Moguls - tips to target

[Seldomski]

G in case it may be fun/useful in broadening the repertoire, here is a quick rundown of the wicked practical intro sequence we have been using in our neck of the woods to introduce peeps who wanna try it to mogul technique elements and be able to start applying/using these elements in their skiing. The elements then help both in moguls and anywhere else they want to ski. <Feel free to laugh & ignore if this ain't fun/helpful or not where you're at or anything.>

We have seen that intermediate or advanced skiers usually get the first half of this within about 2 hours, then we go into the bumps, and within 3-4 hours of starting from zero they have the beginnings of the hang of it and light starting to dawn in their eyes. And big smiles So - wicked practical cause it makes a tangible difference & gives a usable foundation in moguls for many peeps <not all> within 3-4 hours.

First, basic body position. Hands Up & Forward (and constantly pushing down the hill). Hips Forward (ahead of boots & feet). Shin Pressure. Chest Up, Head High. Vision Up. Stay Square (at least basic squaring). Oops you dropped your hands again. Oops you dropped your hips back. This set usually takes about 2-3 runs for peeps to start using most of the elements of. They always complain that it feels weird & stiff and they were always trained to hunch over to go faster cause what about air resistance. But after a couple of runs they start using it, at least a little bit. <can add a bit on mogul poleplants as well, if a particular person is getting held back by poles>

Second, Early Turn. This is the single most important part of mogul skiing technique. Everything else progresses from Early turns.
Explain the Early Turn. Early Turn means that you Shift onto your New Ski right at the top of the turn ("top of the C"). Then you simply stand on the ski for the rest of the turn, and you Rrrrrrriiiide it as it goes around the corner. Then you Shift to the other one, also Early. Omigod I'm not allowed to ski that way. Yes you are and it changes everything. The reason Early changes everything is that Early gives you 3X the speed control than Late. Because Early gives you speed control with your New Edge on the Top of the turn (thruout the top curve of the C), at the Apex, and also after the Apex. That is 3X the speed control. Late skiers only get 1x speed control, cause they only get edge after the apex. So mogul skiers have 3X the speed control. This takes about 2-3 mins to explain.

Mogul Wedge. Learn to turn Early by doing the Mogul Wedge. <see the various vids>. Usually we do Wedges for maybe 1/2 of a run, for like 2 or 3 runs. First sections of the run are wedges. Later sections are putting that awwwwesome strong edgebite that they learn from the Wedge into their normal turns.

Early Parallel turns. Traverse across the hill with all weight on Old Downhill Ski. Halfway across the hill, weightshift onto uphill ski (New Downhill Ski). Keep traversing with weight on uphill ski (New Downhill Ski). Wait I'm not allowed to ski like this. Yes you are you hate it cause you're learning Early. Your weight is all on the uphill ski (New Downhill Ski). About 7-10' before you come to where you want to turn, Roll The Knee Downhill. Omigod The TIP INSIDE EDGE BITES IN and the Ski Goes Around By Itself. That was Early muhahahaha. Now stand on the ski and RRRiiiiiidddeee it all the way around the corner. Nooooo don't let it get away from ya -- Pull It Back and Stand On It allllll the waayyy thruuuu. That was Early muhahahaha. Now do it all the way across on the other foot Noooo I'm Scared It's weird It's EARLY

< if they don't really get Knee Roll yet, sharpen that up for 'em. Otherwise main Knee Roll learning is later outside the Intro>

Early Javelin Turns (uncrossed). Do the same drill above, but with less silliness and now, while you are standing on the uphill ski (New Downhill Ski) on each traverse, lift the Old Ski off the snow and hold it there. Keep holding the Old Ski in the air all the way thru the turn. Omigod I feel so off balance Omigod I have to Commit My Weight to the New Downhill Ski oh guess what, now I know what Shin Pressure is, and Tip Edge. I'm still scared to Commit though. Yes but you'll learn
<note on this one -- don't try to cross the Old Ski over like Aiko Uemura or Patrick Deneen. Those are later types of Javelin turns whose purpose is to teach Square. No crossing for this version. The purpose here is to teach Early and Shin Pressure>

5-second, 3-second, 1-second Javelin Turns. Now do the Javelin turn. Start with 5-second Javelin turns. This starts to give fluidity. You traverse, and you count Shift-2-3-4-5, Shift-2-3-4-5, etc. On the Shift, you are weightshifting to the uphill ski (New Downhill Ski) and lifting the inside ski (Old Downhill Ski). The kneeroll comes usually between the Shift and the 2.
Now do 3-second Javelins. You traverse, and you count Shift-2-3, Shift-2-3. Omigod that was starting to feel quick & shortradius....like...like a Mogul Turn omi muhahahaha
Now do 1-second Javelins. No time to traverse, you count Shift, Shift, Shift. Omigod that is too fast for a beginner to keep up. Yep now you feel the edge of the envelope

5-second, 3-second, 1-second parallel turns. Now do parallel turns, Using All The Pieces From Above but not lifting the ski. 5-second parallel turns have real fluidity, they are quite Early, have plenty of Edgebite, and are Reasonably Medium Radius, Reasonably Quick. Shift-2-3-4-5, Shift-2-3-4-5 OK
Now do 3-second parallel turns. Count Shift-2-3, Shift-2-3. Omigod that Really Is Starting To Feel Like a Mogul Skier Looks. Yep it's the foundation
Now do 1-second parallel turns with all the pieces from above. Shift, Shift, Shift, Shift oh guess what now you have a Mogul Turn muhahahahaha <and years ahead to improve it>

All that stuff ^^^ took about 2 hours for a lot of peeps. This is all done on blue runs so far

Now Take It In The Moguls. Find a blue mogul run.

Early Turn On 1 Mogul. Learn where to start your weightshift in order to get an Early Turn on a single mogul. Find a fun mogul with a decent smooth shape. Using your skipole, mark a line across the face of the mogul about 2.5-3' before the crest. Now back up a ways and ski down to the mogul. When your boots' toepieces reach the line, Weightshift. Omigod my turn got Edgebite a little bit on the frontside and positioned me perfectly for Edge all the way down the backside. Yes it did, if you were Early. If you were Late, you choked and felt it.
<For beginners we mark the weightshift boot line at about 2.5-3' before the crest. Later when you get good the weightshift can start at 1' to 6" to 0" before the crest. The primary factor here is the length of Time t that it takes a beginner to start and then complete the weightshift. Newbies' Time Intervals are reallllllly Slow so they have to start sooner in space.
<Also please note that these Early Weightshift lines are not the same as the Targets for tips-to-target drills. For the Intro, forget all about the tips etc. It's about Boots for the timing.>>

Early Turn On 2 Moguls. Mark the weightshift lines on 2 moguls in a row. Ski them like above. Omigod that mostly worked. But here's something New - that second mogul came up really quickly in Time and I wasn't ready for it. Ya no kidding, welcome to Mogul Skiing. They happen quickly

Early Turn on 3 Moguls. Mark the weightshift lines on 3 moguls in a row. Ski them like above. Holy Smokes bump 2 and bump 3 came up so fast. I thought I had learned an Early Turn but now I'm Late alla time, Why?? Now you're in Headgame territory. Now you have an Early Turn. Now you have to keep your head in the game and understand & be ready for how fast these things are gonna come in at you - Shift-Shift-Shift-Shift. Be ready that's your pace cause now you are a mogul skier
Not like Slow Old Alpine With Sevvvvvvennnnn Sekkkondzzzz Betweeeennnn Carvvvvvedddd GGGGGSSSSSS Turnzzzzz. Their Velocities are Fast but their Turn Intervalzzzzz are SSSssslowwwwww But we aren't skiing Alpine anymore cause now you are a mogul skier

Early Turn on 1 Steep Mogul. Go find a Black run with fairly large bumps. Mark your Early Weightshift line 3' before the crest. Ski 1 bump. Oh guess what It Worked. Dang. I skied that one Early. Now go home. Come back tomorrow and very carefully do more steep bumps

Sheesh that was weird. Try it - we've seen multi dozen peeps do that this season and it worked for every single one

Peace All

Question for your @recbumper - at what point do you work on flexion in this progression? Basically, starting the new turn early and as flexed as possible as you hit the next bump face? Do the students typically pick this up naturally, or do you have a drill specifically for flexion that you like?

 

[recbumper]

> at what point do you work on flexion in this progression?

We start on absorption [flexion] right after this Intro progression.

Basically Day 2 starts with Knee Roll <Slip & Tip drill>, and then Absorption, and then ends the day with Tips To Target.

For Absorption there is a fair amount of talking & description first. Then find a nice roller or single mogul to try it out on. Then do a certain amount of Mogul Traverse Drill. Good vid is US Ski Team drill:

The Mogul Traverse Drill

videos.usskiandsnowboard.org

But we have definitely found that just the Mogul Traverse drill is usually not enough for people to actually get it. If I get a chunk of time over the weekend I'll write another of those stream-o'-consciousness flows for Day 2 Mogul Progression and I'll include a bunch of the other key pieces that we have seen peeps need to hear about & try in order to start to get Absorption.


Then start doing Tips-To-Target, and if they have had some of the intro to Absorption then they usually start instinctively putting it into the Tips-To-Target which is fun & cool to see.

Also like the Intro 1 up there, and also thruout everyone's mogul skiing progression, the single most important foundation is lots & lots of Practice On Flats. The mogul parts work out better & better, the more exposure & habit peeps have built up on the flats.

Early - Early - Early is theeeee crucial thing and peeps have to work that up on the flats.

 

[Michael Blythe]

Thanks for the all the info @recbumper ! Def. interested in more on absorption and how to bridge the gap between mogul traverses and more fall line skiing

 

[recbumper]

> Thanks for the all the info

Sure no prob. Mostly what I try to do is specifically & clearly re-tell what the Whistler bump coaches have coached our adult groups to do. This is their stuff not mine.

Reading the boards a bit I figured it could be fun & useful for the community if peeps could hear the coaches' words passed on as they speak them. That comment from Glenn Eddy the other day was pure gold for example

I also add a bit of my own interpretation here & there, trying to describe what it Feels like for me when I execute the instructions the coaches give. The Interpretation part is where the writing tends to get weird, sorry about that. I dunno how else to really do it in this written format. It's suuuper cool that these days there are a lot of good vids to refer to which is really helpful to sync up with the writing.

We have re-sequenced the drill sequence a bit to go from the ground up to do a progression for peeps starting moguls from zero and make it repeatable in a kindof rough & ready way. Like that Progression 1 up there, over 3-4 hours, that is very much the sequence we have done with peeps, and very much what we see them getting to in their skiing. Each person progresses at their own pace but that sequence typically has produced a lot of progress and some level of understanding quite quickly <within a few hours, or a couple of repeated days at the most>.

Then it takes lots & lots of weeks to keep improving with it, and there is endless room for growth & refinements but it does seem to set peeps on a solid, coherent path and to be very repeatable across dozens o' folks which is fun

 

[recbumper]

Mogul Progression 2 ("Day 2")

Yay we're back on the snow to ski more moguls yayyyy!!

> Remind Body Position
> Early Turns (Balance Beam Drill)
> Knee Roll (SlipNTip Drill)
> Early Turns with Knee Roll (5-sec, 3-sec, 1-sec)
> Absorption 1 (traverse method)
> Absorption 2 (deep crouch method)
> Tips-To-Target
> Beer O'Clock


Remind Body Position.
First, basic body position. Go thru it on snow before getting on the lift then Ski 1-2 runs like this. Hands Up & Forward (and constantly pushing down the hill). Hips Forward (ahead of boots & feet). Shin Pressure. Chest Up, Head High. Vision Up. Stay Square (at least basic squaring). Oops you dropped your hands again. Oops you dropped your hands again. OOOPSS you dropped your hands again. Oops you dropped your hands AGAIN! QUIT DROPPING YOUR HANDS WILLYA KEEP THEM UP PLEASE???
Oops you dropped your hips back. Oops you dropped your hips back. Stay Hips Forward Peeps. Even when you stand in the liftline, Keep Your Hips Forward and Always Feel Shin Pressure.
Hey, you're making progress with your stance! Niiiiiice!
Feels stiff eh? That's cause you're standing Tall, and getting Edge Power. Makes your turns Earlier too. Niiiice.
Now HANDS up please you DROPPED them again. UP & FORWARD


Early Turns & Balance Beam Drill

Now we're going to go back and work on the key, crucial part of mogul skiing which is Early Turns. Remember from progression 1 that an Early Turn is when you shift your weight fully onto the New Ski instantly & completely at the Top of the C, and into full Shin Pressure at the same time. This gives you Edgebite thruout the whole turn, which <most peeps> usually don't do. Usually they are Late <esssspecially Alpine skierzz >

First drill for Early Turns today is the very subtle but crucial Balance Beam drill invented by PA Rousseau world mogul champion 2007 and Chuck Martin. PA was a moguls prodigy and made the Canadian National Team at 15. He realized that the foundation of mogul skiing boils down to one thing - Weightshift Foot To Foot. Most of the rest doesn't really matter < yeah some absorption and some external refinements. But this is the core.>

We're going to do the Balance Beam Drill. Everybody take their skis off. Do this just out on the snow, with boots no skis.

This is in the Mogul Logic With Chuck Martin vid at 4:20-5:00.

You mark 2 straight lines in the snow about shoulder width apart, or a little narrower. You pretend these are Balance Beams like in gym class. You stand on the rightside Balance Beam with all your weight 100% on the right foot. Lean into the tongue of the boot and feel Shin Pressure. Stand there for a bit on that 1 foot. Your left leg should be in the air. Move the left leg forward until it is ahead of the right knee. Tuck the right knee into the pocket of the left knee. Get your vision up high, body standing tall. Hands up like skiing. This is your correct stance on the Right Foot. Feel the Shin Pressure? How's your balance? Oh funny, you're wobbling all over da place hahaha you need practice dontcha?
Now weightshift over to the Left Balance Beam (left line in the snow). Get into good balance, 100% weight on Left foot, good Shin Pressure, good stance, good hands, good vision up. Slide the right leg forward until it's ahead of the left knee and tuck the left knee into the pocket of the right knee <this change of the knees is called Lead Change. It's actually being done backwards here on the dryland because when you're skiing you do your leadchange by pulling-back the back foot, not advancing the front foot but that's another story that we don't mess with in the Intro > How's your balance now? Wobblin Yep.
Now do alternating steps forward weightshifting onto the right foot and getting into perfect stance with balance & shin pressure on the Right Foot, and steps forward weightshifting onto the Left Foot. Do a lot of steps - you'll start to fatigue & lose your balance. Reset & do some more.
This is a drill that is trickier than it looks.... Defffffinitely worth practicing it some each day to build up the foundation of your balance and weightshift. Practice this over the weeks & months until No Wobblin

Sooo ---> to make your Early Mogul Turns, all you are doing is executing the Balance Beam drill at the Top of Every Turn, Early. Gotta learn how to do this and do it on every turn. Everything else flows from this

When you weightshift in the Mogul Wedge, you are making this weightshift here. When you weightshift at full absorption - this shift. Early. When you are an advanced mogul skier and running a line with fast, deep absorption - this shift. Early. When you get in trouble and out of balance -- do this shift Foot To Foot for 2-3 bumps in a row, Early -- and you'll recover & keep going

Ski 1-2 runs focusing mentally on using this excellent Early Weightshift learned from the Balance Beam drill. [which Chuck shows in the vid right after the Balance Beam drill at like 5:02-5:08] Feel the improvement in your Early? Feel the improvement in your turns & turn Quality? You bet -- gettin smooooother. Gettin more constant Edgebite now. Gettin more buttery thru the Top & apex


Knee Roll & SlipNTip Drill

OK now we're going to learn Knee Roll. Learn this by using the Slip And Tip drill.

Beautifully shown in the US Ski Team video:

Slip and Tip

videos.usskiandsnowboard.org

KMS verbal description:
KMS Slip And Dip

Mogul Skiing Drills | KMS

www.killingtonmountainschool.org

Now the one wicked tricky part of SlipNtip is that when you take it into your skiing you have to do it..........backwards......compared to the nice videos

To take it into your turns, you have to do the Knee Roll just like they show it in the vids. Except, in the vids, they roll the knees Uphill (cause you have to, to practice on a slope). But when you do it in your turns, you do exactly this same motion as shown ----> but you roll the knees Downhill!! Specifically, you roll the knees inward toward the Inside of the Turn.


5-second, 3-second, 1-second turns with Knee Roll. Now do parallel turns, using the Early Weightshift from the Balance Beam, and adding in the nice inward Knee Roll that you learned.
Do 5-second turns. You traverse, and you count Shift-2-3-4-5, Shift-2-3-4-5, etc. On the Shift, you are weightshifting to the uphill ski (New Downhill Ski). The kneeroll comes usually at about the 2 or a hair earlier between the Shift and the 2. Lead with the kneecaps with a pretty-darn-far inward roll. Lead with the kneecaps, Far Inward.
You should feel waaaay more Edge than you ever felt in your life before. Wow

Now do 3-second turns with Knee Roll. Count Shift-2-3, Shift-2-3. Omigod that Really Is BITE
Now do 1-second parallel turns with all the pieces from above. Shift, Shift, Shift, Shift Can you handle the power now? Ohhhhh yeaahhh
You're gonna need to learn to shift off the Old Turn quicker than you ever did before, cause if you ride it too long it starts to pull you too deep into the bottom half. But Wow for power ya?

All that stuff ^^^ took about 2 hours for a lot of peeps.

Now we're gonna move into the moguls. Ima split this into 2 posts so it doesn't get too long

 

[recbumper]

Mogul Progression 2 cont'd ("Day 2")

... ...
> Absorption 1 (Monster heel-pull)
> Absorption 2 (Traverse method)
> Absorption 3 (Deep Crouch method)
> Tips-To-Target
> Beer O'Clock


Now that the peeps are getting the hang of body position, Early, and Knee Roll, we start showing them Absorption.

Explain Absorption
Absorption is learning how to contour the ups & downs of the moguls as you ski thru 'em, cause they're 3-dimensional. There are older actions for absorbing and newer actions for absorbing. We're gonna work on the current 2021 type of absorption actions.

This is a Really Fun part of mogul skiing <my favorite! > It's also one of the things that's most different from daily life on the flat ground so it can take a while to get the Feel for it. Also because it is so different from dryland life, different people learn absorption in different ways. They get to the same place in the end, but exactly which bit of coaching & practice sparks understanding & ability to execute can vary a lot from person to person.

So we have found that giving peeps 2 or 3 different approaches usually surfaces some cue that sparks it for 'em one way or t'other. Even once you have the beginnings of Absorption, there is lots & lots of refinement, improvement, deepening etc etc so this is just the early intro to start to get the hang of it.

What we are gonna be practicing is modern-type absorption.
A quick description of this is -- To absorb, make a Monster Vertical Heel-Pull when the tips touch the bump face. It's a big move, Very fast and very high.

What they tend to teach at Whistler camps & places is to generate pressure on the frontside from the very moment that the ski tips touch the frontside. You generate this pressure by starting your heel-pull right then (as tips touch). They kindof describe the motion as hitting your butt with your calves. This is the absorption motion and it's key to start it fast & actively that early (at tip touch). As you rise up the bump frontside you are pulling heels up more & more. This cranks the skis into strong load against their camber and they put pressure on the frontside. Then as you get up to the mogul crest the skis are already loaded so they spring downward really quickly and get into backside edge contact which is what you want. (A second effect of the heel-pull is to maintain the body position tilted forward & prevent getting backseat.)

And the counterintuitive part of the timing is that if you wait until the top of the bump to pull, it's way too late (see 1994).

Instead, if you start the vertical heel-pull when you're way down in the trough (tips touch the frontside), the tips don't drop (cause they can't, the mogul's in the way), they start building up pressure. By the time you reach the crest, it's *a lot* of pressure. Then the tips snap down superquick by themselves as you roll over the crest.

This is part of why the older school mogul technique had the tips flying high over the bump with lots of the ski base showing and then coming down. In more recent technique there is a lot less ski base showing because the pull is being started earlier & stronger.

So now the peeps have heard the Single Main Move that we want them to get to -- Pull Up Reeeellly Fast And Far When The Tips Touch.

Absorption 1 - Monster Heel-Pull. A secret is -- "It's not that hard" You just have to Do It <which is often quite freaky, but do it anyway. It'll work > But you have to be Early on your turns, and have the timing right (start at tip-touch-face)... and then Modern Absorption Just Works. How bout that...
< OK, if you have really really stiff racing skis, don't try this. But with mogul skis or allmountains, you should be fine. >
< Another interesting note in the Modern Absorption is that peeps by&large don't talk much about flexion. Rather they talk about Pull Heels Upward, Fast. The knee flexion definitely happens, but it's a secondary consequence of the heels pulling upward.>


Absorption 2 (Traverse method). This is a good and widely available way to start getting the hang of absorption. The most fun way of all to learn absorption is in rollers, but they are very hard to maintain (Gotta go shovel them alla time cause they get chewed up). So most places don't have rollers. The Mogul Traverse is the poor-man's rollers. And this is always available cause if you've got moguls, you can traverse em.

Here's a really good video on the Mogul Traverse drill:

The Mogul Traverse Drill

videos.usskiandsnowboard.org

See the ski loading, snow exploding, and superquick tip snap thruout the vid.

We have seen peeps wrestle with 3 main things in the Traverse drill --
1) The next bump still comes up wicked fast! When you do these traverses, you have to be totally ready for the next one and the next one fast-fast-fast. You have to be ready to Pull-Pull-Pull. Welcome to Mogul Skiing...
2) Going across bumps they tend to have quite sharp peaky crest shapes. This makes it hard to really stay Hips Forward going across them. A good way to solve this is to be sure you are traversing across the low-ish or medium regions near the top of a set of bumps, not going thru the deepest, sharkiest parts of the mogul bodies
3) A big issue is that when doing these Traverses, there is no real visual cue for new peeps to show them how Truly Low & Deep you have to go with your absorption / flexion. The depth you want is Really Quite Deep!! It's often hard to for the body & knees to understand this and be willing to get that deep. The body wants to stay stiff.. People have been walking around straight up on the dryland all their lives, now for Absorption you have to go Deep and people just ain't used to it. Have to work on getting deep-deep-deeper

...which leads to the next option for learning Absorption ---

> Absorption 3 (Deep Crouch method)

The Deep Crouch method for learning Absorption for new peeps works like this. You go to 1 bump. You stand with your boots just before the crest of the mogul. You crouch down all the way into the deepest crouch/squat that you can.
You make 1 Early turn.

OMG look how deeeeeppp I had to go. Look how deeeeeppp I Can go.

Do 1 more bump. Then do 2 bumps. Then do 3 bumps really really slow using Deep Crouch.

It's shown in the Step Up Bumps 5:55 vid:


3:28-3:40 - turn on mogul from deep crouch
3:51, 3:54- nice examples
4:19 - puts it into flowing use

OK that should have given the peeps a totally different perspective & bodily understanding of how deep to go for good Absorption.

Now try both Deep Crouch and Monster Heel-Pull... and also go back to Mogul Traverse. Guess what? the Traverse will now be a lot easier & deeper after the practice on the Deep Crouch approach.

^^^ that was about 1 hour of skiing time to have peeps practice early intro to Absorption. Now put it together into consistent Mogul Skiing --


Tips-To-Target. See the discussion at the start of this current thread. Also see the tips-to-target vids in the other thread.

Once you have the basics down, spend 1-2 hours doing the Tips-To-Target drill -- it produces coherent mogul skiing!

And because of their initial exposure to Absorption, you will start to see it being put to use, first in small amounts, later more & more.

Beer O'Clock.


Peace All & Be Early

 

[d rag on]

@recbumper, <reference above thread #146>
Another really good example of the Mogul Traverse drill is at the 7:33 mark in the following Janne Lahtela video. Note that this is a higher speed example of traversing the moguls and then leading into direct fall line mogul skiing at the 8:42 mark, then followed by more mogul traversing emphasizing absorption. The great Jean-Luc Brassard, one of the Momentum coaches in 2018, showed this drill to his groups and said when he competed in the 90's and early 2000's that he would start the day after flat work with this warmup drill going from slower to higher speeds.

 

[locknload]

Mogul Progression 2 cont'd ("Day 2")

... ...
> Absorption 1 (Monster heel-pull)
> Absorption 2 (Traverse method)
> Absorption 3 (Deep Crouch method)
> Tips-To-Target
> Beer O'Clock


Now that the peeps are getting the hang of body position, Early, and Knee Roll, we start showing them Absorption.

Explain Absorption
Absorption is learning how to contour the ups & downs of the moguls as you ski thru 'em, cause they're 3-dimensional. There are older actions for absorbing and newer actions for absorbing. We're gonna work on the current 2021 type of absorption actions.

View attachment 130905

This is a Really Fun part of mogul skiing <my favorite! > It's also one of the things that's most different from daily life on the flat ground so it can take a while to get the Feel for it. Also because it is so different from dryland life, different people learn absorption in different ways. They get to the same place in the end, but exactly which bit of coaching & practice sparks understanding & ability to execute can vary a lot from person to person.

So we have found that giving peeps 2 or 3 different approaches usually surfaces some cue that sparks it for 'em one way or t'other. Even once you have the beginnings of Absorption, there is lots & lots of refinement, improvement, deepening etc etc so this is just the early intro to start to get the hang of it.

What we are gonna be practicing is modern-type absorption.
A quick description of this is -- To absorb, make a Monster Vertical Heel-Pull when the tips touch the bump face. It's a big move, Very fast and very high.

What they tend to teach at Whistler camps & places is to generate pressure on the frontside from the very moment that the ski tips touch the frontside. You generate this pressure by starting your heel-pull right then (as tips touch). They kindof describe the motion as hitting your butt with your calves. This is the absorption motion and it's key to start it fast & actively that early (at tip touch). As you rise up the bump frontside you are pulling heels up more & more. This cranks the skis into strong load against their camber and they put pressure on the frontside. Then as you get up to the mogul crest the skis are already loaded so they spring downward really quickly and get into backside edge contact which is what you want. (A second effect of the heel-pull is to maintain the body position tilted forward & prevent getting backseat.)

And the counterintuitive part of the timing is that if you wait until the top of the bump to pull, it's way too late (see 1994).

Instead, if you start the vertical heel-pull when you're way down in the trough (tips touch the frontside), the tips don't drop (cause they can't, the mogul's in the way), they start building up pressure. By the time you reach the crest, it's *a lot* of pressure. Then the tips snap down superquick by themselves as you roll over the crest.

This is part of why the older school mogul technique had the tips flying high over the bump with lots of the ski base showing and then coming down. In more recent technique there is a lot less ski base showing because the pull is being started earlier & stronger.

So now the peeps have heard the Single Main Move that we want them to get to -- Pull Up Reeeellly Fast And Far When The Tips Touch.

Absorption 1 - Monster Heel-Pull. A secret is -- "It's not that hard" You just have to Do It <which is often quite freaky, but do it anyway. It'll work > But you have to be Early on your turns, and have the timing right (start at tip-touch-face)... and then Modern Absorption Just Works. How bout that...
< OK, if you have really really stiff racing skis, don't try this. But with mogul skis or allmountains, you should be fine. >
< Another interesting note in the Modern Absorption is that peeps by&large don't talk much about flexion. Rather they talk about Pull Heels Upward, Fast. The knee flexion definitely happens, but it's a secondary consequence of the heels pulling upward.>


Absorption 2 (Traverse method). This is a good and widely available way to start getting the hang of absorption. The most fun way of all to learn absorption is in rollers, but they are very hard to maintain (Gotta go shovel them alla time cause they get chewed up). So most places don't have rollers. The Mogul Traverse is the poor-man's rollers. And this is always available cause if you've got moguls, you can traverse em.

Here's a really good video on the Mogul Traverse drill:

The Mogul Traverse Drill

videos.usskiandsnowboard.org

See the ski loading, snow exploding, and superquick tip snap thruout the vid.

We have seen peeps wrestle with 3 main things in the Traverse drill --
1) The next bump still comes up wicked fast! When you do these traverses, you have to be totally ready for the next one and the next one fast-fast-fast. You have to be ready to Pull-Pull-Pull. Welcome to Mogul Skiing...
2) Going across bumps they tend to have quite sharp peaky crest shapes. This makes it hard to really stay Hips Forward going across them. A good way to solve this is to be sure you are traversing across the low-ish or medium regions near the top of a set of bumps, not going thru the deepest, sharkiest parts of the mogul bodies
3) A big issue is that when doing these Traverses, there is no real visual cue for new peeps to show them how Truly Low & Deep you have to go with your absorption / flexion. The depth you want is Really Quite Deep!! It's often hard to for the body & knees to understand this and be willing to get that deep. The body wants to stay stiff.. People have been walking around straight up on the dryland all their lives, now for Absorption you have to go Deep and people just ain't used to it. Have to work on getting deep-deep-deeper

...which leads to the next option for learning Absorption ---

> Absorption 3 (Deep Crouch method)

The Deep Crouch method for learning Absorption for new peeps works like this. You go to 1 bump. You stand with your boots just before the crest of the mogul. You crouch down all the way into the deepest crouch/squat that you can.
You make 1 Early turn.

OMG look how deeeeeppp I had to go. Look how deeeeeppp I Can go.

Do 1 more bump. Then do 2 bumps. Then do 3 bumps really really slow using Deep Crouch.

It's shown in the Step Up Bumps 5:55 vid:


3:28-3:40 - turn on mogul from deep crouch
3:51, 3:54- nice examples
4:19 - puts it into flowing use

OK that should have given the peeps a totally different perspective & bodily understanding of how deep to go for good Absorption.

Now try both Deep Crouch and Monster Heel-Pull... and also go back to Mogul Traverse. Guess what? the Traverse will now be a lot easier & deeper after the practice on the Deep Crouch approach.

^^^ that was about 1 hour of skiing time to have peeps practice early intro to Absorption. Now put it together into consistent Mogul Skiing --


Tips-To-Target. See the discussion at the start of this current thread. Also see the tips-to-target vids in the other thread.
View attachment 130917
Once you have the basics down, spend 1-2 hours doing the Tips-To-Target drill -- it produces coherent mogul skiing!

And because of their initial exposure to Absorption, you will start to see it being put to use, first in small amounts, later more & more.

Beer O'Clock.


Peace All & Be Early

You are really good at laying this out recbumper....you are diving into some of the nuances that I haven't had explained to me since I went to bump camp at Whistler like 10 yrs ago...thank you!

 

[recbumper]

Yay! Glad it’s fun The technique content ain’t mine, it’s from the real mogul coaches and all these cool vids that have gradually become available.

Mogul skiing has kindof been this Black Magic that has been so difficult to find out about in the ordinary world. So much of it has really only been passed down verbally and then blows away on the wind. Captured only by one set of ears and one mind at a time.

I figured it could be fun & useful for the community to try to capture & pass on some of the verbal instructions from the coaches with some video context plus rough&ready systematization.

This written format of the forums slowwwws everything down which of course is a drag to wade thru but it does kindof create a tool to do this.

Be Early