MA for Miles

[arothafel]

Miles and I are at Mammoth again practicing the essentials. Here's some free skiing after we drilled in the morning.

[MonsterMan]

Play around with earlier counter balance, i.e. through transition when you are over the skis, that should get you higher angles earlier.

I only wish I could get that right myself.

When this minimises the early leaning, work on the pole plant too.

[milesb]

i agree, nice ma.

[h.harb]

I'm on a big crusade with all of our skiers to do a much better job of managing their pole tips. You will find this does for the upper body what the "Phantom Move" did for the lower body. So are there now just two essentials?

Pole Tip Management!!!!!!!!!!!!

like

Free Foot Management!!!!!

but different.

[h.harb]

Look at the video above again, but this time, look only at what the tips of the poles are doing in every turn.

If they are off the snow and behind your body, there is something happening that you may want to address.
Look over at my avatar, study the pole tips.

[jclayton]

I think Monsterman hit the nail on the head . One thing that came out at the Hintertux camp was EARLY . Pretty well everything has to be done or started much earlier than we think .
As you plant the pole you almost lean on it into the turn ( I know the feeling ). The CA should be in action the instant the weight is transferred to the LTE or at least this should be the cue . This way you can start the turn already balanced on the new BTE .

One way we drilled this was to perform garlands , we turned uphill on the left BTE ( turning right ) , the instant we started the transfer to the right foot LTE we sighted up the right pole uphill , preparing it for the pole plant already and balanced on the new stance ski , CA in place ( the appropriate amount )as it goes flat . Then before finishing the turn transfer to the other ski and sight down hill with the left pole and changing the CA again , instantly .

It is difficult to explain without images but it encouraged a very quick CA change .

The improved control and balance is noticeable on the steeps and in the powder especially .

[milesb]

Just wanted you guys to know I have been working on this stuff.

[milesb]

update

[MonsterMan]

Pole Tip Management as Harald suggested could still be refined.

I'd like to see those turns finishing with an even stronger inside arm at the end of the turn.

Like polecat, sometimes there is a small bte first mini stem. Try the same target tipping and 1,2,3,4 timing with boot touch and learn to feel the stay flexed and engage pattern.

Incorporate these exaggerated movements with a stronger inside arm finish. Make the pole tap happen as a result of flexing the old stance leg. Only a minimum flick forward of the pole tip if you must, but only with the wrist.

[MonsterMan]

The mini stem maybe due to bumps in the snow, smim as I see it is the strong arm.

[MonsterMan]

http://pmts.org/pmtsforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3295

Look at Harald's inside hand with respect to the ski tip. Imagine a line drawn perpendicular to the top sheet of the ski. His hand is right over the tip of the ski. To the untrained observer this point might be missed in such a dynamic turn. For less dynamic turns we need to strive for the same hand finish. From the skiers perspective, this is with the inside hand, (with shoulders and upper body following), over the inside ski tip.

[geoffda]

SMIM is counteracting. Things like strong arm and no swing pole plant may help you, but understand that what is key for you will be to unlock the hips. If the hips don't unlock then working on a strong inside half will, at best, just twist your torso while your hips will still be rotated. Without hip counter, you are in a weak position and you'll have trouble really getting forward at the top of the turn, and you'll have trouble with grip at the bottom. You'll ski much better with the hips counteracted but the torso rotated then you will with the torso countered and the hips rotated. Obviously, the goal is to have both hip and torso counteracting, but the hips matter more so start there first.

Use the hip-o-meter, use the string-o-meter and every single solitary time you come to a stop (whether you are doing drills or free skiing), check to see whether your hips are counteracted. Do lots of slow brushed carves where you can pay attention to hip counter. Counteract while you are brushing your teeth at night (just make sure you tip too). Learn what it feels like when it is there, so you know instantly when it isn't. And make sure you hold it long enough. Release your skis before you release your counter. Oh yeah, and try to treat CA and CB as a single, coordinated movement. That will help you CB more while you are working on your CA.

Once you get the hips working, then you'll be able to tell what is going on in our skiing by just looking at where your pole is when you plant it. For short turns, the only time you should see your pole is out of the corner of your eye, right before you plant it. If you are seeing it any earlier, that is a good cue that you need to start paying attention to CA.

Besides the no-swing pole plant, focus on pushing your arm forward after the pole tap--like you are going to punch somebody. This will encourage you to develop that strong inside half.

Once you feel like you have this, go ski something steep and wideish. Ski it as slowly as you can. Work the whole ski. Move forward to engage and bend the tips, then let your counteracting move you back so you finish the turn on your heels. Feel how the tails engage when you do that. Watch all of the hackers come flying by you trying to figure out how you are able to ski something that steep that slowly. Then turn it up a notch and release as soon as you feel that pressure on the heel and the tail bite. You're skis won't be perpendicular to the fall line when you do this, but if you get forward to engage, you'll realize that you aren't accelerating (though you won't be skiing slowly when you do this). This takes some faith (as well as practice) so pick a slope where you won't die if you aren't able to hold your speed in check. Then take it to something steep *and* narrow. Notice how holding your counter sets you up in an anticipated start to the next turn? Notice how your skis snap around. Notice how you can ski at whatever speed you choose? Then go drop into Huevos Grande and rip the shit out of it.

[HighAngles]

^^^^^^^^ That was a phenomenal summary of my morning skiing with Geoff! The "drill sergeant" put me through those exact paces and I can honestly say that my skiing never felt better. So Miles it looks like we currently share the same SMIM. The path that Geoff has laid out is a sound one. I have to admit that the additional amount of counter I was putting into my skiing felt really uncomfortable at first, but as the day went on it definitely started to click - I could feel why my torso needed to be there.

[serious]

A different perspective:

Miles, while I see improvement in your skiing from past videos, what jumps out at me is the static, cautious approach. I am not dismissing any of the above comments, I am just suggesting that you should relax, and extend/flex more fluidly. I know that I cannot compare you with Harald, but when you look at Harald's skiing, he looks like he is free skiing even when he attempts to "demo" some of the movements.

[Skiasaurus Rex]

Serius,

That's a good point--a lot of the videos show skiers that are too conscious of the camera's eye and the critical audience they wish to show it to.

Harald's books (and some of his on line comments) actually promote the opposite-that the learner should be really exploring the limits of these essential movements, to the point where we're uncomfortable-especially the tipping and flexing.

Don't get me wrong, I hate falling, especially on camera as much as anyone, but I think for some of the long time posters It'd be nice to the exploration of these movements at the edge of your present skillset and not just in the well-established comfort zone.

The turns, Miles, that you made in your most recent video (which are certainly decent turns), you could have made in your video from last year...but I bet, you are a much better skier now than you were even as of last May.