Yeah, I know, this belongs under camps, but maybe the mods can leave it here for a few weeks so people can see it...
Here's a long report of my experiences at SuperBlue camp that will hopefully convince any fence sitters to go. Can't say enough good things about camp. The books, DVDs, etc are fantastic, but getting PMTS instruction in person really adds an additional element of understanding that is well worth the cost. Plus you get to ski with some great people and watch some really great skiers in action!
Day 1 of Super Blue camp dawned clear and cold. One degree F at the house at 8:00 am and no way to employ my usual rule of waiting until it warmed up to at least 10F to go skiing. So up to the Basin I go for the 8:30 meeting in the lodge. The day started with a group assembly near the Exhibition chair. Momentary confusion reigned when the Over The Hill Gang decided to group in the same area, but that was quickly sorted out. A preliminary split was made between the off-piste never-evers and the rest and up the mountain we went. For us all-mountain skiers, a ski-off was performed for further seperation. Short turns with speed control were demonstrated on upper Ramrod for an initial split. At that point, we had a group of 10 to split between Diana and Jay (Ski Synergy). So short turns at preferred speed were called for on lower Ramrod. I somewhat ignored the short turn part and cranked fast GSish turns which put me in Jay's group.
Once we had our group, we headed up to the top via Lenawee chair. As far as conditions go, the snow was good (first time in weeks that I won't have to tune my skis after a day of skiing on ice), but the coverage was thin. No Pali, no Montezuma Bowl. Anyway, on the way up, Jay asked us to think about some goals for the camp. Our group was pretty in sync on these. My personal goals were to work on rounder turns in the bumps and improve my edge hold on steep ice.
From the top of Lenawee, we headed down Dercum Gulch for a warmup run. Half way down, we stopped and Jay asked us to describe the movements we used at transition. This was a great thing to ask as we had at least one person with a big toe edge fixation, at least one extender, while I was forced to publicly admit my laziness when it comes to flexion. What is a PMTS instructor to do? Focus on primary movements of course! After finishing Dercum Gulch and regrouping at the top of Exhibition, Jay claimed to have formulated a plan and promptly stripped us of our poles. Knowing what was coming, I could tell that his plan was going to suck . Yes, you guessed it, boot touch drill all the way down High Noon! On the first run, we stayed in a full flexed position and focused on aggressive tipping of the ski corresponding to the direction we were trying to turn. With straight arms, the idea was to feel the knee of the leg with the foot being tipped move to the outside of the arm. Boot touch is a great drill, but after spending all of High Noon bent over, I was ready to move on by the time I got to the bottom. Not to mention that at times this drill felt like a live version of Frogger as riders blasted through our group while we were boot touching our way to the bottom.
Being sympathetic to our discomfort, Jay allowed us to stand more upright on the next run down High Noon. Instead of touching our boots, we were allowed to put our hands on our knees. I don't recall this drill being in the book (though it might be on the DVD--can't remember). Anyway, you make a fist and place it between your knees and put the other hand on top. To turn, you raise the hand corresponding the direction of the turn up and out (to force you to CB/CA a bit), while tipping. The idea is to feel the knee belonging to the leg of the foot being tipped to move away from the fist leaving you with empty space. It's instant feedback as to whether you are getting an O-frame. The downside is that the mental process is involved and tends to cause the turns to use the entire slope. Game 2 of Frogger was even more intense!
After that run, we went back up to the top and were allowed to stand slightly more upright. This time we did the pole drag down Dercum Gulch, but we had to grasp the poles a fist length under the grip. Now that I think about it, I think the overall effect was that we weren't any less flexed before and giving us our poles back was just a cheap placebo
In any event, the pole drag was terminated halfway down the Gulch and we headed to the bumps on the last face under Lenawee chair. We ended up skiers left (I can never remember the names down there). Anyway, the focus was on flexing the new free leg and tipping to carve a relaxed line on the side of the bump. For me, I especially appreciated seeing this kind of a line demonstrated and when I tried it, I found it allowed nice cruising through the bumps. Not to let a good thing go to waste, this sequence was repeated a second time.
Although it was approaching 12:00 at this point, Jay offered to do one more run with us to get some video. We were happy to keep getting instruction, so we jumped at the chance. One more trip up Lenawee and we shot video on upper Dercum Gulch. Not sure what happened with me, but I got hung up concentrating too much on flexing and skied like garbage. Thankfully we didn't review that segment. Next we shot video in the bumps under Lenawee which we also didn't review, but I felt like I skied well. Finally, we shot video on lower Ramrod which I also felt like I skied reasonably well. Done for the day we went in for lunch and video review.
The video was illuminating. We only reviewed the Ramrod footage as it was the best and Jay took a great deal of time teaching. In my case, my transitions were good (moving down into the turn), but I was getting a bit park & ridey.
One of the great things about PMTS camps is the instructors all seem to go the extra mile. On paper, this was supposed to be a half day, but in reality it turned into a 3/4 day I think for most groups.
So what did I learn today? Two key concepts really. The first was "Relax into the turn" otherwise known as "GIVE IN to the mountain". The idea is to flex the old stance leg enough to actually move down and into the turn (as opposed to even moving laterally). Obviously this only works if you start from a more moderately flexed position (if you are fully flexed, you have to move purely laterally). Prior to today, I've tended to let my CM come up a bit when I'm cruising by not flexing aggressively and letting the turn forces just pull me. Interestingly, Chris Brown showed me a demonstration as to why this may not always be ideal. If you do a wall lean with long leg-short leg, aggressive tipping and CA (as if you are finishing a turn), the idea is to try to move off the wall (as if into a new turn) from this static position. What you find (if you can do it) is that it is hardest if you try to extend the inside leg or even if you try to move laterally. It becomes fairly clear why moving down into the new turn involves the least amount of effort.
Two, aggressive flexion of the new free foot is the key to continuing to tip through the course of the new turn. In my case, I tend to get a bit static and park once I get a good angle. Because I wasn't fully flexing the free foot, it would eventually block me from further tipping, causing the park and ride. The admonition from Jay was simple: SUCK IT UP!
As it turns out, a secondary effect of my lack of continuous tipping was that my turn radii tended towards GS. Jay, who in earlier days had apparently been questioned by Harald as to when he was going to start using his slalom ski properly was unsympathetic to me doing the same thing and was constantly on my case to make shorter turns.
Anyway after much discussion and further teaching with video, Jay took off to catch a ride with Harald and a few of us headed back out to the mountain to work on what we'd learned.
After a trip up Lenawee to find flat light, I retired to Exhibition where I could see. My major focus was on aggressive flexion of the new free leg to enable continuous tipping. I can say my skiing was definitely different by the fact that it didn't feel particularly comfortable. Being so flexed was making me feel a bit squatty. For some reason, my backside sticks out a bit. Maybe hollow back or something that I need to follow up on. Meanwhile, I was definitely feeling the tip and was really able to crank some tight turns (though my stance ski slid out a couple of times; need to figure out what was up with that). One thing I noticed was that with aggressive flexion of the free foot, you can *really* tuck your foot back underneath you. The difference was pretty dramatic in terms of getting big angles and reduced radius.
I also tried some very short arced turns. That was a bit of a wow. Much more energy than before and things were happening *really* fast. Got caught out with fore-aft and one of my releases nearly turned into a helluva release.
After that I worked on some brushed to edge locked carves like all of the PMTS instructors can do. Tried to be slower and progressive with the tipping and maybe made some progress towards the end of the day. One of the other students that I was doing laps with thought I looked good, which made me feel slightly better. It's always a bit nerve wracking when your skiing is lying on the floor in little bits and pieces. Anyway, my skiing for the afternoon was definitely different. We'll find out tomorrow if I'm on the right track.