hooking them up

[john heath]

I am struggling with two issues in my skiing which i believe might be related. can harald or any pmts-ers who've spent more time being coached by harald than i have make any suggestions.

1. I can't tip enough to hook the skis up and finish the turn. it takes forever before the skis come across the fall line, meaning i can only ski medium to large radius turns. at camp this was put down to a lack of free foot tipping which was due to a lack of flex. i've worked on flexing to the extent that i didn't recognise myself on video, but i'm still not getting the decreasing radius.

2. when i practise the slow releasing exercises demonstrated in video 2, where the pole should stay planted, once the stance ski gets to the fall line it seems to take over, and i get a clear wedge as i can't match the angles with the free foot.
in normal skiing (i.e. not drills), when i lift the free foot, before i tilt it the stance ski tips immediately rather than remaining on the LTE. this means i prefer to two track, but i feel weighted tipping encourages me to bank turns at initiation and not counter enough.

the only times i feel i am skiing well are when i concentrate on the bases up hill cue and the poles across the body lift hand and arch countering drill. but even then the engagement isn't enough, there is no clean carve and the turn radius is too large.

could this be an alignment issue? or a technical one?

any suggestions?
(pmts only please)

[Heyoka]

John,

Any way you can post a video of yourself? We need a video server here. Mine will be ready soon.

I've had problems with starting to tip to start the turn, then stalling out -- I wasn't tipping as I was moving through the turn. Your situation sounds similar. True? Kinda? You have to keep tipping, pressuring the inside ski against the hill via LTE as you're moving through the turn. If not, the inside ski will wobble. Myself, my q is to make my inside ski "bite". If I don't, my inside ski wobbles. Of course keep it pulled back, under your hips.

For me, the sequence is:
Tip
Pull back -- while pressing the LTE against the hill
Tip more, while keeping it pulled back

Well, I'm off to the Big Show -- again!

[Max_501]

John, try this on a gentle green run.

1) Can you pick up your left foot and ski 50 feet with the base flat on your right foot? What about the left?

2) Can you traverse across the hill on your downhill ski BTE (both directions)?

3) Can you traverse across the hill on your uphill ski LTE (both directions)?

Really pay attention to how it feels. Report back with what you find. If possible have someone video you.

Have you had a chance to try the Counter Balance drills in that thread? I have found that CB really helps to hook up the skis.

[milesb]

This sounds like a backseat problem. The back of the ski typically has alot less sidecut and is stiffer than the front, which is why it can take longer for the turn to get going. Which could be caused by poor boot setup, or technique. Try lightening or lifting only the back of the free ski when starting your turn. Do this by pulling the free foot back and up. Notice how Harald does this in that part of his video you mentioned. Just don't make it a "squish the grape" move, that's TTS stuff. If you have alot of trouble doing this, try different adjustments on your boots, as well as different ways of fastening the power straps. Or get a PMTS instructor to help, if possible. Heyoka once posted pictures of himself standing in his boots indoors in his shorts in an exercise to see if crude alignment could be done online. Maybe we could give that a try here.

[Harald]

John, good advice all around, since we skied together it seems you have put tremendous effort into flexing, which is important and your efforts are commendable. I am evaluating your situation based on my own skiing and coaching, as well as current situations. Just yesterday I confirmed with Diana in her skiing the situation I am describing below for your skiing.
Diana has learned to do this in very fast slalom situations, but reinforcement is often needed when you have discovered something about your skiing, fixed it, but you are likely to slip back into the old habit from time to time.


Skiing as we know is a whole system, including flexing, tipping, counter acting, counter balancing and fore/aft balance.

Fore/aft balancing movements, are usually the actions that are, in the end, the least obvious to the skier and sitting back on the skis seems to creep into one?s skiing easily when attention is not paid to it.

This is the case especially when you are working on flexing, as flexing can put your hips back. If you flex and do not re-center immediately your mass will be behind the skis. If you flex by dropping the hips (very common) you are moving back with your CG in transition and at the beginning of the turns, rather than forward. What a dilemma, flexing is good, but it can be bad when done without total awareness of fore/aft needs.

Ultimately a ski is forced into a sharper arc because it is tipped to sufficient edge angles and pressure is applied in the right place. The right place is under the foot. This pressure comes from your stance on and over the ski when it is on angle. Pressure on the ski is moved forward to close the radius and back to center, to finish. I don?t try to get on my heels much.

My impression is, ( this is a product of a racing background) I don?t have to work that hard to get forward, to pressure the tip to close the radius, but in my coaching I notice skiers do have more difficulty learning this ability.

Try this to check up on your movements, ski standing in a tall stance, up and over the skis, while someone watches or even better videos your legs flexing, from the side view, as you are skiing. If they see your hips dropping, rather than seeing an even leg bending forward at the boot with the ankles (also knees bending) you know what is happening.

Often the effort to stay forward requires pulling back and holding both feet under the hips, well into the middle of the turn. The only part of this move you have to be careful with is the upper body; it is likely that in an effort to get more ski tip pressure, the shoulders come to the rescue, by hunching forward, rather than the boots being pulled and held under the hips. You will know this is happening when the tails of the skis lose their carve and edge.

[Ken]

John,
Look at Harald's right arm in his photo. He calls this the Strong Inside Arm. Having the inside arm in this position helps align the body for better edging...anyway, it worked for me. Allowing my inside arm to be lazy and drift back toward the hill reduced my edging.


Ken

[JL]

Harald

This discussion hits the exact problem that I started working on with you and Diana in Austria with some real success and continue to work on as I start each season. What role does the ankle play in the flexing movement and to what degree can boot stiffness be a limiting factor? My sense is that with adequate flexing of the ankle it is difficult to bring one's feet back under the hips.

[john heath]

thanks for these replies. i don't flex forward in the boot - i wear the top buckle tight so the leg isn't sloshing around in it. should i have the top buckle looser to flex forward more?
i practice flexing from the ankles in off the snow squats, but once hte boot is on the shin won't move forward so i suppose i must be squatting down with my arse.

[NoCleverName]

A good substitute for loosening the boot is the "Booster Strap". This is an elastic band that replaces the fixed "power straps" on most boots. Allows flex to occur without having to crank down on the boot. Find them online at outfits like http://www.race-werks.com or http://www.reliableracing.com. Hey, HH and Bode uses them! So do quite a few of us.

[Harald]

Harald

This discussion hits the exact problem that I started working on with you and Diana in Austria with some real success and continue to work on as I start each season. What role does the ankle play in the flexing movement and to what degree can boot stiffness be a limiting factor? My sense is that with adequate flexing of the ankle it is difficult to bring one's feet back under the hips.

JL, I think you probably meant (without adequate flexing) in the last sentence.

It all depends on the boot angle and your fore/aft hip location over the boot and how aware you are of the hips over the boots. If the boot is stiff or very stiff like mine, you can still acheive inside ski ankle or foot pull back by sliding the ski back in the transition or preparing for it even before the release. Preparing for pull back before the release means you have to put the right muscles to use before they can actually have the effect. Like a pretension sort of action. The only situation where ankle pull back is difficult is when there is limited dori flexion. We find that boots like Tecnica and Lange are more difficult to make work for fore/aft situations.

[Harald]

John, keep in mind that flexing to release does not need to be an extraordinarily big move once you use the giving in action as opposed to the extending action. Also, if the timing is exact flexing can be very short range and still be very effective. Keeping your hips over the boots in many ways is more important than achieving a huge flexing range.