The question is why and how do you fix it. Look at the angle of the ski tip toward the next gate, when the tips are even with the gate. They are still headed out bound, with Hirscher you would see the tips headed toward the new direction. How does Hirscher do this, with greater rebound and line out of the previous arc. What are the movements, this skier is a great skier, no doubt, but his CA isn't as strong, his inside foot moves forward and inside, not as bad as Ted Ligety, but still this is a loss of pressure which results in less rebound. Less rebound and wide stance leaves you lower and hanging on ending up lower on the hill for the next gate. He has lots of upside with this basic technique, he doesn't rotate, or reach for a block and he doesn't reach the inside hand for the snow. So there is good discipline involved.

It's a collection of little things, that make the difference, he is using extension to push himself and he needs more CA in the high load phase of the arc. His inside hip and shoulder preparation are late for the next gate. This can happen when you are not getting enough rebound, you have to do more stepping, rather than using retracting. He seems in-between the two, almost there. He uses the Phantom, to prepare his inside ski, but it's late, due to the inside weighted foot, too far from the releasing one. Notice how Hirscher mostly narrows his stance during or just prior to releasing, this is because he curves his outside ski longer, to meet up with the inside ski. But his arc is much tighter. You can't tighten the arc as much if the inside ski is too far forward and too far away from the outside ski.
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Re: What movements helped to show best time in slalom on Fri

Postby Icanski » Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:18 pm

Hi Harald,
Since I can't comment on your FB posts for some reason, I'd like you thoughts on the course set for the second run of the slalom today. The commentators on CBC, Karen Lee Gartner, and Scott Oake, said it was a very difficult course with no rhythm and one person described it more like an 'obstacle course' than a race course. Some said it would separate the best skiers from the rest and given that more than half of the skiers couldn't make it to the finish line, they said there was some controversy as to whether it was well set.
Also they mentioned that the snow was very soft and not "injected". Does that mean that these courses are usually pretty much ice rather than snow?
Some skiers looked like they were practically jumping around some of the gates and turning in the air.
thanks,
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Re: What movements helped to show best time in slalom on Fri

Postby AnI » Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:18 pm

Harald without doubt will have his own insights, but this is what I heard and read: temperatures in Sochi were very warm during the Olympics. One could see in TV reports that there was no snow whatsoever at the bottom of the mountain where gondola loading area is. At the top, where organizers saved and made enough snow, snow coverage was good but the temperatures were in the +10 C range during the day and barely below freezing during the night. It was like skiing in May in California or on Mt Hood in late July.

In order to make snow more skiable, they either spread salt or inject water the day before races. The idea is that salt melts snow, and water (either molten or injected) freezes overnight, thus making course firmer and more stable from the first to the last run. The temperatures got a little cooler by the end of the olympics, but evidently night temperatures were not cold enough, and competitions did not start until late afternoon anyways. With soft snow, it takes no time to form deep ruts. You can see those on Mt Hood by noon when race camps end.

There is a science which salt to use (there are three grain sizes which are used depending on the conditions), and there was a story in the press that Olympics organizers did not order enough large grain salt. This is a non-standard salt, but it works better at higher air temperatures as it lasts longer and penetrates deeper. In order to save races from disaster, organizers had to transport 24 tons of salt from Switzerland by plane.
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