sarah, No not yet. I think I need a few sessions at Hemel to underpin my technique & brush up on my CT demos etc
I was planning to take part on the IOS Fast Track but don't know if I can wait that long
Are you taking the BASI route yourself ?
Personally I think when you started this thread you had very little control over your line and speed, from that last vid you seem to have much improved control of line and speed, so well done
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
kitenski, it's not the same bloke. I'm sure of it.
I was planning to take part on the IOS Fast Track but don't know if I can wait that long
First session is less than a month away.... We are opening up a second group as the first one is full , plenty of space in the pool why not jump in
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
have stolen one of the vids and put on my page really nice views lol
After all it is free
After all it is free
Hi franzClammer, great improvements. Looking at the vid of 31/3 and expanding on what Mike Pow said, you have flex in the 3 skiing joints (ankles, knees and hips) and if you just look at the ankles through the vid, you don't open the ankle (un-flex it, or stand up / lengthen as Mike as describing it). You'll find yourself getting much more "connected" to the ski and the snow if you can develop the range of movement. If you've been reading up on the BASI manual, you'll know that about the "Fundamental Elements" and that one of those is "Body Management" which splits into 3: posture, balance and movement. Your posture is looking good (as Rob says, look up), but there's not so much movement.
Might be worth having a go practicing "Falling Leaves" - sideslip and experiment with moving your balance point slightly forward and slightly backwards. What happens? What different movements can you make to move your balance point? Report back!
Best
A
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
abd wrote:
.......... and expanding on what Mike Pow said, you have flex in the 3 skiing joints (ankles, knees and hips) and if you just look at the ankles through the vid, you don't open the ankle (un-flex it, or stand up / lengthen as Mike as describing it). You'll find yourself getting much more "connected" to the ski and the snow if you can develop the range of movement..........
Best
A
AHaaaaaaaa
I see........!!! (I think)
I did feel that there was something missing in my connection with the snow surface.
I've been keeping my ankles flexed which has been blocking the range of my other movements
I can see that I've been creating a platform by locking my ankles instead of allowing transmission up n down through the joint to/from the snow
Wow!
Thank you for pointing that out guys.
As Rob@rar pointed out...It must also contribute to the delay in me feeling my way across and onto my new o/side ski in the transition, so I've been rushing it to compensate & keep up with the skis, then searching for my balance point already half way through the turn (as well as making other weird unnecessary movements instead of appropriate adjustments) .
It feels/looks like I'm a hundredth of a sec behind the action rather than in command from the very beginning of the turn.
So allow all 3 joints to flex & UNFLEX
So I can get this in bitesize chunks....is my interpretation far off?
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
franzClammer, best to think of these things as movements rather than fixed positions.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Also worth considering the following:
I've just got back from 2 weeks in the PdS for my Level 2. On day 1 our trainer got us doing small flatland jumps or pops ie flexing then quickly straightening (extending) so that both skis leave the ground. We were being tasked with not being "slappers" by ensuring that tips and tails leave the snow at the same time and land simultaneously. He told us the anecdote that back in the 1990s he was in NZ training their national squad for 6 days pw for 3 months and the 1st hour of training every day was spent on developing these skills. Popping over slalom poles laying flat in the snow across the direction of travel, flexing down to get beneath a hurdle.
Later in the course he broke down our short turns and had us straight running down a red, flexing & extending. Then he got us being over one ski then the other but tasked with not turning, in other words running a flat ski. This was then developed into bracquage.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
abd wrote:
Popping over slalom poles laying flat in the snow across the direction of travel, flexing down to get beneath a hurdle.
We do that at Hemel sometimes, occasionally taking off from one ski and landing on the other. Tricky but fun. Needs a fairly gentle slope otherwise it can get out of hand.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
No, I would say that is spot on franzClammer. Its equal flex in all 3 joints that you're after. You can practise this out of your ski boots:
look at yourself side on in a mirror. Stand straight, what do you notice? Chin over toes perhaps? Now flex so that you lower your height and your chin only moves vertically ie it doesn't move forwards or backwards. It requires equal movement in all 3 joints in order to manage this.
As another "self-check" you should be able to see that your shins (not chins!!!) and torso remain parallel at all times (think back to a parallelogram in your O Level maths).
Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much on Fri 4-04-14 15:05; edited 1 time in total
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
franzClammer, Don't think just do... try this next time at hemel, make a couple of runs of slowish round turns while making small hops with the skis coming off the deck. Pretend you are skipping rope while skiing. When you actually skip rope it is done mainly using the ankles; the knees and hips flex and extend a bit quite naturally, but the ankles are the key. You CAN skip rope with fixed ankles by moving your knees and hips but it is very, very awkward. Try it.. The movement chain of the three key skiing joints, ankle knee and hip starts with the ANKLE. Just like skipping rope trying to do ski without flexing your ankles is very awkward. Flex and Extend zee Ankles dear boy..
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Quote:
your chins
I wouldn't stand for that FC, last time we met, there was definitely only one chin....
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
oops - thanks ansta1, now edited!
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:
small flatland jumps or pops ie flexing then quickly straightening (extending) so that both skis leave the ground.
one of easiski's very favourite exercises. Very difficult not to snatch. She also has people jumping just the tips, and just the backs, of the skis, as well as alternating between the two. Knackering.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
pam w, yup, you can then develop that into "Swedish" turns where you jump up, lift the tip of one ski and the tail of the other - was doing those last week as well
So I can get this in bitesize chunks....is my interpretation far off?
Nope.
Or to look at it another way, allow all 3 joints to be relaxed and unflexed, and flex them only if needed and only as much as needed.
e.g. how often do you see someone hunched over, small and flexed forward in the ankle doing a 360 on snow?
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Mike Pow, rob@rar, skimottaret, abd & Everyone Else
Thank you all for the very professional input & advice.
May the Gods of Gnarl smile upon you all
But in all seriousness, I'm eternally grateful for these recent replies.
Rest assured your words are not wasted
Cheers
During the recent Snoworks Vanoise Safari week there was lots of talk of the North Face of Bellacotte, it being a classic off-piste route.
So here it is in all its splendour, for your televisual delectation, despite a distinct lack of snow.
Re: the skiing......Yes I was somewhat out of my comfort zone. I'm obviously over-rotating, allowing my uphill shoulder to drop and dragging the pole. Pretty crap skiing but nice views
Looking forward to a re-visit sometime in the not too distant.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Mike Pow wrote:
Fair play, you're bloody game
+a million!
You are really ballsy franzClammer
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Thank you
What can I say..........just getting me moneys worth
I think it's kinda between La Plagne & Les Arcs
The third and final Part is well pretty, it's uploading to youtube now, hopefully be done when I get home from Race Club later.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
franzClammer, there are quite a lot of people in the group or were all the groups skiing together?
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
franzClammer, Nice work Cole, definitely looks like something I would like to try!
Out of interest, was that when you were skiing with the middle group? also what level did most of them say they were at on the snoworks scale?
cheers
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Mike Pow wrote:
Fair play, you're bloody game
he is far too game at times, scares me trying to keep up with him.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
That north face of Bellacotte looks both amazing and seriously Intimidating well done you Bravo, (you really are mad LOL) and no I wont be following you down it just yet,
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Took 3 hours to get home from Hemel Time wise that's a quarter of the way to Meribel
Will respond to posts in the morn
franzClammer, How did your bases look after that lot?!
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
The Bellacotte vids were taken whilst I was with the middle group, both the mid & upper group did rendezvous at one point. Not sure what the lower group did.
I think the course was level 4+ on Snoworks scale. It was quite mixed from novice like me to seasoned veterans with decades of experience.
I think I took this video just after I got bumped up into the Mid group
Hmmmm....without any technical understanding (i.e. input = output), I would say that taking risks is just that, taking risks with no ability improvement, or at least, limited ability improvement with a poor platform.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:
Taking risks= ability improves
or could = doing the same thing year after year
or = crashing into somebody
or = injury
or = death
After all it is free
After all it is free
pam w wrote:
Quote:
Taking risks= ability improves
or could = doing the same thing year after year
or = crashing into somebody
or = injury
or = death
Hmmm
Pehaps I better consider teaching Chess instead
NB: Risks can be appropriate to ones ability & aspirations. The first time someone leans across their skis or attempts a reverse snow plough is a risk. It doesn't have to be life threatening.
Measured & considered risk within the bounds of acceptable safety margins is part of life, is it not
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
franzClammer, I'm interested to know why did you pick that particular course?
If you wanted to go and have fun, well that's a perfectly acceptable answer - you paid your cash and clearly had a fun time. However, if you booked it to improve your skills then there is still a bit of bit of me that wonders was it money well spent? Yes, you can engage a bar with tales of the 'time I skied the North face of Bellacotte' and like the others you already know that I admire your B@11s for doing so, but could you have made more improvements to your technique if you had done a course that concentrated on improving your on-piste skills instead? I do know that there is an argument for the skills that can be learned by skiing a variety of different pistes (and, yes, it is something that I should do a bit more of as it would probably benefit my confidence), but was it the sort of skiing that really helped your fundamental skiing skills or did it just pull every bad habit out of the box to help you get down the steep unpisted surfaces? As I know that would have happened to me and I am not sure it would have helped my own fundamental skills. Or do you think you now have the fundamental skills sufficiently embedded that you can move on to more interesting things - like the North Face of Bellacotte ?
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I think that those who boast about doing a run should make an effort to get its name right! The name is: Bellecôte
Moving swiftly on ........I agree with this
Quote:
Measured & considered risk within the bounds of acceptable safety margins is part of life
There seemed to be several less-than-brilliant skiers doing this run so, presumably, the Snoworks guys thought it would be safe and instructive for them to do. They probably know best, Megamum.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
AHaaaaaaaa
and no I wont be following you down it just yet, 
