A collection of skiers

[Max_501]

Here's a collection of skiers that was posted on another site. What do you think?

http://www.skichannel.ne.jp/ugokusj/0412/index.html

[patprof]

While most of them could benefit from a PMTS "tuneup"--I enjoyed the skiing. Much better than most of the PSIA demoes posted of the "other site"

[4Slide]

Turquoise pants/white top guy on 2d row I like; looks a bit like Cuche in some ways. Yellow jacket bumps guy in 3d row looks good. Red jacket guy, fourth from left on top row, has a painful A-frame.

[h.harb]

I took a quick look at the Japanese instructors, I thought there was only one that actually skied PMTS technique. The guy on the left with white jacket. The rest are using lots of up movements and lots of steering, not absorbing the energy from the turn and not tipping early enough. Some are back and there's lots of up, like the Canadians. It's so hard to equate these skiers to what we are doing, as you have to have good skiers on the same terrain, on the same day, to see if they can match turns.

[Max_501]

Harald, if skiers number 1 and number 5 came to a camp what would you have them work on?

[h.harb]

Skier 1

He?s good, (remember when I say he?s good it?s in the context, within expert skiers, not an overall general comparison of skiers) so it?s high praise, but if he used this approach on hard snow and steeps, he would lose the ski. He?s inside too far, inside hand low. His first move is with his upper body, (shoulders) he is going inside with his upper body, pushing off the uphill ski, no counter balance. He doesn?t have to move forward over his skis on this terrain or snow, so it?s hard to see what qualities he has when the skiing gets tough. I like his skiing in general and he may be able to counter balance if he needs to. . He has good lower body movements , inside ski tipping inside leg flexing, but he is missing CB.

Skier 2

He's a level better, cleaner. I would need to see him on different terrain more challenging surface. It's very good. I might have missed him my first time through. BTW this is PMTS, not traditional skiing. I'd say good skiing is PMTS, but not all skiing fits into this definition.

[4Slide]

Skier 1

He?s good, (remember when I say he?s good it?s in the context, within expert skiers, not an overall general comparison of skiers) so it?s high praise, but if he used this approach on hard snow and steeps, he would lose the ski. He?s inside too far, inside hand low. His first move is with his upper body, (shoulders) he is going inside with his upper body, pushing off the uphill ski, no counter balance...

He looked like a less-exaggerated version of the "Eurocarve" approach, with the fault that he was reaching for the snow instead of letting the snow come to him, in his first clip; the 3d clip is the same guy with the same basic movement pattern but a bit more upright, which suggests he may ski like this basically all the time. Visually it can actually be elegant to see in my opinion, but there's also probably a reason why most snowboarders don't try to Eurocarve all the time. It would be interesting to see him in the same bumps as the guy in the yellow jacket.

[4Slide]

Actually, the same guy in clips 1 and 3 seems to be in 9 and 12 in red.

[Heluva Skier]

I took a quick look at the Japanese instructors, I thought there was only one that actually skied PMTS technique. The guy on the left with white jacket.

I also felt that the guy in the white with the blue pants was one of the better skiers out of the bunch. Out of the guys making carved turns - I think he would be the fastest in a course. It is unfortunate that we don't have clips of each skier on several different types of terrain...

Later

GREG

[Mac]

I like the guy in the yellow jacket skiing bumps (third from the left, bottom row). He seems to have it all going. I don't know what improvements I could suggest for him.

[4Slide]

I like the guy in the yellow jacket skiing bumps (third from the left, bottom row). He seems to have it all going. I don't know what improvements I could suggest for him.

These are both nits, and I don't know much about PMTS, so use several grains of salt, but: He's a little wild with his hands and pole plants, and also is hinging just a bit at the waist rather than staying forward while absorbing. Also, in PMTS terms, it might be fair to say he could engage the sidecut higher in the turn, though I'd say he's more sliding the skis than steering them. Why this doesn't make it a BPST I'm not sure, but for some reason it doesn't look like one to me; maybe in part because he's not that forward and therefore not really controlling the ski in the top of the turn, nor is he "upside down" at the top of the turn.

He does do a good job getting his weight over his stance ski, is very balanced, and overall is doing a good job absorbing/retracting; the hinging may or may not be in part the Canadian influence. He looks like he's going to ski beautifully in softer snow in just about all conditions.

[Tuomo]

I like the guy in the yellow jacket skiing bumps (third from the left, bottom row). He seems to have it all going. I don't know what improvements I could suggest for him.

I also liked that guy and google helped me to find out that his name is Seigo Takeda. He has a long racing backround in SL and GS at FIS level in Japan. He has even won FIS races in Japan. So he is an expert skier for sure but does anybody know what is the average level of FIS races in Japan compared to level in Europe or US?

Tuomo

[Whygimf]

Takeda's best world ranking was 170th in Slalom on the 3rd FIS List of the 01-02 season.

http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/613.html? ... rch=Select

Check out the following link to the current top 50 ranked US skiers in SL. The small numbers indicate their world ranking:

http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/607.html? ... h&limit=50

[4Slide]

...

I also liked that guy and google helped me to find out that his name is Seigo Takeda. He has a long racing backround in SL and GS at FIS level in Japan....
Tuomo

Very cool. Does anyone know who white jacket/turqouise pants guy in the 2d row is?

[Tuomo]

Hi Catskills,

He seems to be Takuya Yamada. Top of the line ski instructor working at Sahoro resort in Hokkaido. He is (or was) also a member of Head Ski Team.

Tuomo