And you pressure the tips of your skis by pulling the feet back.
Btw, the reason for pressuring the ski tips is so you can vary, or tighten the turn radius.
Very interesting!Haven't seen an answer to your question yet.
Anyone else seen this? From the Elan shaped ski designer himself -Jurij Franco
I think "heels" is a coaching cue for those getting too much on the ball of foot. I'll leave it to those who know about such things.Static drill: stand up at home and do 2 body weight squats, noting where the weight is and isn't on the feet. The weight will predominantly travel through the heel - the balls of the feet will stay in contact with the ground. Now imagine lifting an extra 50kg or 100kg? Would we transfer that extra weight to the balls of the feet or leave it over the heel, over the place of power? Obviously over the heel as anything else would be weak.
What is the _ mm = _ mm refering to? Second is deflection, what's first #?
Why not both?Wouldn't a more effective way to tighten or vary the turn radius be to increase or decrease edge angle?
Don't you usie your ankles to start and adjust these movements?Btw, the reason for pressuring the ski tips is so you can vary, or tighten the turn radius.
Why the absolutism? Not sure if it's intentional, but your phrasing has overtones all-encompassing stone-tablet knowledge. A lot of very experienced and talented instructors here - and a few interlopers like me - don't seem to think it's so simple.
Somewhere upchain someone suggested the goal was to pressure the fore body of the ski. Such a goal suggests that it’s (almost?) universally true that pressuring the tips is an objective. My understanding of ski performance is that pressuring the tips leads to displacement of the tails; I.e. the tails do not follow the tails same trajectory as the tips. There maybe times when that’s the ski performance you want, but most high performance skiing is not served by such ski performance. The video that @geepers posted shows what happens to ski shape and edge engagement when the pressure point is moved forward and aft of center.Why not both?
Rough transcripts of some relevant parts (partly summarised):
Foot platform in boot (around the 5 minute point)
Best way to start with this is the foot/boot interface which allows us to control the ski, manage forces and get the performance we're looking for. To that we need a sound structure.
Static drill: stand up at home and do 2 body weight squats, noting where the weight is and isn't on the feet. The weight will predominantly travel through the heel - the balls of the feet will stay in contact with the ground. Now imagine lifting an extra 50kg or 100kg? Would we transfer that extra weight to the balls of the feet or leave it over the heel, over the place of power? Obviously over the heel as anything else would be weak.
This is why ski racers (who think about these things) do lots of squats from the heel.
So our structure is a tripod: our heel, the ball of the foot and the part under our little toe (the 5th metatarsal-phalanges joint).
Setting up for transition there's going to be primary pressure on the heel, then it does move forward to the ball of the foot. But not at the expense of the heel. We don't get off the heel and push into the ball. As we move forward weight gets levered forward onto the front of the foot but it still travels through the heel. If it doesn't we lose that base of support that allows us to get the power and manage the forces.
The key here is shin/boot cuff.
If we are going to put our weight through our heel we are going to have to get forward from somewhere else, as forward is darned important in skiing. How we move forward is more important than that we did it - if we move forward by pushing our toes down and pushing into the ball of the foot a lot it's going to result in us going back. If we stay on the heel and flex the ankle forward by engaging the Tibialis Anterior (TA) it pulls us forward so the shin contacts the boot tongue. The body mass is still supported by the heel but we now have a lever to drive the front of the ski.
Somewhere upchain someone suggested the goal was to pressure the fore body of the ski. Such a goal suggests that it’s (almost?) universally true that pressuring the tips is an objective. My understanding of ski performance is that pressuring the tips leads to displacement of the tails; I.e. the tails do not follow the tails same trajectory as the tips. @geepers posted shows what happens to ski shape and edge engagement when the pressure point is moved forward and aft of center.
If the objective is to drift a turn, there are multiple ways to achieve that objective. Moving the pressure point is only one. But I’d argue that in most circumstances, keeping the pressure point in the center of the ski will be the route (and root) to higher ski performance.
Somewhere upchain someone suggested the goal was to pressure the fore body of the ski. Such a goal suggests that it’s (almost?) universally true that pressuring the tips is an objective. My understanding of ski performance is that pressuring the tips leads to displacement of the tails; I.e. the tails do not follow the tails same trajectory as the tips. There maybe times when that’s the ski performance you want, but most high performance skiing is not served by such ski performance. The video that @geepers posted shows what happens to ski shape and edge engagement when the pressure point is moved forward and aft of center
In terms of the body, skiing is much more static than most sports. If one foot is a stride length in front of the other that would be extremely unusual. The feet and lower leg is encased in a device that severly restricts movement.This is what happens when we take a situation that is normally static (standing) and make it dynamic (moving). People try to justify dynamic situations with static examples.
Not that there are not good points to be made.
It's one picture, but he's pretty centered.Forebody pressure, or edge angle? Ankles open, or closed? From the feet, or higher up the chain?
View attachment 75153
In terms of the body, skiing is much more static than most sports. If one foot is a stride length in front of the other that would be extremely unusual. The feet and lower leg is encased in a device that severly restricts movement.
In terms of the body, skiing is much more static than most sports. If one foot is a stride length in front of the other that would be extremely unusual. The feet and lower leg is encased in a device that severly restricts movement.
How many beginners have you had that make 10x the move you want them to make?
Skiing is almost slo motion movement, especially at the lower levels. A lot of the dynamics is estimating where to be and what to do in the next moment.
When you pressure the tips, the ski bends more, so you shorten the turn radius.Somewhere upchain someone suggested the goal was to pressure the fore body of the ski. Such a goal suggests that it’s (almost?) universally true that pressuring the tips is an objective. My understanding of ski performance is that pressuring the tips leads to displacement of the tails; I.e. the tails do not follow the tails same trajectory as the tips. There maybe times when that’s the ski performance you want, but most high performance skiing is not served by such ski performance. The video that @geepers posted shows what happens to ski shape and edge engagement when the pressure point is moved forward and aft of center.
If the objective is to drift a turn, there are multiple ways to achieve that objective. Moving the pressure point is only one. But I’d argue that in most circumstances, keeping the pressure point in the center of the ski will be the route (and root) to higher ski performance.