ma req

[asolo]

Easy pitch, easy GS course, Head iSpeed 180/18m. Comparing to a young adult racer on the same course, I think I know what I need here: more counter, vaulting, aggressive edge changes. Not sure about the timing, hard to tell.


Thank you!

 

[Skitechniek]

From gate 3 to 4 your choice of line caused you to be late the next 3 gates. You should have taken a rounder line there.

Apart from that try to get your upper body discipline in check. You are banking a lot.

Those two things will win you the most time for now. I would work on that and not complicate things by working on too many things at the same time.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Why would you need more counter? Your torso is aimed at the next gate mostly. However, as noted above, you are a bit crouched and banked. A more upright torso might let you become aware of the lack of anglulation.

BTW, I don't race or coach racing. Just looking at the skiing.

 

[LiquidFeet]

Shins are pretty much vertical because your ankles are open. Close your ankles - dorsiflex. Keep them dorsiflexed. Pull and hold those feet back behind you to enhance the dorsiflexion.
Visual result: your torso's tilt will end up matching the forward tilt of your lower legs, so people will stop complaining about the crouch.
Biomechanical result: you'll be able to get appropriate pressure on the shovels without the need to lean forward while sitting back as you are doing now. Thus there will be less reliance and stress on your quads.
Speed result: will it make you faster? Dunno, but I bet @Skitechniek will know.
Psychological result: you'll maybe feel more in assertively in control of your skis. I'm speaking from experience, so totally speculating on this one.


Here's the banking. If you are angulated at the gate instead of banking (as you may be in the last image), you will be able to get your skis closer to it and shave off fractions of seconds. On most of these gates you are giving up time because your skis are far from the gate. Aim to brush the gate with your hip; it won't happen, but as a conceptual cue it should help to get that angulation going.
Speed result: The outside ski will hold better and your turns will be cleaner, which will help you improve your time. When you get your skis closer to the gates, your line will reduce your times probably dramatically.
Visual result: I suspect the right amount of counter, which @Kneale Brownson mentions, will need to accompany that angulation so as to enable it, and it will show up in video.

 

[razie]

You're leaning in and losing the outside ski at almost every gate (lean+rotate+back = lose). You need to stop leaning into the gates, but AWAY from the gates, to get some balance over the outside ski. It's a mental thing. You're so focused on the gates that even your shoulders sometimes start to lean in and rotate inside even before the skis tip on edge (very obvious at the second red gate)...

It's typical for beginning racers. Do some angulation/counterbalance and counteracting drills and next time you're in gates: do not focus your attention at the upcoming flag, because your body will go where you look. Look one gate ahead and lean and rotate the shoulders away from the gate - allowing your hips to get closer. You can also think "hip at the gate" which will cause the shoulders to move away from the gate, too.

Otherwise not bad - it looks like you'll have a lot of fun once you get the hang of it! You'll need a longer radius ski when you start "getting it"... you're riding whatever that is without bending it and you're still making the course...

cheers

 

[Doug Briggs]

All of the above is good advice. I'll use some other words to support the consensus.

When Razie says 'rotate the shoulders away from the gate - allowing your hips to get closer ' I think his 'rotate' comment is to remove your rotating the shoulders inside which he identified in your skiing. Your chest should be pointing over the tip of the outside ski, not inside it. Hips closer to the gate is the result of upper/lower body separation.

Lots of this stuff will work it out when you change one or two things. What you change will depend on what you work on first. I'd suggest addressing @LiquidFeet 's remark about vertical shins. Once you are balanced over your skis fore and aft, the rest will be much easier to address. You want to feel the front/tongue of your boot, not the back. When you do I expect things will really come around for you.

 

[asolo]

Otherwise not bad - it looks like you'll have a lot of fun once you get the hang of it! You'll need a longer radius ski when you start "getting it"... you're riding whatever that is without bending it and you're still making the course...

One question: how do you tell the ski is not being bent (I suspect this is very true), and why am I not able to bend it? My shins are obsessively on the front of the boot, to a fault sometimes.

The few top gates, I am trying to pick up speed, so there's no angles or much pressure on the outside ski (I thought it would look like a tuck, but hey). Then it's a rollover and I I am suddenly late, desperately correcting. Still can't force myself to look PAST the nearest gate.

I managed to run this video split screen with a young adult racer on the same course, very telling. For what it is worth, I am about 8% slower overall.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Noodler]

One question: how do you tell the ski is not being bent (I suspect this is very true), and why am I not able to bend it? My shins are obsessively on the front of the boot, to a fault sometimes.

The few top gates, I am trying to pick up speed, so there's no angles or much pressure on the outside ski (I thought it would look like a tuck, but hey). Then it's a rollover and I I am suddenly late, desperately correcting. Still can't force myself to look PAST the nearest gate.

I managed to run this video split screen with a young adult racer on the same course, very telling. For what it is worth, I am about 8% slower overall.

Thanks for the input!

Let's talk about your "shin obsession" for a moment...

We as humans tend to try to apply movements on snow as our brains believe them to work from our experience on dry land. When it comes to applying forward pressure on our boots, many skiers have it completely wrong. I'm not saying that you definitely do, but your video shows that you may be guilty of what I will describe.

Our "dry land" brain thinks that it can get pressure on the front of the boot by pushing the shin forward. But do that movement on snow and what actually happens? Right, the ski just slides forward, you don't really get much pressure on the front of the boot, and your a$$ ends up parking itself over the tail of the ski.

So what movement actually achieves the forward pressure we need? The foot pullback. Try this while standing on your skis on snow and you'll immediately experience tons of forward pressure on the front of the boot, which of course pressures the tips of the skis. And where's your a$$ now? Right where it needs to be; over or ahead of your ankles/heels.

Are you using foot pullback movements to pressure your tips and stay forward on your skis?

 

[razie]

One question: how do you tell the ski is not being bent (I suspect this is very true), and why am I not able to bend it? My shins are obsessively on the front of the boot, to a fault sometimes.

The few top gates, I am trying to pick up speed, so there's no angles or much pressure on the outside ski (I thought it would look like a tuck, but hey). Then it's a rollover and I I am suddenly late, desperately correcting. Still can't force myself to look PAST the nearest gate.

I managed to run this video split screen with a young adult racer on the same course, very telling. For what it is worth, I am about 8% slower overall.

Thanks for the input!

How to tell: there is no performance from the ski, the turn shape, the puffs of snow and their placement etc - and it is due to your movements: lean in, rotate into the turns and being back. This is also why you're late, because you're waiting for the ski to bend and turn and it doesn't...

If you need confirmation, look at picture 4 in luiquidfeet's post. Or:

It's not to say that the ski doesn't bend at all, it bends a little, but not even close to even the nominal 18m sidecut (so in coach speak - no bend). That ski, if you start moving well, can do around a 14m carved turn...

Even as you get more pressure it still doesn't bend - it's more skidding (it already changed direction between frames), your rotation and leaning in there just rob it of any performance and engagement it could have :

You are getting more decent angles later in as you pick up speed, but the puffs of snow and turn shape tell the same story...

Compare that with this above the gate:

Notice the shoulders turned to the outside (away from the gate) and leaned over the outside ski, allowing much bigger angles and that gives you ski performance.

Also, about picking up speed - riding a flat ski is a double edged sword - you're not slowing down due to turning but it won't turn either, which will make you steer it and skid it, which will dump any speed you might pick up.... better focus on a clean edge and an early round line.

 

[Skitechniek]

@LiquidFeet
That is a tough question haha. A good centered alpine basic position helps with resisting more GRF and maintaining balance. Will it immediately make you faster: no. But it can open up a world of possibilities that will make you faster. Everything technique related will make you faster eventually. To improve his basic alpine position I would go the route of @Kneale Brownson and get rid of the crouch. Dorsiflexing both ankles won't do anything. Especially since the angle of his crouch is bigger than the angle of the forward lean of his boots. The upper body and the legs keep one another in balance in a saggital plane. If you crouch forward with the upper body, the ankles open up and the hips go back in order to maintain balance. If you lean back with your upper body, your ankles will dorsiflex more and the hips will move forward to keep you in balance. The best position is equal angles in the ankle and hip joint. I only use inside foot dorsiflexion to assist this symmetry and balance. But I would not use it as a means to fix a faulty alpine basic position. A basic alpine position is for optimal balance and optimal balance is the position wherein you need the least amount of effort/muscle tension to keep you balanced.

Also remember that shin pressure does not give you more pressure on the shovel of the ski, only the position of your CoM along the length of the ski does that.

@asolo
Couple of other very general pointers and 'rules of ski racing' that might help:
- Don't think from the feet up, think from the ski up. Let physics dictate your skiing, not biomechanics. If snowplowing is fast, you snowplow.
- There is a line that is fast and there is a line that is fast for you. Technical ability dictates tactics. Don't ski the same lines as people that are way faster than you.
- If you make a mistake, take your loss the next gate. In the clip you should that would mean you should have skidded the top of the turn at the rise line of gate 5 in order to carry more speed through the next 3 gates.
- Never take the loss/adjust the line below the gate, always above the gate.
- When training technique outside of the gates you should be finding ways to maximize GRF, when in the gates try to find ways to minimize GRF and still keep the ski's carving.

 

[Tony S]

I'm wondering if the crouch is part of your normal skiing habit or is specific to skiing in the course. That's why I agree with @S.H. from an earlier thread, that free skiing video would probably tell the pros here more.

(In my very very very amateur racing career I've received some equally amateur tips about staying low, that are useful only in a very narrow context, at best. In any case, it's not something to concentrate on at this point imho.)

 

[Josh Matta]

does anyone else think the equipment's alignment is too upright?

 

[asolo]

It's not to say that the ski doesn't bend at all, it bends a little, but not even close to even the nominal 18m sidecut (so in coach speak - no bend). That ski, if you start moving well, can do around a 14m carved turn...

I guess I am going to have to think about this. I can literally stand on my toe(s) in the boot, hang forward over the tip(s) of the skis and scrape snow with the inside of the boot cuff, but it does not seem to make appreciable difference.

 

[Tony S]

I guess I am going to have to think about this. I can literally stand on my toe(s) in the boot, hang forward over the tip(s) of the skis and scrape snow with the inside of the boot cuff, but it does not seem to make appreciable difference.

I totally do not understand what you're describing here. Is this some static move you're doing while standing? Something you're doing while skiing? Very confused.

A photo would be good.

 

[Josh Matta]

I guess I am going to have to think about this. I can literally stand on my toe(s) in the boot, hang forward over the tip(s) of the skis and scrape snow with the inside of the boot cuff, but it does not seem to make appreciable difference.

why would you stand on your toes?

The thing is you can create forces by actively resisting the snow. As others have said you you rotating and leaning into the turn from your hips up(very similar to your last MA video), you should actively level those hip, and twist your hips against the turn. You can even take that resistance one step farther and twist your feet to the left as they are tipped right. Basically you can get ski bend from resisting the built in rotational force of the skis instead of trying rotate the skis though the turn like you are.

You should also start think off skiing as this...........

your skis responding to your input take you places, you do not take your skis places.

 

[LiquidFeet]

@asolo, I continue to be concerned about the 90-ish degree angle between your skis and your lower legs, visible in the frames below. You say you are pressing your shins into the tongues. It does not look like your shins are against the boot tongues, to be honest. So I'm wondering if equipment may be at fault for that 90 degrees, or if it's an issue with body mechanics.


1. What boots are you in? What's the flex? Can you photograph one boot sitting on a table, from the side, buckles buckled, with the camera at the level of the boot (not above it), so we can see its forward lean? If you are indeed keeping your shins in contact with your boot tongues, your shins should tilt forward pretty much the same amount as the spine of the boot.

2. Have you had any custom work done on the boot boards inside your boots?
--Do you have a heel lift inside the boots?
--Are you using a spoiler?
--Has any custom work been done on the soles of your boots?

3. Did you buy boots from a ski shop with a real bootfitter checking your foot anatomy before suggesting a boot? In other words, did a bootfitter figure out your range-of-motion for dorsiflexion and deal with it as you got fitted?

4. Has there been any alteration done on the binding delta? In other words, have shims been installed under your bindings' toe pieces to lift them, or under your heel pieces to lift them?

5. What do you do to maintain shin-tongue contact? Can you be specific about what you do with different body parts to maintain that contact?

6. Do you try to "stand" on the balls of your feet? Are you ever aware of your heels lifting a bit inside the boots as you ski?

7. Do you ever feel your shins pressing into the cuffs harder as the forces max out in a turn, maybe even hard enough to flex the boots? If yes, do you know what makes this extra pressure happen? Do you consider it a good thing or not?

 

[asolo]

why would you stand on your toes?

Pressing on the front of the boot/ski?

I think the only way this can work, is to get some instant video feedback. I can contort my body sixteen different ways, but which is right is hard to tell. They all work just fine.

The outside feedback tends to be confusing: "trade edges more aggressively, get some kick out of the turn" okay, doing it. Somebody else: "extend more, ride it out". Well, I am not extending because I am getting so much kick I am airborne trading edges. And so it goes.

Whoever figures out a practical way to take a selfie video for skiers, is going to be rich for sure

 

[S.H.]

You have access to good coaching through a masters program. What are they saying?

 

[Noodler]

Pressing on the front of the boot/ski?

@asolo - the comment above is exactly why I put up my post regarding how to achieve forward pressure properly. You didn't respond to my question. What are your skiing thoughts when it comes to movements to achieve fore/aft balance?

 

[ScotsSkier]

You have access to good coaching through a masters program. What are they saying?

Bingo!

Oh, and do NOT focus on getting closer to the gate at this stage. Classic rookie racer move, think "it must be faster because i am hitting the gate" WRONG! what you end up doing at this stage if you try that is getting your skis close to the gate and unable to get any angles and losing pressure on the ski.

And stop following the ski. get your body countered and facing down the hill so you can get proper pressure on that outside ski at the top of the turn