Pinkie Leads the Way (learning to ski on shaped skis)

[Average Joe]

Preference item. . . Even if true for you, if the inversion is happening inside the boot, it makes this less correct, not more:

"Inversion is a specific foot movement to tilt the foot to one side, i.e. the one we use for tipping! "

I am specifically referring to eversión when I press down on the ball of my foot and roll my feet to engage my big toe edge. At the same time I roll the pinkie toe to the snow and invert my inside foot/ ski.

 

[markojp]

Movement through the chain starts, but certainly doesn't end with the feet. Having a boss fitted in the Head race room (former usst member) this past spring, and another who's a PT for an Austrian WC skier working on her athlete's fit, footbed, and alignment again with the Head race room guys, they'd tell you there's most certainly room to start the movement chain in the boot. It's my understanding that Bode was very big on this too. Same as in every single strong, dialed in skier I know..... fwiw.

 

[Average Joe]

Bode has been known to massively punch the shell at the navicular to increase the movement.
Ligety, I'm told, not so much.

 

[Ross Biff]

My boots allow approximately no inversion/eversion, but executing the command and resulting muscle/tendon tension is highly beneficial to my skiing.

I've never been conscious of any of this ankle motion myself. I need to pay more attention! However, this topic reminded me of a system Caber had in some boot models in the early 80' s using what they named Bio System where the zeppa was supported under the heel area on a post which allowed some rocking. I was always puzzled by this intention to allow movement of the foot inside the boot. It seems connected to the ideas in this thread. I can also see how Bode would need extra navicular space if the foot was actually moving that much and it wasn't just the IDEA of initiating this movement which had the benefits described. Does anyone else remember these boots?

 

[Average Joe]

I've never been conscious of any of this ankle motion myself. I need to pay more attention! However, this topic reminded me of a system Caber had in some boot models in the early 80' s using what they named Bio System where the zeppa was supported under the heel area on a post which allowed some rocking. I was always puzzled by this intention to allow movement of the foot inside the boot. It seems connected to the ideas in this thread. I can also see how Bode would need extra navicular space if the foot was actually moving that much and it wasn't just the IDEA of initiating this movement which had the benefits described. Does anyone else remember these boots?

Yes and they were a total failure. Ill post a link if I can find it again.
The Bio design differs from the concepts discussed here. The Bio allowed the entire footboard to rock in both directions (medial and lateral), a design Caber purchased (and regretted) from an orthopedic doctor.
Contrast to the discussion of a soft footbed on a conventional boot board inside of a well fitted plastic shell.
Taken a bit further, some racers have customized bootboards to soften the medial (inside) half, to allow a bit more movement. And for those of us with pronounced navicular bones, an aggressive punch allows this movement without discomfort.

 

[Ross Biff]

Yes and they were a total failure. Ill post a link if I can find it again.
The Bio design differs from the concepts discussed here. The Bio allowed the entire footboard to rock in both directions (medial and lateral), a design Caber purchased (and regretted) from an orthopedic doctor.
Contrast to the discussion of a soft footbed on a conventional boot board inside of a well fitted plastic shell.
Taken a bit further, some racers have customized bootboards to soften the medial (inside) half, to allow a bit more movement. And for those of us with pronounced navicular bones, an aggressive punch allows this movement without discomfort.

Thanks for clarifying a somewhat foggy memory of that system. I never used them myself but it did seem like a weird idea at the time. Sounds like I wasn't wrong! I have had more luck with a softer foot bed than a firmer one as long as the contact remains constant.

 

[razie]

Just a note - the boot should not allow "too much" of this movement or it becomes useless again and leads to hip dumping... the idea is that it should allow
1. normal foot deformation, in open/closed chain and a little comfort etc
2. a little inversion/eversion and ankle room - just enough to allow the leverage required for the foot to then contribute to tipping the entire boot.

Think of it this way: if the foot is locked in place, there's not enough leverage for the inversion to tip the boot. It's like trying to do an "arm wrestle" but keeping the arm long: you don't have the leverage.

 

[François Pugh]

Since my liners and stiff boots allow no movement without high force, I have a good excuse for my poor skiing.

 

[razie]

I agree that there's often issues with using the feet, but it's likely not a result of skiing stiff boots. I ski a few pairs of 150 boots (Dalbello and Atomics - and these narrow liners are really hard) and have no problem with this - neither do my racers, skiing similarly stiff boots (it may take a bit of fiddling with the way they put the boots on and setup at the beginning of the season) so it may be more of a fitting issue... there are a few issues around setting up the boots as well as around how to put them on .

You'll see racers often tighten the mid-foot buckle (so tight that they have to release it in the lift line) but would not over-tighten the cuff it's very well worth it to play with that... wink, wink.

cheers

This is a nicely done model of what actually should occur inside there (look for the subtle inversion/eversion):


And

 

[Jamt]

If you grab your foot with both hands and squeeze hard you can still move the foot around quite a lot. The foot is not rigid even though the boots are.
Also, tight boots should be tight in the right places. They should not limit the natural balance movements of the foot. Harb and skimoves.me has a lot of material about this.

 

[speedster]

As soon as they develop a GoPro that can withstand 1500 degrees, I will show you what I mean with my new Russian crematorium dashcam where a picture is worth a thousand screams of permanently plateaued intermediates. I digress … though, that is why I do not mince words and acumen regarding my own technical and developmental model for alpine skiing for which the following video demonstrates the youth instruction version:


Similar to the above video, I also teach with the hockey stick method but, instead, to adults. It is a new developmental and technical model called PTSD (Primary Traumatic Stick Discipline). I am the only one who teaches it. It is a very specific alpine ski developmental and technical model, with its own custom terminology, concepts and drills, all with an excruciating specificity that must be strictly adhered to under all circumstances. The hockey stick is used much like an electronic sensory and shock messaging device for the entire body as I smack, poke, push, tap and slap the student into the correct stance and movements while skiing alongside them with hockey stick in hand. We can think of the hockey stick in this case as a long and stiff riding crop with a nice hook on the end. It is the perfect ski training device for the under-responsive student (which means all of you). With PTSD, all faulty motor patterns receive immediate negative reinforcement in a manner that institutes a small but carefully forced manifestation of both physical and emotional trauma. Trauma has long been considered a psychological “shortcut” in creating both thought and motor pattern discipline when administered with the correct DIRT. Repetitive frequencies of motor pattern disobedience will institute longer durations, higher intensities, stronger rates and more sinister timing of the ISR (Instructor Stick Response). The PTSD concepts, “flex for relief”, “holding it in”, “sucking it up” and “the freudian slip” have drastically different meanings than other concepts from other schools that may sound similar. Enough slap shots to the forehead and, before you know it, I will have you sensing a previously unrecognized technical superiority above all others.

Ultimately, you will either: A. Quit and wind up dead to me and my eventual huge group of disciples or, B. Will be doing my laundry (light on the starch) and walking my dog (high performance titanium pooper scooper supplied) or, C. Thinking you ski like a world cup champion from a double locked, windowless, padded room with a 24/7 internet connection. Right now I am trying to get my new school off the ground and am looking for people to smack around with my hockey stick for free. Please sign up on my website, www.skiwithptsd.com but, please, not all at once so the site doesn’t crash (if you cannot log on, that is why). Please also check out my forum but just be careful what you post to avoid that late night, early morning sudden and frantic knock on the door immediately followed by your abrupt disappearance. I will be accumulating a congregation of fanatics to which I will shout with fire and fury from a large and lofty pulpit the superiority of my model across all ski organizations to include the world cup racing “secret” technical model that no one knows but me, my best friend, Marcel, … and my hockey stick. Ski race technique aside, I wouldn’t quite refer to my program as “racist” because the main focus is recreational. After all, skiing is about having fun, but (obviously) something that will absolutely never occur until you are a PTSD expert. Yes, we can all pretend but we all know that the pre-expert “fun” experience is a foolish ski pipedream. The eventual plan is to work our way into national governments and international organizations by whatever means necessary, overtaking all other alpine ski technique entities and absorbing them (through complete and utter termination) into my New World Order International Workers Party Ski Technique Authority, (NWOIWPSTA), pronounced “nowipsta”, whereby anyone caught teaching any other type of ski technique will be dealt with swiftly and severely. There is only one superior ski technique and a holy order by which all others, by default, are officially deemed as drastically inferior. We must destroy and eliminate all these other subversive factions before they catch on like the famine, disease and crippling poverty of ski technique that they truly are.

I am currently working on some kind of special solute to help in branding my program in case anyone has a good idea. I do like the theme of “pinky toe leads the way” type of solute.

We also offer alignment services. Once it has been determined that a PTSD student’s alignment is off (which means everybody), we immediately schedule an alignment correction procedure with our ankle alignment specialist, Annie Wilkes.

This is honestly the most hilarious post I have read on here.