Video to MA

[SrMike]

Here's a couple of videos of me skiing. The first part was shot on 12/8 at Perfect North the day after it opened. The 2nd part was shot last Wed. 2/28.

I've been working on PMTS the last 2 seasons. Last March I had my boots aligned at HSS and I took a 1/2 day lesson with Rich. Just so you know, my right foot is cavus with a forefoot valgum (varium?). Basically, my right ankle is locked laterally, is supinated and has about 1/2 the adequate dorsiflexion it should. Left foot is "normal". I will also admit to not being n the best of condition. I weigh 238 right now, which is down from close to 250 early season. (Hobbit and SCSA can attest to the size of my belly. Yes, I'm working on it.)

In the first section , from 12/8, it's very good man made snow. I'm on my Supershapes (170). In the next section it's about 50 degrees and the snow is turning to slush. I'm on the Head i.SL VIST (166) skis in the first part and in the short night section at the end I'm on the Supershapes.

I can see improvement from the beginning of the season until now. When we were shooting the latest video, I did not feel that was my best skiing. However, there is a lot in there I probably do all the time. I noticed 3 prominent things right off the bat when I looked at it. Fire away, it's the only way I'm going to get better.

Oh yeah, here's the link:

SrMike Video

Have fun!

[h.harb]

SrMike,

The most obvious of the Essentials that will bring you to the next step in progress, is Flexing and Extending and timing it to achieve your release. If you have the Essentials book, look to the Chapter on flexing and extending.

I recommend you practice the boot touch exercise on easy slow terrain, page 78.

I also recommend tipping exercises to compliment the flexing and bending, page 31, 32.

Often the flexing and bending are happening, but the timing for them is out of sequence with the arc and transition.

Study the page 91 description and 91 diagram in the book that demonstrates the arc shape and where you should be pointed at the moment of flexing. Knowing where you are on the slope in the arc is often not sorted out enough by many skiers, to achieve the right timing .

Good luck, I hope we can see more video as your practice evolves.

[ibMED]

Sr. Mike,
I think you and I are at similar points in PMTS skiing, although this is my first year. I find myself in PMTS information overload when actually skiing and I probably work on too many aspects. So many moves, so little time.

What I see in your video is up-unweighting movements. I know this is my default movement programmed in for many years.

I'm beginning to think that if there is a magic moment in a PMTS turn, it's releasing my edges by relaxing my stance leg and flexing, and having my hips drop. This is clearly the body position that HH gets into. Some advocate a slight pulling up motion of the feet to assure this happens. I very much feel what Harald describes as the "force" when I do this.
I practice this movement on dryland by wearing ski boots and doing a squat movement. It taxing on the muscles and knees, but it's close to the right position. While actually skiing, it's a much less phsically taxing movement and it feels neat to relax in the middle of a turn.

I've got to get some video. I think we all learn by watching the progress on others.

[SrMike]

Harald: Thanks for the MA and advice on drills. I skied yesterday with the family and I spent some time on these drills. I'm not sure I got it yet, but it did feel like I could engage the edges earlier in the high C part of the turn. Also, by being more flexed in transition, I felt like I was not as rushed to extend after transition.

BTW, I do have Essentials. I don't know if you remember signing the book at the Jan. ABasin camp. I wasn't in the camp; however, I WILL have to come to one in the future.

ibMed: That's a pretty good assessment. I skied from '77 til '90 on straight skis using old school technique. From '84 though '88 I lived in CO and I got to be a strong skier. I was very fit; however, it probably wasn't technically sound. I didn't ski from '90 until '04, so I am starting over again and I feel like I am relearning everything. One of the difficulties I seem to have is that I sometime revert back to old school technique. Sometimes it's 2 steps forward, one step back.

One thing that I wish is that we had shot more video more often this season. Sometimes you feel like you are doing something right, but the video shows that you're not or that you aren't doing as much of it as you think. One thing for sure, the video camera doesn't lie.

Serious: You are right about not flexing at release. There's definitely a timing issue with the flexion and extension that I need to work out. I thought I was flexing at release, but I saw right away that it was minimal at best. I need a lot more. Yesterday I was trying to feel like I was bringing my knees up to or past my waist in transition. I did notice a difference in that I could get earlier edge engagement and I didn't run out of extension so quickly in a turn. Now I need some video to get feed back on that.

I believe the best thing for me to do is to go to a camp. It's too easy to get a bad habit started without good eyes to coach you. Practice makes permanent, perfect practice makes perfect.

[ibMED]

Sr. Mike,
As a supplement to my last post, I found a picture of the squat exercise postion I talked about. View the following:

http://exercise.about.com/od/lowerbodyw ... rsquat.htm

When you get done checking out the babe, notice that her lower leg and ankle angle position approximate the angle of your ski boot. You have to drop your hips to get to this position, and it's very close to what Harald gets into. I found that when I tried to touch my boot tops when skiing per Harald's Essentials bootk, I was bending at the waist, not at the knees.

As a side, I injured a knee miniscus early last fall and did physical therapy so that I could ski this winter. The therapist gave me a lot of coaching to get into this position as with most squats, the knee moves forward and you get on the balls of your feet which taxes the knee. The above position should also have your weight at the rear of the arches and this is where HH recommends it to be (I think).

[jbotti]

On Flexing: engraining flexing into your skiing is easier than some other essentials. I spent weeks of skiing where all I did was focus on flexing (and deeply) before I even considered starting to tip into the the next turn.

If you put it into your mind that you won't start a new turn without first flexing deeply, this habit will go away quickly.

What also helped me was that I was doing drills that are very hard to accomplish without flexing in the release.

The Hippo drill, where one traverses on the LTE of the inside ski (and counts one hippopatimus, two hippopatimus)and then tips the LTE of the outside ski (old stance leg) while still on the LTE of the inside ski, is a drill that is very hard to do well without deep flexion. I recommend this drill as well for all that are struggling with flexion. Even though it adresses a diiferent issue (stemming and push off), it helps immensely with flexing (because few will be able to do this without flexing).

This drill will engrain flexing and eliminate any stemming and push off at the same time, as the two seem to go hand and hand. JB.

[ramshackle]

SrMike I have no idea where you were in your skiing before working on PMTS moves so Im sorry if I dont seem to acknowledge progress made up to this point. Im only commenting on what I see, not what it took to get you there.

Dec 2006 - I see upward unweighting along with some pivot and some sideways pushing of the skis which looks a lot like holdover pencil ski feet-together mambo shuffle style turning.

Feb 2007 - I see an even more exaggerated up unweight move that looks like you're trying to force the turn to start rather than relying on the movements at the foot/ankle level and having those moves translate to edge change and edge pressure. Also these turns look a little park and ride even though they are small radius turns.

That Feb 2007 snow sounds really slushy and almost like spring corn.

[SrMike]

Jbotti: Yeah - that sounds like a good drill. Something to do on moderate terrain with enough room for the transitions. Yesterday I did the boot touch exercise and when I was free skiing I tried to flex my knees up to or above my waist in transition. I think it made a difference.

ramshackle: Yep, I think there is some park and ride going on in the Feb video. I think that's a result of not flexing enough in transition. I'm pretty much fully extended right after transition and there is nowhere to go after that.

FWIW, in the Feb video it was ~45 degrees. The snow was slush on ice. Not full blown mashed potatoes, but it was getting there. On the 2 long runs where I passed the camera, the tops half of that run is, honest to God, Rocky Mountain single black pitch, approximately 30-35 degrees. The top half was pretty much scraped down to ice with random piles of slush. It made fore/aft balance interesting.

I don't think it was my best skiing. I never felt like I had it going that night. Still, had I been "on", I think we'd be discussing pretty much the same things.

[ginaliam]

Actually-it's kind of fun watching some of the other skiers in the videoclips--I love the young ripper who starts well behind you in the first clip and passes by you like you were standing still by popping a jump off the one ridge roll--dang kids!

Also-In one of the middle clips you look like you're using a few of the learner snow-boarders and kids in learning wedge turns like slalom gates.


I like the full circle run-out turn at the end of one of the later sequences, too.

On the whole-your skiing looked tense-not bad or awkward mind you-but tense--I think something that happens to most of us when we know we're being videoed. The flex drill will certainly help (i never realized how stiff I skied until I started trying to incorporate the flex drills/ skills ala "Essentials" into my skiing the last few months.

[SrMike]

Yeah - the kid who passed me was flying. I knew I wasn't skiing that fast.

In the later videos it's more like some of those folks were moving chicanes than slalom poles

I get to practice again tomorrow. Hopefully we'll shoot some more video and there will be a noticible difference. There is not much season left here. This coming weekend will be it. I am taking the family to CO the fist week of April though. If I can't ski anywhere between the end of out local season and then, I'll have to jump on a pair of carvers to stay in shape.

[SrMike]

One thing to add. When I first saw the video, I was initially reluctant to post it. (OMG, is that me?) After I thought about it a while I figured if I wanted to get better I needed to get some good eyes looking at it and the only way to do that was post it. At least I can do this until I can arrange to go to a camp.

[SrMike]

Here's a followup from a week later. I did the drills Harald recomended for about an hour over the weekend and I made some progress. Looking at the video I still have a way to go.

The snow in this video is really slow and slushy. Later, after dark, because it was a dead clear night, the hill froze solid. Rattled a few fillings loose.

Here's the link: SrMike Skiing