 Poster: A snowHead
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skimottaret, gosh. New one on me.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
I must say, that I find this ski-school v non ski school dilemma quite fascinating
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The dilema isnt ski school/non ski school, but rather what learner type you are and how best you take onboard new information...
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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?
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| JT wrote: |
| can be why some women have a tendency to A-frame.... you have got a fat bum, luv..!!!!! |
Maybe, but a gentleman wouldn't point it out 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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eng_ch, no, he'd just grasp the opportunity with both hands 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| skimottaret wrote: |
| PS i am a big big fan of a very tight booster strap and softish upper buckle. |
If that just what you prefer, or something you'd advocate?
I thought the top buckle was the most important of the four.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Mosha Marc, I thought the one below was the big one.
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Mosha Marc, A tighter booster strap gives you a more progressive control over ankle flex and forward lean IMO. if your top buckle is too tight you lose a lot of range of movement and the flex is more on/off for lack of a better term.
Frosty the Snowman, agreed....
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| skimottaret wrote: |
| Yes, but current dogma is that wider is better and most people dont appreciate that hip width is probably actually much narrower than they think. |
Given, say, a hip width of 15", do most people interpret a hip width stance as 15" of empty space between the feet or 15" from the outside of one foot to the outside of the other? I assume it's the latter, but I could see people ending up in a wide stance because they take it to mean the former.
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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.
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paulcl, good point. I was wondering about that too. I'd actually interpreted it to mean centre line of each boot.
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uktrailmonster, paulcl, i dont want to get too techy here but it isnt just a simple answer of hip width equating to a natural stance width, you need to be concerned with your overall physiology, boot set up etc... the click click test will get you pretty darn close to seeing and feeling what is right for you with the boot set up you have. The best analogy for hip width is if someone held you up under the arms and your leges dangled free under your hips, measure that how you wish, the absolute number means nothing it is more about feeling what is right for you..
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It is a little symptomatic of our modern day tendency to seek assurance by 'experts' that what we are doing is 'correct'. Seems to be happening more and more. Will any of us even be capable of tying our own shoelaces in 10 years time?
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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.
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| skimottaret wrote: |
| The best analogy for hip width is if someone held you up under the arms and your leges dangled free under your hips, measure that how you wish, the absolute number means nothing it is more about feeling what is right for you.. |
Agreed, but a few people have quoted their stance width, which when you think about it doesn't mean anything unless you know where they measured it from. I just wondered if there was an accepted convention? I'm guessing there isn't.
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It occurs to me that at this stage of the thread your stance needs to be at least as wide as your head...otherwise it's going to get stuck on the way up...
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You know it makes sense.
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under a new name, 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I think there's actually quite a wide range of stance widths at which any individual would feel comfortable skiing and at which they would not be compromised doing everyday skiing. It's a good drill to ski various turns with feet close together and then do the same with as wide a stance as you can go and still ski tidily.
Instructor level carving is not the same as racer level carving. I can leave 2 clean tracks with my feet close together at moderate speeds but the faster I go the wider I feel I need to be. A wide stance is necessary for stability in racing=fast carving. If that's not what you're doing then there's no great advantage to it. Obviously there's a limit to how wide I can go and still feel both comfortable and effective and this (for me) isn't a conscious limit. And of course the limit will be part physical and part what I'm used to.*
It's easier to incline with feet closer together because, well I'm not sure exactly, but I think it has something to do with CoM/BoS and tendency to fall onto the inside ski at small angles and low speeds. At bigger angles and higher speeds real racers have no problem whatsoever inclining massively with feet wide apart. It's easier to angulate with feet wider apart because you can't adduct your thighs as far as you can abduct them!
Bottom line: take different stances out for a test ski and use whatever works.
JT, the technical stuff doesn't matter to you and you don't like to talk about it and you're not so interested in terms because you're not that sort of learner.
under a new name,
*I'm no racer.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| skimottaret wrote: |
Mosha Marc, A tighter booster strap gives you a more progressive control over ankle flex and forward lean IMO. if your top buckle is too tight you lose a lot of range of movement and the flex is more on/off for lack of a better term.
Frosty the Snowman, agreed.... |
skimottaret I'm gonna give your suggestion a whirl. I feel that I want to tighten the top of my boot, but I'm aware that the top buckle is already tight, so fearful of cutting off circulation if I hang off the booster strap and really tighten things up. Is this the same kinda principle of the after market power straps that you can buy, but I see that these are invariably elasticated so these provide added support plus flex/rebound
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Sleipnir, sorry, this is really drifting off thread...IMO, and being one who buys boot way too stiff for every day skiing...when I want a softer daay I go with a lighter top buckle and the power strap/thing. When I really want to rip the piste a new bottom, I do all full up. Works for me.
My issue would be not being able to go to 150% stiffness when I wanted to. Although there are all these internet emails offering extra stiffness so I'll probably be OK.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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After several years of being told to get my feet further apart, or my pretty wide stance being left alone, a coach last year took me back to basics and we worked very hard to narrow the stance. Yes, hip-width is a lot narrower than you think it is. The result is a much firmer turn and much better use of the inside ski - and a much reduced A-frame. The problem with a too wide stance is that it is virtually impossible to keep both skis at the same angle; if the legs are diverging you are almost guaranteed to have a flatter inside ski than outside - unless you are naturally quite bow-legged (BTW it's worth looking at the natural gait of many top instructors - those who advocate a very wide stance do walk very bow-legged). So if they are too far apart you do end up with the inside ski just skidding around and contributing very little to the turn - something you see a huge amount when looking at mid- or low-intermediate skiers. The downside of course is that you have a narrower base of support, so lateral balance is more critical. I also find that sensitivity to inside/outside leg length is actually more critical - as the legs are closer together in length, there is a greater tendency to revert to (off-piste stylee) too-equal flexion and so ending up too much on the edge of the inside ski. Obviously as things get faster, and edge angles get higher, the lateral stability becomes more of an issue and a wider stance is required again (watch the WC SL vs GS stances).
skimottaret, I actually did that "click-click" test last summer, but for the inverse problem. I was having trouble skiing with a hip width stance, and on checking with this I found that my skiboots were badly canted. They were actually set up for flat when my legs were a bit wider than shoulder width. After adjusting the canting, all of a sudden everything clicked.
JT, you ski extremely well for someone who is almost entirely self-taught, but I do think you would benefit significantly from a couple of half day intensive lessons to tidy things up a bit. Of course I'm taking a lot of coaching, but I know I was skiing much better last year than previous, and now I'm skiing a hell of a lot better this year than I was last - and that's largely due to just two or three sessions which addressed a few fundamental technical points that I was getting a bit wrong (like the stance width issue), and then some serious practice working on correcting those.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| skimottaret wrote: |
| Hurtle wrote: |
 Is this one for the glossary? |
Q-ANGLE - aka Quadracepts Angle, the angle that the femur (thigh) makes with the knee joint. Overly large Q-Angles can cause problems for skiers manifesting in A-Framing or knock knees and these weak body positions can be injury prone. Problems with excessive Q-Angles can be minimised if the ski boots are fitted and properly aligned.
Women typically have larger Q-Angles than men due to wider hips. |
Also (or so the physio who tested mine told me).... the way pelvis/femur connect at hip socket will affect it.... we all have slightly different conformations... that is why my instructor watched me squat/tilt/etc in bare feet and ski boots but no skis before undertaking to teach me long term.... No point having a certain "picture" in your head when the students body is simply not built to ever look like the picture... far better to understand the body and work with it... but requires a lot more understanding (and so subject application and intelligence) than just deciding you like "that look" and not "this one"
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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.
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The ski racers on 'Ski Sunday' have a wide stance. Is this typical of slalom?
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my instructor watched me squat/tilt/etc in bare feet
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This reminds me of seeing a reproduction of The Naked Maya captioned with the words, 'You're very thorough for a dentist!'
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