@Nancy Hummel makes a good point in terms of there being a huge difference between what we communicate to the people we teach or coach vs the scale of detail involved with the academic perspective of ski technique and skill development that I think a lot of us like to delve into. As a race coach or instructor, the more you know, the less you have to say on the side of the hill. Getting someone to at least challenge one or two basic fundamental aspects of their current technique is plenty for one session. If you try to affect too much, you will not get very far. As well, when I am skiing personally, all I think about is my center of mass and my base of support. In other words, my momentum (direction + speed = vector) and my feet/skis (platform management for tipping and pressure). That’s pretty much it. When we try to find the path of coaching movements that actually bypasses the intellectual screening that adult learners seem to need to so eagerly apply, development can happen more naturally and in packages of movement that come with “preset” timing that can be learned from drill mastery. We do not want to be “adult learners” but, instead, we want to dumb things down and replicate the youth learning process … doing drills while thinking about the cutie in homeroom.
Some misconception I will read about tipping, in regards to advanced technical freeskiing, is that it stops, starts, slows and delays in transition which is not true at all. Though, not in this thread. @Mike King provides a great description. Their tracks are proof that they tip or “roll” right through transition. A good technical skier will have a “flat base” in their tracks shorter than the length of the ski itself. Transition, when defined by the state of tipping rather than pressure, only lasts about 1/10 of a second. That is not where a stop, start or delay of tipping occurs. The delay in tipping occurs at the change in tipping direction at apex in turn phase two. Once we achieve our peak in tipping angles, that is where we hold it or, dealy/slow return tipping, until we decide we want to end the turn. Following apex, or turn phase 2 - 2.5, is where the “flattening”, or reverse in tipping direction, initiates. The longer we keep a flat ski in transition, the more we turn a round turn into a “Z turn” and removes our ability for flow and turn shape speed control. Because tipping and pressure work together to produce edging, managing constant ski pressure and weighted transitions are a key aspect from removing that flat spot in the turn.
My view of good technical skiing is skiing “from” the feet which means that the feet is where the DIRT of the turn comes from and emanates up through the kinetic chain thus producing and timing our fundamental movements. It is a tipping centric view of skiing where ski tipping and complimentary ski base pressure control with our inertia against the ground produces a “mechanical output” from the ski of ground force reaction that we use to power and time the five fundamental movements of separation in the three planes of movement (flexion, extension, rotation, angulation, inclination). Steering (tipping) the skis outward from the CoM produces extension (plantar flexion) and inclination in turn phase one. Steering the skis (BoS) inward to the CoM produces flexion (dorsiflexion) and angulation in phase three. The ski turning itself is what we use, ideally, to produce most of our skeletal rotation. … and, again, all explained through the relationship between the CoM and the BoS. When the five fundamental movements are direct inputs, they must be funded by muscular effort and self timed by the skier. When they become outputs from tipping, they are effortless and systemically timed which is so much easier both mentally and physically. It is the key to intuitive skiing where we “give into” the forces of skiing rather than working so hard to create them. If you are on the hill and thinking about separate elements of individual motor patterns such as duration, rate and timing for flexion, extension, rotation, angulation and inclination, you are probably skiing from the top down and need an aspirin.
As an example, my inside leg shortening is an automated result of the ski mechanized geometry of equal tipping and using ground force reaction to power flexion of the inside leg. For others, tipping is a result of lifting/shortening the inside leg which requires muscular effort and skier intent management of the rate of movement and its timing and is top-down skiing due to the downward path of that kinesthetic directive. When we use tipping as the start of all our kinesthetic directives, our flow of DIRT emanates in the same upward direction and allows the physical constraints of our kinetic chain to provide that natural path of movement. Sending directives up and down the chain makes flow difficult. Becoming an expert skier can be seen as a process of turning a high number of inputs and a low number of outputs into a low number of inputs and a high number of outputs which is also a popular description of the efficiency in any discipline.
There are some who feel that the feet and ankles are weak. That is because they think all the muscles for the feet and ankles are in ... the feet and ankles so they must be “tiny”. No they are not. They are all in the calf. Calf muscles are very strong and are one of the few muscles that indicate strength in their length rather than width. You may may notice the typical anatomy of the calves of the typical WC racer: long and slender. They are also movements that are produced “directly” against our equipment, boots/skis, which provides immediate and powerful leverage that the rest of the body does not have. Yes, the feet and ankles are powerful tools for those who pursue this technical direction.
Some misconception I will read about tipping, in regards to advanced technical freeskiing, is that it stops, starts, slows and delays in transition which is not true at all. Though, not in this thread. @Mike King provides a great description. Their tracks are proof that they tip or “roll” right through transition. A good technical skier will have a “flat base” in their tracks shorter than the length of the ski itself. Transition, when defined by the state of tipping rather than pressure, only lasts about 1/10 of a second. That is not where a stop, start or delay of tipping occurs. The delay in tipping occurs at the change in tipping direction at apex in turn phase two. Once we achieve our peak in tipping angles, that is where we hold it or, dealy/slow return tipping, until we decide we want to end the turn. Following apex, or turn phase 2 - 2.5, is where the “flattening”, or reverse in tipping direction, initiates. The longer we keep a flat ski in transition, the more we turn a round turn into a “Z turn” and removes our ability for flow and turn shape speed control. Because tipping and pressure work together to produce edging, managing constant ski pressure and weighted transitions are a key aspect from removing that flat spot in the turn.
My view of good technical skiing is skiing “from” the feet which means that the feet is where the DIRT of the turn comes from and emanates up through the kinetic chain thus producing and timing our fundamental movements. It is a tipping centric view of skiing where ski tipping and complimentary ski base pressure control with our inertia against the ground produces a “mechanical output” from the ski of ground force reaction that we use to power and time the five fundamental movements of separation in the three planes of movement (flexion, extension, rotation, angulation, inclination). Steering (tipping) the skis outward from the CoM produces extension (plantar flexion) and inclination in turn phase one. Steering the skis (BoS) inward to the CoM produces flexion (dorsiflexion) and angulation in phase three. The ski turning itself is what we use, ideally, to produce most of our skeletal rotation. … and, again, all explained through the relationship between the CoM and the BoS. When the five fundamental movements are direct inputs, they must be funded by muscular effort and self timed by the skier. When they become outputs from tipping, they are effortless and systemically timed which is so much easier both mentally and physically. It is the key to intuitive skiing where we “give into” the forces of skiing rather than working so hard to create them. If you are on the hill and thinking about separate elements of individual motor patterns such as duration, rate and timing for flexion, extension, rotation, angulation and inclination, you are probably skiing from the top down and need an aspirin.
As an example, my inside leg shortening is an automated result of the ski mechanized geometry of equal tipping and using ground force reaction to power flexion of the inside leg. For others, tipping is a result of lifting/shortening the inside leg which requires muscular effort and skier intent management of the rate of movement and its timing and is top-down skiing due to the downward path of that kinesthetic directive. When we use tipping as the start of all our kinesthetic directives, our flow of DIRT emanates in the same upward direction and allows the physical constraints of our kinetic chain to provide that natural path of movement. Sending directives up and down the chain makes flow difficult. Becoming an expert skier can be seen as a process of turning a high number of inputs and a low number of outputs into a low number of inputs and a high number of outputs which is also a popular description of the efficiency in any discipline.
There are some who feel that the feet and ankles are weak. That is because they think all the muscles for the feet and ankles are in ... the feet and ankles so they must be “tiny”. No they are not. They are all in the calf. Calf muscles are very strong and are one of the few muscles that indicate strength in their length rather than width. You may may notice the typical anatomy of the calves of the typical WC racer: long and slender. They are also movements that are produced “directly” against our equipment, boots/skis, which provides immediate and powerful leverage that the rest of the body does not have. Yes, the feet and ankles are powerful tools for those who pursue this technical direction.
