 Poster: A snowHead
|
What was the best tip, drill, piece of advice did you get last season from an instructor? What problem did it address and why was it so effective? We are looking for Eureka moments 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Flop.
Can't say why, go and get Easiskied yourself
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
I was told to imagine I'm diving into a swimming pool as I reach the mid-point of a (supposedly) carved turn. I'm still an old-fashioned skid-round the turns skier and desperately trying to carve. This helped me keep my weight evenly distributed between my skis, and to stand up straight before sinking down out of the turn. Don't think I've explained that very well, but it just felt right, and gave me some feeling for allowing the skis to do the work of the turn, instead of throwing my body all over the place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
"Go home, you've had enough to drink."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Focus on lifting the outside edge of your skis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
See how big an angle you can make with your inside ski and the snow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip
Slow the transition right down Helped get my ILE transitions dialled in ... by slowing them right down I could really feel the leg extension and pronation of foot and adjust relaxation of other leg ... (We also worked on speeding them up and mixing them... but the slow right down lets me get them dialled)
Drill
Fastmans balance exercises for me Help me dial in my balance and get myself sorted out a bit... I need a lot more work to get really comfy with these but I can see these being a staple diet... Helped along in this task by Easiski who uses similar balance drills...
This stuff is what I need if I am to become really independent in my skiing - something to get my sense of skis/feet/body sorted
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Don't let yourself get too anal about it. Rule 1: enjoy the ride.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Focus on lifting the outside edge of your skis. |
It's a good thing there was no charge for that one  Glad it helped.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
veeeight, Do you sniff you own farts too? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
I had more instruction this year than the rest of my skiing combined and i improved a lot and was trying to think what bits really made a difference...
out of loads of images, tips, drills a couple of standouts were (more to come):
Try to get your ribs to "pinch" your hips. This thought really helped to improve angulation and kept my shoulders parallel to the mountain instead of banking and skidding out of turns.
Inhale while extending body upwards/exhale when flexing into turns. really helped develop rythym and got me more dynamic with up and down movements. I used to be very low and static in turns, "parking and riding". thinking i was really smooth but in reality very stiff and skiddy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I know it's an obvious one but . . . Leaning forward, my Swiss Ski Instructor in Murren physically pushed me into the correct position and what a difference that made to my skiing, I now have so much more control and confidence.
From the Phil Smith Snoworks course - Pushing - hard work though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
Bits of advice:
1) Extend legs as you enter the turn, allow them to retract as you feel the pressure build up through the second half (from Phil Smith's race training). Obvious really, but I'd sort of been doing it the other way around to push the body out of the turn, whereas getting the push in earlier gets your body leading the turn rather than following it. Get the pressure distribution through the turn right and you minimise the chances of the ski overpowering the grip the surface can offer and breaking away into a slide.
2) Open the ankles (fore/aft direction) through the turn, close them as you come out of it (Pete Silver-Gillespie - particularly with reference to of-piste bumpy terrain). Corrects my (and I guess many others') major fault of being chucked out the back of the skis coming out of the turn. I find it really hard to overcome the reflex reaction of standing up and pushing back from any peceived danger, so trying to put on the brake. When I can get myself to do this though it works really well.
3) Angle the ankles (roll direction) into the turn. This is aparrently what euangoneskiing mentioned at the EoSB and veeeight has been banging on about (sorry..."emphasising") since - but I'd twigged it a bit earlier, clearly from some other input I've now forgotten. When you do it the ski edges bite, the ski bends and you carve the turn, when you don't you either tend to slide it with too much sideways pressure, or the ski doesn't bend and you don't make anything like the radius of turn you expect (and need). Whether this is a genuine movement at the ankles or just a mental trigger to get you to actually angle the skis with the appropriate knee and shin movement is a subject still under active "discussion"  . However it works...it does.
None of the above are really dialled in yet, but when I can remember to do them they make a huge difference. 1) and 3) are primarily related to high-performance carving (and hence racing), 2) is probably of more general application.
Drill
Carving on the outside edge of the ski - either as part of a full run on a single foot, or part of a sequence of Charleston or White-pass turns (single foot stuff suggested a couple of years back by my club coach, and is an easiski favourite, turning exercises first given me by Dave Peek on a Snoworks course). Only really works if you get all three of the above points right, otherwise the ski just goes sideways. Build up to it by running straight first of all (which will probably be enough to cope with if your sideways balance isn't there yet), then progressively increase the amount of tip from the ankle and knee. If your ankle is too open fore-aft you'll probably have your weight too far back and the ski will head sideways rather than stay with an engaged edge.
Oh and piece of advice #4 (repeatedly from Phil Smith): Stop thinking about drills and think more about actually skiing!. That one clearly still needs a lot of work 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Turn before that tree.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
| skimottaret wrote: |
| Try to get your ribs to "pinch" your hips. |
That's an interesting one. It's not something I've thought about consciously, but when I get to the end of a run that I think "ooh that went well" it mostly coincides with getting that feeling. It think it does depend a fair though bit on a) the amount of grip the surface will give, b) the speed you're going c) the radius of turn you're tying to make, and of course d) how stiff you are to start with. I was told off by Phil for way overdoing it in our GS training, as I'd picked up the habit of doing it a lot from slalom turns on dryslopes - where you have a) less grip, b) lower speeds and c) tighter turns, all of which sort of require the CoM to be nearer the outside of the turn (otherwise you slide out or just topple over inside the turn ). If you have a reasonably broad stance and are making GS-speed and radius turns you probably get a better balance by more banking and less angulation at the hips/waist. This seems to me to be a good example of where the skill is having the ability to work out which tool in your toolbox works best in the conditions you happen to be experiencing at the time - use the right horse for the right course (or hammer for nail if you prefer less mixed metaphors).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
forgot one
Drive new inside hip through when relaxing old outside leg doing ILE's .... somehow that works well for me... and when I watch the freeskiing videos from guay etc and especially Nyberg I can actually feel the movement of my clothes doing that movement
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
The instructor saying 'look at me'
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
"Go to Homewood for a day"
(apart from that, I think the pushing the ski through the arc thing helped)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| skimottaret wrote: |
| iece of advice did you get last season from an instructor? |
If you are going to La Rosiere, take your walking boots and wind cheater...
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
go to the gym
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
With regards to landing a 360 - "Its all in your head, visualise it"
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Don't assume the guided ski club know where they are going...so pack that small rope...!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Stay in bed. It's grim on the hill . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Best drill hmmmmmmm...... had to be 4.1x8.5
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Stand on the outside edge
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Mine was simply "Cliff!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
hyweljenkins, Fine advice there
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
bend the kness going up the rollers straighten the legs going down. don't forget to repeat for the next one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
keep your pelvis forward.
an exercise to help with this is on all "easy" terrain i would cross my arms behind my back with the poles pointing upward, skiing in this position kept my hips forward and very quickly showed me when i was out of position.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
skimottaret, earth calling Mars...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
| skimottaret wrote: |
keep your pelvis forward.
an exercise to help with this is on all "easy" terrain i would cross my arms behind my back with the poles pointing upward, skiing in this position kept my hips forward and very quickly showed me when i was out of position. |
One of the drills I was given last season was to ski with my hands crossed behind my back (although no poles were involved). Helped me get to a more upright, forward stance. It's something I need to work on as my 'neutral' position is still too flexed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| iblair wrote: |
| go to the gym |
Is Mark Sumner still at Message Labs, we used to work together in the New Technolgies group at QA Consulting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| davidof wrote: |
Is Mark Sumner still at Message Labs, we used to work together in the New Technolgies group at QA Consulting.
|
He is indeed, and doing very well, although I don't really know him
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
laundryman, can look a bit like holding an antennea i guess rob@rar, sounds like the same drill as you had, i just do it during free skiing when ive got nowhere to put the poles to get that upright forward feeling.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
skimottaret, actually, I always think that when I see people in a tuck with their poles pointing ludicrously skywards!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
laundryman, on this drill though you try to stay very upright and hips forward, not in a tuck...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
I'll be working on it from the start of next season. It's one of only a few mental triggers that has immediately worked for me.