Help me find 0.5 seconds

[KevinF]

At my race league (Nashoba Valley for those familiar with eastern Massachusetts) I seem to consistently finish about half-a-second back from cracking the top half of the draw. (The top 25% of our draw is owned by guys who grew up on race teams and I have no delusions of ever being that good...).

At any rate, during the race and watching the videos on the TV at the bar after made me think I was *this* close to the gates, but they recently made the race videos available for download and I realized that I'm nowhere close to that gate.

Is just tightening up the line going to be the easiest way to find that elusive half-a-second? Is there something other than line choice that you would advise me to concentrate on on race nights?

In both videos, I'm the one in the blue jacket / green pants.

Week 3 where I won (barely):

Week 4 where I got crushed (recorded on my iPhone from the TV in the bar since this one isn't available for download):

Hopefully the quality is good enough to determine something.
Play nice. I race for the , but I've discovered I like winning too..

 

[Philpug]

Paging @ScotsSkier to the white courtesy phone.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Have I mentioned leveling the hips?

 

[James]

I just watched the first one. I'd suggest using the rise line concept for when to start the turn. It's simple and easy. Basically a line up the fall line from the turning gate. As you cross that line, be on the new edges. Which part of the ski crossing? Will take some experimenting. Say start at tips and by feet be on edges.

Now there's still where on the rise line, vertically to cross. Low means you best be good because there's not much space to finish the turn. High there's plenty of time and it takes time. If you get practice, start high and work down.

 

[oldschoolskier]

Late into the turns, it is something that happens to all racers at the beginning. There are lots of threads about this.

When looking at the second video at the start of the video making the turns correctly, yet the second skier is a lot lower down in the turn (late) and braking to make the next turn.

SS will describe and correct it better.

 

[ScotsSkier]

OK. Dont be too hard on yourself. Lots of common issues I see at this level, but also some positives. Yes, you need to improve your line but not quite in the way you are thinking of getting closer to the gate. If you look at the first video it is pretty instructive. At the top of the course you are waving your arms about to punch the gate - Dont!! I know it feels good but all you are doing is taking pressure off the ski. Just keep driving the hands forward and making clean turns and ignore the gate!.

Now if you look at what is happening as you get on to the pitch, you will see you are getting lower and lower and scrubbing speed as you hang on to the turn below the gate. This then means that you get even lower and later at the next gate. Remember hanging on and pressure below the gate only slows you down! What you need to do is to move the apex of the turn up above the gate. the set here looks like ~16-18m. Think about getting the apex of the turn about 12feet above the gate (I am sure that not being a deified person from Utah, i do not need to painstakingly explain what the apex is! You should be aiming to have the pressure on the ski as you begin the turn and in the fall line. As you come past the gate you should already be starting the switch to the new ski, not still pressuring the downhill ski and dropping lower into the ruts and chatter. The sequence below should hopefully highlight this approach (although these were taken on a flat piece of hill)

I would also like to see you driving the hands forward more, particularly the inside hand, this will help you bring the hip forward and get the body facing down the fall lien rather than following the skis. Do not be afraid to overemphasize this as you train, you can always dial it back but it will help you with a quick switch to 'fall' onto the new ski. A useful drill is to make turns across the hill and as soon as you start to complete the turn, lift the downhill ski to force yourself on to the uphill (and new downhill) ski. The quick switch (the new USSA nomenclature for the transition) is one of the key focus areas at the moment. I have some great video of Wade Bishop, former USST womens speed coach demonstrating this but need to work out how to cut and paste it from my Chile DVD.

If you can start adjusting your line to move the apex up and accelerate the switch as above you will find yourself taking chunks out of your times and carrying a lot more speed down the hill. This will benefit you way more than simply getting closer to the gate. In fact you need to give yourself space at the gate to be able to get extension and pressure. Too often hitting the gate compromises your line and pressure at this stage.

Some other things to think about. Work on getting more separation and pressure. Focus on more inside leg retraction (or outside leg extension wicks simply the opposite reaction). You amy also want to look at your boot alignment. I notice you are starting to get some angulation on the right footers but in the left footers you are banking.

Good news is that you are not in the back seat and still trying to generate some speed when you can. The other things are all pretty typical of what I see from beginning (and not so beginning !) masters racers. I can also (unfortunately!) relate all too well as i have been guilty of all these things as well.

Oh, and I love the fact that you like winning! That is a critical element but not something we can coach into you!!

 

[Rod9301]

Agree with the post abov mine.

Alsi, in all the photos but 1065, you have a lot of weight on the inside ski.

Try to narrow your stance, which will force you to have all your weight on the outside ski

 

[Doug Briggs]

A great place to drop time that is often overlooked is the start. If you get a good start and get to the first gate a half second faster, you have achieved stated your goal. Use long strong pole strokes and long strong skates to the first gate. Practice skating on flats and then uphill making sure you use your arms to power yourself forward. Skate whenever possible to achieve proficiency at it and strength in the arms and leg motions.

Your skiing is aggressive but you aren't getting your skis to carve. You need more upper/lower body separation to develop stronger edge angles to carve. More initiation with the edges before you cross the rise line will help you start your turn carving and more angulation will help build the edge angles. Keep your upper body faced closer to the fall line. As you run progresses your upper body follows the skis more and more. This reduces your ability to carve.

I think that line is secondary to good form. While being on a race line is good, if you aren't carving it doesn't help much. Carve first, then address line.

Keep up posted. That you can provide the video is great. See if someone can video your start, too. Starts really matter and are easy to improve. Added speed out of the start carries down the course as well.

 

[Josh Matta]

Skills -

both video show a lack of seperation at the hip socket joint. Sometime you are using your spine sometime your shoulders and your hips are exactly the same angle as your skis

IN both the lateral and rotary plane. You need to aggresively and proactively drive the new inside hip forward and up. "scrunching" on the outside side that is quite often taught can lead to spinal angulation. Pinching your side does not lead to level hip. Internally forcing your hips to be levels get your there.

everyone above covered the tactics fairly well.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

A great place to drop time that is often overlooked is the start. If you get a good start and get to the first gate a half second faster, you have achieved stated your goal.

Good point!

 

[KevinF]

Have I mentioned leveling the hips?

Once or twice or thrice... It will get through eventually! It only took me a decade to learn a pivot slip. I try... I really do. It's hard to do much thinking in a course though!

 

[KevinF]

@ScotsSkier thanks for the very detailed post! I have to miss next week's race because I'll be in Aspen (woe is me, I know...) but I'll try to find some gates to practice in as our season goes on.

 

[mdf]

Since Epic and Josh have skied with you quite a bit, I wonder if they could say how your free-skiing form compares to your race course form. My impression is that your form is usually pretty good, and the course pressure is causing regression. My guess is that you should spend more time skiing a line that does not finish turns quite as much.

 

[KevinF]

Agree with the post abov mine.

Alsi, in all the photos but 1065, you have a lot of weight on the inside ski.

Try to narrow your stance, which will force you to have all your weight on the outside ski

The photos that @ScotsSkier posted are not of me. I was thinking those were frame captures from the DVD he mentioned?

 

[KevinF]

Since Epic and Josh have skied with you quite a bit, I wonder if they could say how your free-skiing form compares to your race course form. My impression is that your form is usually pretty good, and the course pressure is causing regression. My guess is that you should spend more time skiing a line that does not finish turns quite as much.

I was thinking my race videos look pretty similar to my recent free-skiing videos, or at least the same issues show up. @epic and I have been working together lately to improve on the "hip leveling" thread he mentioned above (and others mentioned that as well).

I posted the videos both to gain an understanding of how race line works and to see if there are technical issues that show up more in racing than in free-skiing. I admit to being relatively (totally?) clueless in the department of how to find the "ideal" line and whether or not it matters that much at the level I'm at.

 

[mdf]

To clarify, what I meant was to choose a more race-like line in your free skiing, since you get a lot more hours there than on the course.
I am also clueless about the actual line choice in actual race courses.

 

[mdf]

Kevin -
I got a compact waterproof video camera as a 35 year gift from my employer (much better than a watch!). If you are feeling brave next week, we can take some video.
Mike

 

[KevinF]

Kevin -
I got a compact waterproof video camera as a 35 year gift from my employer (much better than a watch!). If you are feeling brave next week, we can take some video.
Mike

Sure. I'm always up for seeing myself on video. Besides, somebody's got to record all the epic face shots I hope to get the whole way down Highland's Bowl.

 

[markojp]

In a quick nutshell with limited time and quite aside from tactics, you're following your skis. This a a lateral balance issue. When your shoulders mirror the direction your skis are pointed (little if any upper/lower body separation) it's very very difficult to 1. maintain pressure on the outside ski, and 2. To avoid bracing (see your stiff outside leg?) on the outside ski and the resultant 'push off' ( which is creating a lot of braking friction) because 3. This puts your weight too far inside which we see when the pitch gets a bit steeper (and tactically are unable to ski the line of your choice), and makes it even more difficult to move your body across your skis at transition.

The remedy? Almost any variation of one ski drills focused on the outside ski.. One ski up and overs. Tracers. One ski ankle tipping RR track turns. And yes, I'd like to see some video shot from the side (sagital plane) to look at your fore aft alignment.. I have some suspicions that something is a bit off. If I were coaching you, I'd show you a version of tip to tip javelin turns, and/or a variation of a tracer turn that would help greatly with upper and lower body separation while skiing on the outside ski.

Once we got that going, we'd start with White Pass turns to think about inclination above the fall line and angulation at and below the fall line. These will also clean up your transitions and eliminate the remaining vestiges of your push off.

We might even do some of this using 2-3 gates in a similar set once we get things sorted out as a transition back into the race course. THEN we can address the tactical changes that your improved skiing will make possible.

The good news is that looking at your skiing is athletic enough that with some coaching and work, that .5 and more is well within reach.

 

[James]

Once or twice or thrice... It will get through eventually! It only took me a decade to learn a pivot slip. I try... I really do. It's hard to do much thinking in a course though!

This is very true and while in courses the focus really should be on tactics. If you try to focus hips, etc in the course you're probably going to be late cause you're thinking too much. Arms/ hands forward is doable but prtyy much focus on when/where to turn.

Outside of course focus on technique. Maybe use Nastar to do both tactics/technique. Maybe concentrate on technique for only one or two particular turns in the course.
Basically, in the course you use the technique you've already got.