by Harald » Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:19 pm
In the previous posts there is some great advice from skiers who obviously know and have experienced the steps and practice it takes to build successful skiing. As without the ability to completely balance on the uphill, little toe edge, through a whole traverse your skiing is compromised. In PMTS there are standards that can be easily measured and tested. This is one of them. You need not continue to work on exercises, transitions, Phantom moves etc. unless your balance is developed on that little toe edge. So much of skiing depends on transition and stability on that ski. Without it you are a big toe edge skier, as most skiers are, this is what is, in many cases holding them back.
The answer lies in proper footbeds, boot alignment and then kinetic chain stability. Kinetic chain stability develops from co contraction of all the muscles along all the joints up the chain for a particular movement or balance. The alignment part is essential, as if there is a body or joint bias (collapse of joint integrity to one side or the other) your balance will never be stable on or over that joint. It?s like building a wall with the base not level.
If you look at the function of all the joints, start with the ankle, what does it have to do? The ankle has to hold your body stable on it while keeping the ski on a thin silver edge. The boot has to fit properly, as small ankle movements need to adjust the whole body and keep it stable. The area around the hip socket must be strong, especially muscles not used in normal daily activities like hip extenders and external rotators. Development of balance and muscle strength can improve your balance in traverses, just by repetition. Remember you may need more muscle strength, how long does it take to develop noticeable difference in muscle strength? Usually a few weeks in the gym. We do recommend a good preseason program of conditioning, this might reduce the frustration later on the slopes.
Don?t be discouraged if it doesn?t happen right away. Over a five day training week I?ve seen skiers who could not even stand on the little toe edge, stationary, go to traversing with balance the whole width of the slope. So don?t give up, you?ll see your whole game improve when you have it.
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