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DavidSkis

Thinking snow
Skier
Joined
Sep 14, 2017
Posts
118
Location
Toronto
In this vein, does anyone know of a trainer or physical therapist or facility who/that can assess me from a skiing context? Put me through the paces and measure left vs right, then advise what needs to be done, even confer with my PT? Currently, I am discovering things slowly. I would really like to short circuit this and get to everything quickly.
Total Skiing by Chris Fellows is a good approach to developing your body for skiing. It contains a full assessment and development program for functional movement, ski fitness, technique, and tactics. For me, I just use the functional movement and ski fitness sections of the book.

I would also suggest considering how you get to angulation: are you relaxing into it, or are you compressing/straining into it?

If you get outside ski balance by progressively lightening your inside half (lifting your inside hip), this creates less strain than pressing with your outside half/crunching your upper body over the ski. And the more you can spread out the pressure through the turn, the less strain you put on your body. I have observed that the more advanced the skier, the better they are at spreading the pressure throughout the turn.

Regarding separation, you might need less separation than you think (I try to max out at 45 degrees out of the fall line). We tend to overexagerate the range on exercises like bracquage/pivot slips/javelin turns.

All that said, I would agree with you that fitness is a cornerstone of good skiing. You can only get so far on technique alone; if most of your muscle fibers are slow twitch, gnarly bumps will be much more challenging, though good tactics can help you choose smoother lines. Your ability to support your body against the centrifugal forces will set an upper limit to your speed, though good technique can allow you to spread the pressure throughout the turn and ultimately push that limit higher. If you have a highly limited range of motion, then it really compromises your ability to apply good technique. The guys I know who have gotten their level 3 ski within 1-3 seasons of taking up the sport have all been athletic, flexible, and strong in addition to having extensive coaching from level 4s. For the rest of us, fitness can be a limiter.
 
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Thread Starter
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karlo

karlo

Out on the slopes
Inactive
Joined
May 11, 2017
Posts
2,708
Location
NJ
Total Skiing by Chris Fellows is a good approach to developing your body for skiing. It contains a full assessment and development program

The book is on its way to my Kindle.

Chris Fellows. I recall reading something about him running a ski training program that is not just on-snow. But, I can't find it now in a web search.
 

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