by Ihamilton » Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:52 pm
I'm enrolled as a camper in next weeks camp and I came down a week early to acclimatize to the altitude.
I was in last years bump camp and came away from that with a couple of exercises to practice and the realization that I'm not going to improve my skiing much or will improve at a rate that is too slow for my goals unless I made changes. Walter started me lifting my ski tips and gave me exercises to practice which I do many times each day. Walter also coached me to be quicker with my feet. I wasn't releasing quick enough, my pull back and tipping should be faster and I need to get my balance higher in the arc. Diana also gave me exercises the crucial one being to touch my pole for my pole tap behind my downhill ski. Diana also planted some thoughts or questions in my head. Was I working hard enough to meet my goals? Was I self critical enough of my skiing. I went home and did the exercises and worked far harder than I had before. I skied another 40 days or so but my own opinion was that I wan't much better, I didn't get too far or at least not as much improvement as I wanted. So I had to decide was I just going to suck or was I going to suck it up and figure out a way to use the excellent coaching I had received to my advantage? I enrolled in this year's camp and set out to be better than my coaches would have expected me to be the next time they saw me. That was my goal for this year, I hope to find out next week how successful I've been.
BTW, that's a long introduction and I realize what this topic is and I will get to tip raising, if you bear with me.
I felt that to be quicker that for my summer training I needed to do something that required quick feet and quick balance. I joined a track and field club and the events I trained for were 60, 100 and 200 meter sprints plus javelin throwing. The first night I went to the track the head coach pulled me aside and told me that when my free foot management was wrong.She showed me a picture on her phone of Usian Bolt in full stride and his free foot was dorsiflexed and his ankle was directly below his knee. I was planter flexed and my ankle was behind my knee. With that coaching alone I was able to cut a couple of seconds off my 100 meter time that night. She didn't give a long explanation but she said that in the correct position the muscles were relaxed and quicker and when the free foot strikes the ground I can have immediate balance and immeditely relift that foot. I trained for 5 months and I'm no threat to Bolt but I was much quicker for me. I was also a javelin thrower, and that helped my skiing a lot too but that's another topic.
So winter comes, WB opens, and I ski the first day with my son in boot deep pow. I read my notes from the camp and I started to ski. I get my son to video me and in my opinion my skiing was better than at last years camp. I was raising my tip at the end of the turn and making an effort to do my pole tap behind my downhill ski. I could feel that my arcs where tighter and my release quicker. It felt like I was balanced earlier in the turn. My old problem has always been hip rotation on my right turns. I worked hard and following Diana's advice I critically analyzed every movement I made turning left and right, trying to spot the difference. I've been to many camps and I felt that the problem had to be with my inside foot, my right foot on my right turns. I came up with what I thought was the problem. When I tipped my right foot my movements rotated my foot. So even though I was raising my right tip, rotating the foot screwed things up and I got hip rotation. So I worked on the flats and most turns now I don't do that. I felt that I could feel that my right turns had a better arc. I was getting lots of rebound and lifting the old stance ski wasn't a problem the issue was could I manage my foot so that with that release of pressure my foot was dorsiflexed.
Luckily for me this week, I met Harald on Wednesday on the hill. He is always very gracious and he gave me a few comments and suggestions. I think he was somewhat surprised that I didn't rotate my hips on my right turns. He was very encouraging. Secondly, he commented that my hands were very wide apart, much wider than last year. That I attribute to Diana and to HH's blog. In his December blog he has a picture of Herscher in an extreme CA position. His whole outside arm is straight back, even his fingers point back. I saw that on my phone in a restaurant at WB and immediately went out and did it. Immediately I knew my arcs where much tighter and my release was so much faster to took me some time to adjust but with practice I put them together.
So HH suggested that the tip lift was working for me but suggested that I start it earlier. Last year Walter told me to exaggerate my flexing. HH told me to start my tip lifting as soon as I started to flex. That's different timing for me, I had been waiting until the end of the turn. I tried it on steep terrain, hero snow at Abasin. Wow, the rebound was much stronger, the turns tighter, my release quicker and it feels like I'm balanced high in the arc and getting good angles. This is what HH told me in simple language. Lifting the tip engages the opposite hip immediately. It prevents hip rotation and extension. You can do it stationary at home. Feel the difference between a dorsiflexed lift and a planter flexed lift in your end of turn flexed position. CA is almost automatic. One problem I was having with my super flexing and exaggerated CA was that my stance ski would shoot ahead. I told HH that and he said starting the tip lift early stops that and I can confirm that.
One thing I didn't ask but will next week is should the ankle be directly below the knee when lifting the tip as my track coach wanted. I see in the photos of the WC racers it is but I don't know if that's what our coaching will be. BTW, the WC racers look like they are in the back seat but HH says it doesn't matter because at the start of the new turn they have perfect fore/aft balance. That's how it feels to me, video will tell if that feeling is correct.
I'm looking forward to next weeks camp. I'll post anything else I learn on this topic.