jack97, that is a great recommendation for anyone seeking to become an expert. I am working on this right now along with the “bottom-up” version shown here:
I also do it from the floor and flexed as low as I can go reaching my feet out and training my strength and mobility within the tight vertical margin we have to work with during retraction turns. The right exercises, including TG’s second video in this series, can really mimic the strength, balance and mobility we need to be prepared for these high angle turns once we have our timing down to make it happen.
@JESinstr, I don’t think we are far off from each other. It is natural that you would want and need to be able to consider all or most of the levels that you teach as would I if that were my current circumstances. I haven’t “worked” on the hill for quite a few years now, but that has turned out to have been a huge luxury for me to concentrate on my own level and type of skiing as I do in regards to the context of most of my posts. Because I raced in the late 80’s - early 90’s and wanted to update my skills as “technique forward” as possible about 8 - 10 years ago, I became an adult learning skier and had to work very hard to change my skiing from the ground up. Literally and figuratively. After 20+ seasons of daily skiing as a youth and highschool racer, backcountry ski bum, ski instructor and race coach had me in such a fully ingrained state of technique, it was to the point that my legs would twitch into ski stance while sleeping (according to more than one witness). I once kicked my GF hard in the butt upon an aggressive 100% weight shift to the outside after falling asleep while watching live streaming WC at 3 in the am. Ultimately, I had to shift my entire conception of ski technique over onto its head, upside down. No longer looked at it from the top-down but, instead from the bottom-up, or the “ski” up. It was difficult because it was a complete kinetic reversal and had some pretty retarded moments along the way.
Nerd alert warning! Read forward at your own risk.
Currently, for me, “ski function patterns” (tipping, edging, bending, pivoting/rotational, engagement, pressure/load, etc.) is where the entire kinetic cycle of a turn both begins and ends and where every movement of the body both embodies and elicits a direct correlation to ski function whether input or output. Inputs are to the ski and outputs are from the ski - the ski is between every input and its output. An input from the body is an output to the ski and the output of the ski is an input to the body. For me, it is the movement input that is very small (mostly from the knee down) compared to the movement output of body flexion motored by GFR. If you can’t trace a movement pattern to the input or output of ski function, it is nothing but hot air. Overlapping anatomic motor patterns (flexion, extension, rotation, angulation, inclination) cycle through the three phases and transition to complete that cycle.
Imagine, for a moment. one ski turn on a bell curve chart and how the DIRT of each of the five fundamental motor patterns and ski function patterns listed above (the ski and body as one unit on the bell graph) will rise and fall at different rates through the three phases of the turn. The X axis would be the turn phase duration and timing (duration = distance along x axis - & - timing = timing of one pattern against another and at which phase) and the Y axis would be the rate and intensity of the motor pattern (rate = height on graph based on distance of individual movement - & - intensity = the pitch of that line as it rises and falls). Transition would be where the turn cycle flat lines on the bell curve before the start of a new turn and where 3 of the 5 fundamental motor patterns (angulation, inclination, rotation) return to neutral zero at some point. If you want to see the duration, intensity, rate and timing of each motor pattern as they relate to each other, chart them all on one bell curve chart to actually see what the significance of what the DIRT of each separate movement pattern looks like in each turn. If one wore a GPS sensory tagged suit, we could get these bell curve data points graphed on a screen. Of course, that will never happen. While some patterns and, the lines they represent, residing on the bell graph will match each other simultaneously and/or follow sequentially, they will all overlap each other to some degree and all the lines will graciously taper to and from the base line axis. We could then see a visual representation of layered movements for skill blending. The more flow that a skier has overall, the more the the lines charted on the bell curve will visually represent that “same” flow through the chart.
Because ski technique is so systemic, when we discuss the “timing” of our movements, they are most significant as they relate with each of the other patterns rather than just individually against the timing of the turn itself. We would see things like how we rotate (counter) over the ski during flexion but rotate back to neutral into transition while using static extension over the ski to give the ski power to finish a strong turn. We can call it a homeostasis of a turn’s motor pattern life cycle as if the turn were a living, breathing organism. I suppose the bell curve of a bad skier with no or little flow would look like the stock market crashing. I have a friend who's got a motor pattern ponzi scheme going on but he is in too deep to give it up. The SEC is after him for motor pattern investment fraud and he was last sighted skiing somewhere in Eastern Europe with a bunch of hurried compensatory movement patterns shuffled into an antiche case.
Re: A framing
The ankle flexion directional sensory device used by the Forward Ski System (
https://forwardski.com/racing/) for identifying the amount (angle) and matching of inside/outside fore to aft ankle flexion could also, by the way it works, be designed to be used on the sides of the shin/calves to register lateral lower leg tipping and matching for those who wish to eliminate A framing with direct input. Though, I don’t believe that direct input to match shafts both fore/aft and lateral is the answer. Nor do I believe that correcting stance width is a direct input fix either as they are all systematically fundamental applications that should really start first with identifying what you want the ski to do and then work your way up the chain from there. A framing and stance width are systemic outputs for which the systemic inputs initiate a number of stages up or down the chain from said output. In any case, mid chain fixes with a focus left isolated from the full chain of relevant movement are never ideal, rarely sustainable and probably never reach complete fruition of the intended development. I contend that if a skier had a fully ingrained A frame and tried to abolish it through direct input of controlling parallel shafts without engaging the inside ski and thus closing the chain (closed vs open chain mechanics), that they would continue to A frame anyway. Not until we pressure both the inside and outside ski (w/significant outside pressure dominance) do we get feedback from the edge itself that will indicate to the well trained foot and ankle how the ski is tipped. How high and how equal.
I feel that those sole pressure sensory footbeds would be hard to benefit from without any additional readings such as a cuff pressure sensor pad which would probably make things too complex and expensive to produce. However, even with an additional cuff pressure sensor, because there are so many other inputs than sole and cuff pressure that contributes to pressuring and turning a ski, I don’t think it would be very helpful. Tipping the ski with the ankle itself brings about ground force reaction that pushes up on the ski, thus creating turning pressure without regulating sole or cuff pressure to any significant degree. It is probably good at registering left - right pressure distribution, but, that needs to be something the skier needs to register themselves from the get-go anyway.
Developmental sequence: The core cause to an A frame is an inactive inside ski. However, it is difficult to engage the inside ski for contribution of the carving effort and changing the direction of momentum if you need to use it as an outrigger for balance. Basically, balancing on a dead stump. Achieving 100% outside ski balance really needs to happen before we free the inside ski to bend and engage in a competent/beneficial manner. Attempting to engage the inside ski without outside ski balance will result in dropping too much weight to the inside. Left/right pressure distribution control over two fully engaged/bent skis is a skill level beyond that of simply being able to balance 100% on the outside. If we are not going to engage the inside ski, an A frame is meaningless. When a racer does not have time or a need to engage the inside ski, they do not care if an A frame results. Skiing is not about how it looks but rather how it functions where the the most efficient and effective function provides the most ideal aesthetic and is also why using direct input controls to change your technique rarely works if that is the only method being used. Direct inputs can be helpful when rotating through the system and trying to figure things out but many are ones that will not be employed in the final product.
Per the OP’s specific question on what she can do in the off season: “outside foot balance” and “inside foot use” can be initiated, developed and refined by learning a basic and simple “double push” inline speed skating technique (inline, not ice) in the off season. It will enhance your alignment skills to the third degree and improve lower leg mobility under a low and gliding CoM and very similar to the way we do it for alpine. If you are an advanced intermediate or above skier, you already have a baseline of skills for a fast start. Put a big speed skate frame and wheels under a full, 3 buckle inline skate boot and you will be amazed at what you can do with just a little targeted development. It will teach your upper to relax while putting the power, control and balance into your feet and ankles that will sing on snow.
