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That's been my take on wedge swing hops (what they were called in the 1970s) since I was first introduced to them: I was old in the 1970s and I've been very unathletic all my life)
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Drill Sequential Converging Hop Turns - making yourself more versatile and agile.
- Thread starter Josh Matta
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- edging and rotary movement learn how to be soft on the skis make turns where a release will not work off trail skiing of the east pressure management along the ski ski drills ski drills for improvement teach your hip socket joint to separate you can avoid the top of the turn you can move laterally over obstacle
That's been my take on wedge swing hops (what they were called in the 1970s) since I was first introduced to them: I was old in the 1970s and I've been very unathletic all my life)
You know what you want to accomplish, and it's not technical. It's smoothness, right?
So the focus for getting smoothness is not going to be technical.
Practice with a focus on making the same movements but making them smaller without losing the effect they produce.
Reduce the ROM, make everything you do more compact, without losing the power or effectiveness.
"Compress" the power into smaller movements. Any jerkiness will get smoothed out when the efficiency goes up... like making smaller circles in Tai Chi.
Use mileage & repetition for compressing ROM and smooth flow will follow.
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TS
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In JF's "How to develop new Motor Patterns" video, the focus is on the proper movement patterns for creating a carved/steered turn. At approximately 2 minutes into the video, as he is again promoting the new movement patterns, he talks about not creating tension and finishes with a comment about comparing the new movement patterns vs a "compression and blockage. "
Affirming Josh's point, I agree that skiing is made up of many movement patterns depending on the task at hand. I can definitely see how his OP video falls into the "Compression and Blockage" movement pattern which, as others have opined, is very useful in steep and bumpy situations.
Affirming Josh's point, I agree that skiing is made up of many movement patterns depending on the task at hand. I can definitely see how his OP video falls into the "Compression and Blockage" movement pattern which, as others have opined, is very useful in steep and bumpy situations.
I did, and i agree with why hop turns are useful, i just don't see why pushing off the download ski is beneficial, it seems to me that it promotes bad habits (too strong of s word, but i can't think of a better one)
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TS
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Yeah did I say to use this for every turn ? I specifically said it’s a tacticalic choice. There are times skiing off trails this is the best move and sometimes the only move. This is not to be taken as something to introduce into your offensive round release down the hill turn, it’s clearly the opposite of that. A great skier doesn’t see everything as a nail to hit with a hammer but has many tools for many jobs ahead.
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That's the trouble with seeing a drill from a single planar perspective (and perhaps pedagogical as well in a very general and generic sense). Josh is not simply pushing and moving laterally. He's moving over his pressured outside foot and 'down' the hill. One cannot do this drill back and inside. If nothing else, it puts us in a laterally balanced position to move down the hill.
There are many drills that put us in non- standard applications of fundamentals, skills, and DIRT. How many spend all day doing white pass turns or skiing on one ski? Or doing perfect corridor pivot slips? On that note, great drills can be poorly coached, and less understood drills gems of wisdom with the correct focus.
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Ok.
From a personal standpoint, most of my focus is on steep asking, couloir skiing specifically.
I found that doing hop turns by pushing off the downhill ski instead of uphill one introduces an unwanted muscle memory when I'm in a no fall zone and i need to make jump turns perfectly without hesitation.
From a personal standpoint, most of my focus is on steep asking, couloir skiing specifically.
I found that doing hop turns by pushing off the downhill ski instead of uphill one introduces an unwanted muscle memory when I'm in a no fall zone and i need to make jump turns perfectly without hesitation.
Josh's drill is not uncommon in the comp bump world. There's some nice video of aiko uehara doing these at a bump camp in blackcomb from a few years back.
@JESinstr, you post that video so much that you should put the link in your signature!
One could claim that any drill can cause unwanted ingraining, which, while possibly true, is most likely only for those who do not know what they are doing a drill for in the first place, what the correct form indicators are and whether or not it is has been successfully mastered. Some people have “favorite” drills they do all the time which may not be a good idea because it is time to move on once a drill or a difficulty level modification has been adequately mastered and there is no reason to keep doing it which is probably a reason why a drill may become “over” ingrained. If you find yourself at the same level of drill execution everytime you go skiing, this may be an indicator of a lack of any significant improvement. Three caveats I would include to this sentiment are for aging skiers who need “maintenance” and those warming up for the season or the morning, but not for straight development.
Ski drills challenge and improve three assets: Strength, balance and coordination. These three assets also function as correct form indicators as to whether they are challenged or mastered. The drill demo Josh is executing masterfully requires strength, balance and coordination that are significantly connected to the fundamentals. If anyone of those assets are challenged and not met, the result becomes very obvious that the skier has yet to master the drill. I have noticed over the years many aspiring skiers shy away from doing anything on skis that makes them “uncomfortable” such as direct challenges to their strength, balance and coordination. Feeling weak, unbalanced and uncoordinated are the sensations we should be seeking when looking to improve through doing drills. Anyone who has a spine for it has the opportunity to improve much more than the many that do not. Challenging our strength, balance and coordination outside of drills with our regular skiing can be found to be a dicy and risky affair in a much less controlled environment.
Josh does this drill two ways, something I would organize as two separate difficulty modifications. Keeping the inside foot off the ground is the easier version, at least for me. Entirely disengaging and re-engaging the inside foot within every turn is more tasking to strength and coordination though, it may be said that engaging only one ski in the turn requires more balance. For a skier to determine the order of difficulty for their particular skill set, they would first need to try both versions, first working to master the easier version and going on to work on the one that is more difficult.
One could claim that any drill can cause unwanted ingraining, which, while possibly true, is most likely only for those who do not know what they are doing a drill for in the first place, what the correct form indicators are and whether or not it is has been successfully mastered. Some people have “favorite” drills they do all the time which may not be a good idea because it is time to move on once a drill or a difficulty level modification has been adequately mastered and there is no reason to keep doing it which is probably a reason why a drill may become “over” ingrained. If you find yourself at the same level of drill execution everytime you go skiing, this may be an indicator of a lack of any significant improvement. Three caveats I would include to this sentiment are for aging skiers who need “maintenance” and those warming up for the season or the morning, but not for straight development.
Ski drills challenge and improve three assets: Strength, balance and coordination. These three assets also function as correct form indicators as to whether they are challenged or mastered. The drill demo Josh is executing masterfully requires strength, balance and coordination that are significantly connected to the fundamentals. If anyone of those assets are challenged and not met, the result becomes very obvious that the skier has yet to master the drill. I have noticed over the years many aspiring skiers shy away from doing anything on skis that makes them “uncomfortable” such as direct challenges to their strength, balance and coordination. Feeling weak, unbalanced and uncoordinated are the sensations we should be seeking when looking to improve through doing drills. Anyone who has a spine for it has the opportunity to improve much more than the many that do not. Challenging our strength, balance and coordination outside of drills with our regular skiing can be found to be a dicy and risky affair in a much less controlled environment.
Josh does this drill two ways, something I would organize as two separate difficulty modifications. Keeping the inside foot off the ground is the easier version, at least for me. Entirely disengaging and re-engaging the inside foot within every turn is more tasking to strength and coordination though, it may be said that engaging only one ski in the turn requires more balance. For a skier to determine the order of difficulty for their particular skill set, they would first need to try both versions, first working to master the easier version and going on to work on the one that is more difficult.
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When you got something that works D'man, you keep on using it!. I am sure you subscribe to the concept of repetition yes? In fact, that is what I love about this particular video, He keeps repeating a simple concept and shows various implementation drills and exercises. Called KISS.
I don't understand the motivation of your reply since my comment was only to reaffirm Josh's assertions on versatility when he wrote:
"Tactically speaking the same move can be used to do a couple things, You can avoid the top of the turn when its going to lead to much speed for the given terrain , you can move laterally over obstacle or to better snow. IE there are rocks,sticks or ICE that you do not want to hit so you literally can just move laterally over top of them, and lastly you can use this to make turns where a release(whether it be a carve,turn,pivot or normal simultaneous hop turn just simply will not work."
Looking at the drill, I saw the ski rapidly redirecting, finishing with a pronounced upper body compression. Josh's stated that the pelvis remains stationary which it does but I see it as facing a constant direction of travel which is what you need to do in tight situations. An advanced drill to be sure.
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For some reason, for me it resonates with a very old "Separation through the arc" video by JF.
It goes way beyond my knowledge or my skiing abilities but intuitively it feels like keeping one leg above ground promotes separation more naturally while putting it down would require more conscious effort to keep the core engaged (if this sentence makes any sense at all)
It goes way beyond my knowledge or my skiing abilities but intuitively it feels like keeping one leg above ground promotes separation more naturally while putting it down would require more conscious effort to keep the core engaged (if this sentence makes any sense at all)
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