by emakarios » Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:57 am
Here's a PM response from a fellow PMTS student, which he prefers remain anonymous. I would appreciate any feedback from others as well.
"I'm not a PMTS instructor, but since no one has responded here are a few observations. Try them on for size and discard them if they don't seem to fit the facts that you know.
Look at your first highly zoomed turn at 0:07 in slow motion (or by repeatedly pressing stop) You start with a nice O-frame and then wham! the big toe kicks in with double the tipping angle of the little toe and a short-lived wedge. The seeds of this are in the quick up move prior to the O-frame. The old inside leg continues extending to make the wedge. (The up move happens at 0:05 too.)
Moving on to another close up view, at 0:18 you don't extend, but you don't continue to flex through the transition either. The upshot is that you hold onto the old big toe edge too long. Since you're hesitant to release it, your body takes the same solution as before and starts to put the new stance ski on the big toe edge by flattening and pushing. And similarly at 0:21.
Whenever one's feet flare apart at transition, there isn't an effective release. The two big ticket items for you are 1) releasing by untipping and flexing and 2) early counterbalance in the new turn ... this starts as you begin to flex and untip in the previous turn. See Monsterman's signature quote from the Essentials book ("Counterbalaning movements for an upcoming turn need to start while you are still on the previous edges, as you start to flatten the skis. If you wait until you are on your new edges before you counterbalance, it's too late." H.H.) My suspicion is that starting CB for the new turn earlier will improve your balance in transition and give your body the confidence to release correctly since you show the elements of it in some turns. Your single most important move is probably early CB especially CB to the left on at the beginning of turns to the right.
BTW, you can work on both CB and blocking the up move at the same time with pole drag exercises or boot touch exercises."