Alignment

[thatguy_onthehill]

Sorry that I am not so good at posting photos and screen shots. Perhaps someone here can help. Did anyone else notice the cover photo of Shiffrin on this vid? Her right boot alignment strikes me as odd. I may be way off, but it seemed that it is also the right ski that has been getting away from her in the last couple of weeks. Maybe just a coincidence.

https://youtu.be/BpYNxTPyT3E

[h.harb]

There is a history there. I've commented on her set up often over the years, and the right has always been an issue for her. This course and the slope leans off toward the right so she is at a disadvantage with that setup. The cuff is too strong against her leg on her right boot. In the last few races, she's been not able to manage her boot set up.

[HeluvaSkier]

Also interesting that she's skiing the Atomic GS ski with the dampening arms vs. the Atomic GS ski without them... If I recall, that ski with the arms hasn't always been liked by athletes (e.g. Hirscher) because it gives too much edge hold.

[thatguy_onthehill]

Again, not savvy on the photo posting process. I was looking at some images of her right side alignmet in GS runs were she showed remarkable skiing. Aside from all of the variables of photo angle, terrain, etc, it appeared that she was far most aligned through hips, legs, and to ski. Looking at some the recent SL video, the same odd stance is quite visible in multiple turns.

[thatguy_onthehill]

Maybe they fixed it.
https://youtu.be/vEmuPgP3MkQ

[h.harb]

If you want details, search in my Blog there is plenty of alignment stuff on Shiffrin there.

[dougtee]

Maybe they fixed it.
https://youtu.be/vEmuPgP3MkQ

i am no expert analyst but to my eyes she skis downhill like someone that doesn’t want to get hurt. it’s a very rational approach but it does make me wonder if she shouldn’t stick to her strengths. that said testament to her talent that she can still win the occasional downhill race

[h.harb]

https://harbskisysems.blogspot.com/2017/11/mikaela-shiffrin-struggles-ski-boot-set.html

If you watch the Bansko Downhill, the skiing by the women was terrible. All I saw was leaning, rotating and sitting back. GS skiers were 1st and 2nd and they looked like scared cats. If you compare that skiing to the men downhillers at Kitzbuhel, different sport.

[gaku]

Henrik Kristoffersen is quite open about the mechanical side of the sports during his interviews on national TV.

He says there's world cup mania for constantly adapting the setup to 'suit' the conditions, which includes an aggressive or soft boot setup. He admitted he had too aggressive a setup in the first run (at Zagreb, if my memory serves me).

My question is, why? One thing is mechanical things like ski edge, I can understand why such parameters are adjusted to conditions, but why would they change alignment settings of the boot? The statement seems to explain, though, why they sometimes get alignment 'right'.