by Erik » Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:35 pm
My recent experience on this subject...
During the Super Blue Camp, Chris and Diana were both giving me feedback that I was in the back seat - a lot.
Practice makes Permanent. Perfect Practice makes Perfect. I started out for a year before I found PMTS in Dalbello Krypton boots, and the first two years in PMTS in those boots. Even though I was trying to practice PMTS movements, the ramp angle on those boots was ingraining the habit of being in the back seat. Switched to Head Raptor 125 beginning of last season, but being in the back seat is still the position I revert to when I'm not really focusing.
External feedback is really necessary for fore/aft position. For me, proprioception of fore/aft, while moving on skis, is really hard. Diana would tell me that my static position was fine, but after every run she would tell me that I was in neutral at best (even though I thought I was as forward as I could get). At one point, she had me get in the proper position statically, then she physically got down and rotated my skis as if I was on a turntable to point me down the gentle slope, then sent me off. She told everyone in my group to watch. At the end of the traverse, I looked back and got the thumbs down. I was told that I moved back into the back seat within a ski length or two once I started moving, and I never felt it!
I had my upper buckles and power strap set at what I thought was a reasonably neutral upper tightness. Trying for proper fore/aft, I could flex the boots forward, but I felt like my leg movements were very "locked out" in that position. I know that what it felt like is that only the upper part of the shin was in real solid contact/support with the tongue of the boot. Eventually, after further consultation with Diana, I tried substantially tightening the upper buckles and booster strap. What I then felt was a much better contact in the front of the boot. Diana then tried the drill of getting me moved into proper static position again at the upper pitch of Sundance, then shoved me off. This time, I could start to feel myself going to the back seat very shortly after I started moving. Reacting to that by pulling the feet back, I suddenly found that my pullback movement was more effective, and I wanted to be forward. Suddenly, I felt in much more control of my skis. I did what felt like my best skiing of the week. Looking back up at my cheering group at the top of the pitch confirmed that I had achieved the proper results.
That didn't magically solve everything for me. In the short amount of skiing left on Friday morning, I had some mixed results; still getting back somewhat, but in general more fore than aft. After I snugged up the upper part of the boots, I found that I could lift the tails in static position without the big strain that it previously was to try to get them off the snow...I may try to see if that works as one test of my boot adjustment, and supplement to confirm that I can do some tail flappers in motion.
I am off to ski again this weekend to see if I can continue on the right trend to fix my fore/aft. However, an important part of that skiing will be to get my ski partners to observe me and give feedback on the fore/aft position.