The "Bring Ballet Skiing Back" Movement Continues ...

[dbostedo]

Used to post here and EpicSki under the handle Snow Dancer. User name no longer found here.

@Snow Dancer is on here, but last posted in 2016

 

[James]

Used to post here and EpicSki under the handle Snow Dancer. User name no longer found here.

From that link by Uncle Louie-

The Chinese athletes, who had never freeskied before last spring, spent 37 days in April and May skiing the steeps and training at Arapahoe Basin, a camp Rawles hopes to repeat this season. He also introduced them to mountain-town culture, which doesn’t exist in China.

We saw them at A Basin training.

 

[oldschoolskier]

Ah....practicing Ballet moves in the early eights......210’s , hey it was all I had (and nobody told me they ised short skis till later). Cross overs taught you to be flexible.

While it was not my primary love in skiing, it did teach balance and edge control. Plus some of the moves where neat once you figured them out.

 

[crgildart]

When I was skiing USSA Freestyle, most skied all three events because combined points mattered way more than individual event points for overall. I HATED ballet. I wasn't all that good at it.. probably because the falls hurt more when going slow on flatter ground. Only season ending injury I ever sustained was wrecking my back coming up short on a guts pole flip.. Was on that morning spring refrozen bulletproof ice. That was the end of my attempts to get better at ballet.

 

[Eleeski]

I taught my son a basic crossover (after watching Hot Dog). He screwed around doing that on all the flats that winter.

Summer comes and he's waterskiing at Regionals and jumping for the first time at a steeper ramp height (just qualified for that and it leads to longer distance). Interesting falls to watch him learn. His last attempt (which he really needed for a score in overall) had a strange landing. But he skied out of the big ball of spray - on one ski. The other was crossed over. He beautifully extended the crossed ski behind parallel to the water. A lift and twist of the ski for a nice crossover finish to put the ski back down and his jump scored. Far from the longest jump of the tournament but definitely the most talked about.

Jump waterskis are about 90 inches (230cm) long. Kids are so flexible!

Practice that ballet. You never know when it will come in handy.

Eric

 

[dan ross]

Here is a great Ballet video - make sure you watch to the endhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?

 

[Philpug]

I have coem to the conclusion that the park guys of today cannot do ballet because they use really short poles!

Seriously, we when were doing the ballet exhibition at Sqauw a few years back, the Squaw freeride coaches brought their teams down to watch. I overhead one of the kids ask the coach if they could teach the kids how to so some of the tricks ... that 50 and 60 year olds were doing, the coach said I don't even know how to do them. This is so incredibly hard and it never got the appreciation and respect it should have.

 

[Uncle-A]

I have coem to the conclusion that the park guys of today cannot do ballet because they use really short poles!

Seriously, we when were doing the ballet exhibition at Sqauw a few years back, the Squaw freeride coaches brought their teams down to watch. I overhead one of the kids ask the coach if they could teach the kids how to so some of the tricks ... that 50 and 60 year olds were doing, the coach said I don't even know how to do them. This is so incredibly hard and it never got the appreciation and respect it should have.

Some of the Ballet Skiers were a joy to watch, very graceful. I seem to remember that one of our members was a big ballet enthusiast years ago.

 

[slow-line-fast]

Any instructional videos out there? Other than the Moseley-Vonn clip in another thread.

 

[ilovepugs]

Any instructional videos out there? Other than the Moseley-Vonn clip in another thread.

Here’s one!

 

[crgildart]

I have coem to the conclusion that the park guys of today cannot do ballet because they use really short poles!

Meh, there were some really good ballet skiers who didn't use any poles.. But, anything beyond a 180 or doubles requires long poles to launch. I bet there are kids who could do a standing/gliding back flip without poles... Kids can also ollie off their tails and nose butters..

I still wanna see some old school homage between the features in SlopeStyle..

 

[Philpug]

Meh, there were some really good ballet skiers who didn't use any poles.. But, anything beyond a 180 or doubles requires long poles to launch. I bet there are kids who could do a standing/gliding back flip without poles... Kids can also ollie off their tails and nose butters..

I still wanna see some old school homage between the features in SlopeStyle..

Did you notice the

 

[Uncle-A]

In many cases their poles are longer than their skis. They typically used 140 - 150 CM skis and very long poles.

 

[dan ross]

In many cases their poles are longer than their skis. They typically used 140 - 150 CM skis and very long poles.

Regarding poles : unless you are doing pole flips -vaulting essentially , really long poles are not an advantage and in fact a disadvantage- you lose the mechanical advantage of your elbow the higher your grip is above it. Some Canadian coach did a study and found that in jumps -axels, 720’s etc, competitors got about 5cm more height with a shorter pole (elbow bent , forearm parallel to the snow) That’s the difference between 2-1/2 and 3 revolutions.
The great Alan Schoenberger stopped using poles and was still able to do 720 axels due to superb technique and
and a strong edge set . The lack of poles let him pull his arms in and increase the speed of the rotations. I saw him do it and try as I might I could barely get one revolution without poles.