by gaku » Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:12 am
Time for an update, fellow skicomrades. So the season is rushing headlessly to a close here in norway, tomorrow will be my last day of skiing unless I take a week or two on Folgefonna (norwegian glacier) this summer, so I thought this would be as good a time as any for the annual skiing assessment.
This season has been a complete game changer for me. From starting dismally with no snow until early January, the rest of the season has been my best yet. Even when I skied competetively, I never had progress like this - wrong boots, too much gates. I've gone from understanding the concepts theoretically, to understanding them holistically, how the different essentials compliment each other (when done right, or how one essential hinder another, if done inadequately), and how that affects overall skiing. I've gone from only being able to carve firm, medium groomers, to carve shallow, medium and steep terrain in soft, bumpy, firm and icy conditions. 30 ski days with diligent practice has delivered quantuum leaps in my skiing. The key breakthroughs have been flexing, upper/lower body coordination and an assured one-footed balance both on LTE and BTE. As you said Geof, boot touch drills are my friend -- I don't think any other drill helped as much in sensing the necessary CB in a turn, or flexion/extension/pressure and edge angle management. No wonder I never tipped past the engagement phase before when I didn't have the CB to get the weight over on the stance foot, as that is pivotal for confident inside ski tipping and flexion to occur.
GEAR epiphanies:
Boots: I've hadde the same boots sine my 15th birthday. 2 sizes too big. While I've known how important boots are for proper transfer of energy and ski connection, I've never felt what that mens before this season, the difference in the engagement phase is astounding, subtle movements produce the same tipping in a fraction of the time as lager movement does in looser boots. Also, the snugness allows for controlled ankle articulation and lateral boot pressure. With this in mind, it's no wonder I felt the need to be big toe dominant, lock the stance ankle forward for tip pressure (no heel hold in a luxury-luxury fit boot), or extend out of turns (104 mm last (100 if in the appropriate size) for a 92 mm foot give no ankle stability for flexion out of turn on the LTE).
Skis and lifter: On one occasion this season I had to ski my jr wc racetiger GS skis and old boots. It made me realise first-hand how much skis could negatively affect how people ski. I was astounded by how much the ski (and lack of a ski plate lifter) could make an otherwise simple movement like tipping on edge mindbogglingly hard - all that ski wanted was to stay flat. The lightness of the ski relative to the Elans also gave a very different sense of ski tip engagement - the grip felt less stable, but more forgiving hitting ruts.
Movement epiphanies:
Easier with one footed release at soft snow and ruts (less likely for skis to diverge, more focus on free foot management, and no uneven tug on the skis at different times in the arc). Also, even more important to have solid CB/ weight over stance ski for pressure to arrive where you want it, and flexing to decrease pressure ahead of bigger ruts.
A good homebase position adds the right muscle tension through the body for correct skiing.
Establishing balance over stance foot and CB early! is crucial for the inside body to development angles. Don't be late with the CB, it will only be more difficult to correct the longer you wait after the tipping starts and the body starts to lean in. Without it you're almost doomed to extend at release and wedge turns.+
CA increases tail grip, counter rotation and avoids skidding. CA is the most important at the end of turns, as this is when the rotation of the femur is the biggest and the turn radius cranks up - ironically, this is when it's the easiest to lose. In tandem with CB, correct, progressive CA allows you to feel what 'stacked' skiing feels like, with proper skeletal alignment. A truly great feeling.
Phantom move is ingenius because of the way it integrates all the essentials. In particular it teaches hip awareness by lifting the foot, the hamstring tug of a foot pullback, and free foot tipping / stance foot balance, which are easily forgotten if the ski stays on the snow.
External cues that worked for me this season:
-Bellybutton toward the stance boot (activates the right muscles progressively to the turn radius)
- Lift inside foot, crunch to lift inside shoulder
- Pole tap downhill, inside pole level with boots.
- Arms as if midway in hugging someone, while pulling abdomen in and 'lifting' the tailbone (critical in uneven terrain for upper body stability).
- ski tip down, ski tail up, free foot pulled back to stance boot
-Lift, pull back and tilt free foot
- RTE
-long/short, even leg shafts at transition
-Legs toward chest
- lateral boot pressure(internal), free foot leading tipping (external)
For these cues I have a mental image I can use to efficiently correct when something's gone wrong. My SMIM this season has been flexing and UB coordination. I identified my lack of progressive tipping to lack of CB, and my skis divergenging to lack of flexing, which messed up the intiation. Focusing on flexing has helped with progressive tipping at end of turns, as well as managing pressure and saying in balance. I'm a bit sad that I still have no footage for this season, I'll have to come up with something to avoid that for next season.