Bump lesson from Takao

[David]

Seems Japan and other Asian areas like to seed the bump formation with "grass" sticks, not sure what the official name of these are but that's what some call them. Marker 1:08 is when they start planting them on a groomed surface. Then skiers make turns or slips after a storm to the cadence of the sticks. Starting at 8:00, there's a great shot sequence where it follows a skier down when the bumps are "ripe".

Well that's one way to get perfect bumps.

 

[Mike King]

did you purchase that video for $6.50? The only choice i see is a subscription for $9.99/mth, to view all videos

It's $9.99/month in Australian dollars, which is about $6.50 USD. And it gives you access to the whole catalog.

 

[karlo]

It's $9.99/month in Australian dollars, which is about $6.50 USD. And it gives you access to the whole catalog.

Oh! I'll buy the segment I want on Vimeo OnDemand instead, at $10 USD each, and avoid the recording monthly charge.

 

[CoPow]

Sorry, but I'm going to call bullshit on this dissing of the Japanese skiing. You may not like their style, you may not like the competitions, but these guys rip. And they were profoundly influenced by Richie Berger. Richie also rips. Diss them all you want, but until you post video of you ripping a bump line like them, or pulling a bunch of pain in the S's, get over it.

There's definitely more than one way to ski, but the Japanese tech skiers definitely can do so,

Mike

Thank you for being so supportive of Japanese skiing. I said Maruyama is a super skier and I'm really psyched it's caching the eyes from outside Japan. At the same time, I've been seeing this from back 90's when they kicked all the austrian racers out from their competition and I humbly think I might know a thing or two. Do you understand what he's saying? I thought about putting the translation for this vid but it's pirated so no, I'm not doing it.

 

[jack97]

That's usually the way freestyle comp bumps are formed. They made some the other day at my home resort for a weekend comp. There they used brush gates to outline the course. They took a cat up the slope and pushed a bunch of snow around and made two jumps. This made the snow as rough as an avalanche run-out; big rock sized death cookies. They laid the course out with brush gates and had the comp kids stomp ( boot pack ) the course flat enough till they could ski it. Then they skied it for two days turning at the brush gates until the course was complete with comp bumps. Then they shove smoothed the jumps and skied that until it the whole course was ready for the competition.

Without getting the ban hammer slammed on me, I think I can say that there are several methods in making a mogul course

I believe what LF was alluding to was how others helped in making that course. What has always struck me is the length of the course with multiple lanes, some areas spaced them further apart so that you can't transverse into other lanes. I believe they keep them open and manicured by slipping them all season. You would never see this in the states, maybe they would leave a seeded course open but never manicured. The trails don't get enough bumps skiers skiing that direct line.
Just my opinion, one of the reasons skiing this type of line resonate in Asian countries (Korea and Japan) is due to the Buddhist influenced culture. One story I recall was that, "anybody can catch fish with a bent hook, it takes kung fu to catch fish with a straight hook". Perhaps a hyperbole but the context was that kung fu was a difficult task that took time and effort to master, its spiritual way of living.

 

[Scruffy]

Without getting the ban hammer slammed on me, I think I can say that there are several methods in making a mogul course

I believe what LF was alluding to was how others helped in making that course. What has always struck me is the length of the course with multiple lanes, some areas spaced them further apart so that you can't transverse into other lanes. I believe they keep them open and manicured by slipping them all season. You would never see this in the states, maybe they would leave a seeded course open but never manicured. The trails don't get enough bumps skiers skiing that direct line.
Just my opinion, one of the reasons skiing this type of line resonate in Asian countries (Korea and Japan) is due to the Buddhist influenced culture. One story I recall was that, "anybody can catch fish with a bent hook, it takes kung fu to catch fish with a straight hook". Perhaps a hyperbole but the context was that kung fu was a difficult task that took time and effort to master, its spiritual way of living.

Yeah OK. I'm dealing with a nasty head cold ( foggy brain) so I might have just scanned the vid and who knows what I saw or posted. All good

 

[markojp]

Thank you for being so supportive of Japanese skiing. I said Maruyama is a super skier and I'm really psyched it's caching the eyes from outside Japan. At the same time, I've been seeing this from back 90's when they kicked all the austrian racers out from their competition and I humbly think I might know a thing or two. Do you understand what he's saying? I thought about putting the translation for this vid but it's pirated so no, I'm not doing it.

Actually I do understand what Takao says in his vids, and as precise as we assume Japan to be because of its technological prowess, Japanese language can be anything but. I also think it's great he's working on his English presentations, and it'll be interesting to see if it eventually effects the clarity of his Japanese explanations. Japan is the 90's is not Japan today. Not at all.

 

[jack97]

Now I'm getting random Takao vids ....

He does some cool drills in the flats, I like the one where he flexes in the transition. I'm a firm believer that you will lose your range of motion if you never use.

 

[CoPow]

Actually I do understand what Takao says in his vids, and as precise as we assume Japan to be because of its technological prowess, Japanese language can be anything but. I also think it's great he's working on his English presentations, and it'll be interesting to see if it eventually effects the clarity of his Japanese explanations. Japan is the 90's is not Japan today. Not at all.

Cool, yeah, Japanese skiing in the 90's is not Japanese skiing today. Japanese skiing 6 years ago is not Japanese skiing today either. Actually, SAJ education team's skiing (Maruyama's group) is not SAJ competition team's skiing.

Early 2000s they came up with the idea of "Horizontal Plane Theory (Suiheimen Riron 水平面理論)". At Inter Ski 2003, Japan demo team did demonstration with a lot of rotation and lack of counter and Epic Ski got some "wtf was that?" threads. Fast forward to Inter Ski 2011, they demonstrated "Hybrid Turns", and a lot of western demos wrote about it. Paul Lorenz's one was pretty long and pointed out that their demo (Iyama) got on the inside ski and outside ski drifted off course. He also described that the technique is targeted at the elderly population as Japan's ski population is aging. At the end he concluded the technique is totally achievable by beginners because the movement is the same one as the one beginners do naturally.

Then in 2014, there was a coup in SAJ and the professor of sports management who was running this trend resigned from the chairman of education team and their textbook immediately changed, back to more conventional style along with their style of skiing.

During the era, there was a lot of big words with not too much meaning, 内脚主導、フェイスコントロール、体幹主導、二軸運動... the list goes on. I'm not surprised you don't understand them because they don't understand them themselves, there was even a DVD from the most famous ski school in Japan titled "Hybrid skiing that nobody understands.". There is just too much smoke and mirrors. While there is no doubt those Japanese top demos are good, I don't take their words at face value seeing what they did during that era.

That said, this video seems like genuinely what he personally teaches and doesn't seem like it has much smoke and mirrors if at all.

 

[markojp]

FWIW, I had a friend who we used to lead telemark clinics with who was on the Japan alpine demo team in the late 90's, early 2000's. It was great to see him teley without having to do the SAJ gymnastics. I think he liked it as well. Had several friends trying to climb the SAJ ladder during that time too... it was painfully awful to watch. Lot's of finding function in the tyranny of form. I'm glad the swoopy arms are by and large history.

 

[CoPow]

FWIW, I had a friend who we used to lead telemark clinics with who was on the Japan alpine demo team in the late 90's, early 2000's. It was great to see him teley without having to do the SAJ gymnastics. I think he liked it as well. Had several friends trying to climb the SAJ ladder during that time too... it was painfully awful to watch. Lot's of finding function in the tyranny of form. I'm glad the swoopy arms are by and large history.

Free the heels, free the souls. I'm not that optimistic as it's basically how Japanese are, they are good at, and care a lot about, forms. Normally do better in form sports (Moguls, Half Pipe, Figure Skating, etc.) but it's much better without that horizontal plane thing for sure.

 

[Mike-AT]

Now I'm getting random Takao vids ....

He does some cool drills in the flats, I like the one where he flexes in the transition. I'm a firm believer that you will lose your range of motion if you never use.

Thanks, thats a cool one! In section A he looks a lot like Richie Berger. In his latest "Legacy" video, Richie even has a similar (stem christie) drill as well.
Section G is hilarious!
I'll try to incorporate some of the drills into my training.

 

[karlo]

Your poles are too long. Go 2 in shorter. At least.

As mentioned by @James above, variable length poles are really useful.

I’ll be on snow tomorrow. What’s the cue I should use to determine what shorter length is suitable? I’ve skied with a broken variable length pole before, collapsing both to achieve symmetry. I ended up holding just two sticks and just flicking my wrist to simulate poling. That was pretty short, but it worked; hardly noticed a difference.

 

[James]

What’s the cue I should use to determine what shorter length is suitable? I’ve skied with a broken variable length pole before, collapsing both to achieve symmetry. I ended up holding just two sticks and just flicking my wrist to simulate poling. That was pretty short, but it worked; hardly noticed a difference.

If you didn’t notice the difference between “two sticks”, and simulating poling, (in the air?) How would you feel any cue?

You’ll be able to keep your hands out front easier and won’t get one hand left behind as much.
I’m not a big fan of adjustable poles unless they’re solid. They almost all have wobble. You need something solid.
Maybe borrow shorter poles if your adjustable tryout ones are bad. Or buy a few sizes used for $10 each.

 

[Mike King]

If you didn’t notice the difference between “two sticks”, and simulating poling, (in the air?) How would you feel any cue?

You’ll be able to keep your hands out front easier and won’t get one hand left behind as much.
I’m not a big fan of adjustable poles unless they’re solid. They almost all have wobble. You need something solid.
Maybe borrow shorter poles if your adjustable tryout ones are bad. Or buy a few sizes used for $10 each.

The LEKI's have no wobble, at least the carbon ones. Of course, you could always support the Projected crew...

SHOP | PLAY Snowsports

Shop all PLAY snowsports producs easily on the PLAY online shop. Check out is simple and safe.

www.playsnowsports.com

 

[James]

The LEKI's have no wobble, at least the carbon ones. Of course, you could always support the Projected crew...

SHOP | PLAY Snowsports

Shop all PLAY snowsports producs easily on the PLAY online shop. Check out is simple and safe.

www.playsnowsports.com

But you’re stuck with their bondage wear pole straps. No thanks.
@geepers can buy poles to give those guys some more money. They won’t have to fly them across the earth.

 

[markojp]

But you’re stuck with their bondage wear pole straps. No thanks.
@geepers can buy poles to give those guys some more money. They won’t have to fly them across the earth.

Not if you don't use them.

 

[David]

But you’re stuck with their bondage wear pole straps. No thanks.
@geepers can buy poles to give those guys some more money. They won’t have to fly them across the earth.

You can purchase their regular straps as well like I did.

 

[Mike King]

I’ll be on snow tomorrow. What’s the cue I should use to determine what shorter length is suitable? I’ve skied with a broken variable length pole before, collapsing both to achieve symmetry. I ended up holding just two sticks and just flicking my wrist to simulate poling. That was pretty short, but it worked; hardly noticed a difference.

Look at Deb Armstrong's video in this post. #1

 

[karlo]

SHOP | PLAY Snowsports

Shop all PLAY snowsports producs easily on the PLAY online shop. Check out is simple and safe.

www.playsnowsports.com

“The 100% carbon upper shaft offers an incredibly light weight feel with the aluminium lower shaft providing rigidity and strength where it's needed.”
Perfect. A carbon pole snapped in two when I gently tapped my boot to knock off some snow. That wouldn’t happen if the lower part is aluminum.

Look at Deb Armstrong's video in this post. #1

Ok, That’s the cue, not having my hand and arm pop up from a pole plant. That sometimes happens.