No Poles - An Unexpected Path to Improvement

[James]

Well have them go backwards downhill in a V. Gentle terrain. Get them to lean uphill. It's the same position as skating. Talking about closing ankles, heel pointing etc has me confused and I can skate. Maybe it's relevant in nordic where you do this for hours. Here it seems needlessly complicated.

 

[Monique]

If you ditch the poles, you can do the Schlopy drill ....

 

[Josh Matta]

Well have them go backwards downhill in a V. Gentle terrain. Get them to lean uphill. It's the same position as skating. Talking about closing ankles, heel pointing etc has me confused and I can skate. Maybe it's relevant in nordic where you do this for hours. Here it seems needlessly complicated.[/QUOTE

talk about coaching NOT moving your COM over your BOS. I absolutely hate the idea of going backwards to feel the front of your boot. not to mention if you want to be any goodat going backwards you going to learn to move your COM backwards over your BOS.

 

[James]

It's the same position as skating. Beginner skaters are way too upright. Don't know what your 1st statement refers to. Going backwards is good for beginners. It's going to happen at some point so best to get a little more comfortable with it.

 

[BluewingDavid]

An update on this for me. I have successfully returned to using poles. I skied at Elk Mountain in Union Dale, PA for 2 days this past weekend. I had read online that it can be beneficial to use poles about 2 inches shorter than normal when skiing bumps. I normally ski with 48 inch poles. I have a pair of old poles my daughter used that were 44 inches so I took them to Elk. Although they were too short, they were serviceable and I skied comfortable with them all day Saturday. I had learned a new way of positioning my hands (knuckles rolled down toward the snow) and poles (baskets back) at Bumps for Boomers in January, but it never felt comfortable to me. With the shorter poles, this felt great. So, I stopped at Idlewild, a great shop near Elk, and picked up a pair of 46 inch Scott Series 2.5 poles on Saturday afternoon. I skied with these on Sunday and they felt great. I guess skiing is a game of inches as well!

 

[Andrew]

If you want some balance and center of mass drills, ditch your poles and hit a mogul line all day while keeping you hands in front of you like you're holding a tray of hot cocoa you don't want to spill. Helps you keep your shoulders downhill as well.

 

[Jacques]

Awesome a no poles thread!

 

[DbSki]

I just raise the pole baskets with a twist of the wrist so I can feel the poles against my forearms and the baskets are high when carving, hit some tight moguls drop them down and use as need the raise them back up like landing gear when not needed.

 

[karlo]

"poleless" skiing exercise has helped me make great progress in refining my technique.

I agree. Poleless skiing in any terrain, groomed, bumps, steeps, develops technique. IMO, that happens because it focuses us on the required balance and core strength. I go poleless only for training. But, in fact, you get to the point where you don't use the poles despite their presence, except perhaps in dense trees, when rapid turns and precise timing are both needed.

 

[john petersen]

Apparently Moses received instruction on pole length from God and it was promptly transferred to a stone tablet and the rule can not be violated. People ask for opinion on ski length, but pole length they know from Moses.

heh, heh, just saw this comment, must have missed it before...good one...agreed...I have finally found a (shorter) length that Im happy with.....took a good couple of days shaving off a bit, then trying it out, shaving off more..ect...

Surfsnowgirl said: "I ditch the poles now and again "
its a good thing to do, just to keep us honest!....If you feel like you are putting a lot of pressure on the poles in turns, its usually a stance/balance issue that you need to address....ditching the poles once in a while is a great way to at least identify these issues.

Mendieta and I were having a conversation about skating in another thread...this relates well to that....Nate what you are saying hits home 100 percent...

a thought about why we use different exercises with poles: holding them in one hand, or both, or in the center, or sideways, or upside down, or whatever...It could be about versatility and familiarity and how that relates to the mental game. Can you be mentally versatile while holding the poles in different orientations and not have it (negatively) affect your performance?...disclaimer: there are some pole drills that specifically address the need for more counter or better racing technique, ect and I recognize that for sure....
lastly, some folks learn better, or have an ah ha moment if they experience more than one of these drills, even though the outcome is designed to be the same......

Kneale said:
"I teach a lot of L7 students. I often suggest they stop using a pole touch because they have a whole system of inefficient muscle memory that gets triggered by the pole touch and that prevents them from changing what they're doing with their feet".
This seems like a significant solution to me. I would think this type of thinking, and having the experience to recognize cause and effect relationships, applies to a greater number of solutions more efficiently. This gets to "it" rather quickly!

With ski pole length charts, ect...I think it may take more time to update the online available charts to the "new" technology. I have seen "older" pole length charts based on straight ski lengths online recently.....Its definitely worth experimenting with pole length....

The adjustable poles are a great solution!

JP

PS....be careful of pole drills that cause posing ...or should I say coaching cues that lead to posing (any verbal direction that implies a single position or place.)

 

[bawbawbel]

If you ditch the poles, you can do the Schlopy drill ....

What does the Schlopy drill achieve, I am wondering. Could someone explain?

 

[Monique]

What does the Schlopy drill achieve, I am wondering. Could someone explain?

From my experience, if done right, it strengthens the core throughout the turn and helps with, I think, angulation.

It definitely improves my skiing, and I can't separate it in my mind from the barstool drill.

On another note, this season's lessons taught me that poles can also be very useful in getting the upper body into correct position for turn initiation.

 

[bawbawbel]

I just raise the pole baskets with a twist of the wrist so I can feel the poles against my forearms and the baskets are high when carving, hit some tight moguls drop them down and use as need the raise them back up like landing gear when not needed.

Your pure carving style needs extreme attention to balance Does it work with no poles?