A Thing I Wrote on Mogul Absorption

I wrote this for some foreign guys that were asking me about my absorbing and I thought that I would share it here since I haven't participated in a while due to work and life etc...

This is about mogul absorption whether in a line or out of a line or whatever.

I’ll start with a basic explanation and then add my own conclusions about absorption after the first paragraph/part.

The way to absorb moguls is to bring your knees up towards your chest as your feet hit them.  On the uphill side of the moguls, your feet need to be slightly out in front of you so that your skis can point up the mogul then on the downhill side of the mogul your skis need to point down the mogul, which means your feet need to be curled back towards your butt as you straighten your legs.  In between moguls your skis point level (parallel to the steepness of the ground under the moguls) and down the hill while your body is straight… and on top of the mogul your skis should reach a point where they are also level and parallel to the steepness of the ground under the moguls and your body is low, bent at the knees.  --The motion of your legs will be like you’re pedaling a bicycle backwards.

If you keep your legs directly under you while you absorb, instead of doing a more circular motion like pedaling a bike, then what happens is that the resistance of the ski (the stiffness of it) knocks your weight back on the uphill side of the mogul (then possibly also forward on the downhill side).  Your skis will also not stay on the snow if you don’t point them up the fronts and down the backs of moguls, unless they are as flexible as a well cooked noodle. 

It’s really important to bend at your knees and NOT at your hips.  As your butt gets lower while you absorb, you should not bend the angle of your back forward any more than you have to.  In other words, don’t let your shoulders move forward any more than you have to.  So how much do you have to?  --The minimum amount necessary in order to not have your weight too far back.  The lower you need to absorb, the farther forward the angle of your back will have to go in order to not have your weight too far back, but always move your back forward the minimum amount necessary.   Absorb mainly with your knees.  If you have the angle of your back more forward than it has to be, then you will not be able to absorb well.  Your upper body will get in the way of the motion of your legs. 

Your weight needs to be centered, NOT forward like most people say.  If you are forward, you will smack your ski tips and your feet into the moguls and you will not be balanced or smooth.  You should also not be too far back with your weight.  Being too far back or forward also messes up the angles of your body.  You have to be centered. 

How low you need to absorb is determined by the size of the mogul.  The amount your feet should be brought up should be equal to the size of the mogul.  A lot of mogul skiers have their skis come off of the ground between moguls.  This can happen for three reasons.  Either the mogul skier is absorbing too slowly (he is bringing his feet up too slowly for the speed he is skiing at) or his timing is off, or he is not absorbing deep enough.  The cause of this bouncing could also be all three reasons (bad timing, slow absorption and shallow absorption together).  The faster you ski, the faster you will need to bring your feet up on the uphill sides of moguls and the faster you’ll have to push them down on the downhill side in order to not come off the ground.  It’s best to stay on the ground so that you can be smoother.  All mogul skiers try to stay on the ground, but it’s not easy at high speeds.  You should never jump onto moguls.  The motion of your absorption should be more like pulling up your feet instead of squatting down or lowering your butt.  Imagine hanging from your arms on a pull-up bar and pulling your knees up, instead of doing squats.  At high speeds you pull your feet up and let the mogul pass under you.  Your legs straighten when the mogul has passed and is no longer under you.  At lower speeds it’s a little more like lowering your butt, at higher speeds it’s more like pulling your feet up. 

Try to hit the moguls as lightly as possible.  Try to not make any noise when you hit them.  Most skiers can’t do it quietly, but it’s good to try. 

Always do what feels natural and balanced, and keep your hands in front of you.

http://youtu.be/v_9ff4Lh6Zc

Thanks guys : )

Cool video Bob.  If I'm not mistaken, that's Patrick Deneen in the green/yellow/blue jacket at :36 seconds as well.  I found it kind of interesting to compare his slow motion shot at :36 to my slow motion shot at 1:24 in my video.  I think there may be a difference in smoothness between the two.  He has a funny heel pickup thing he does.  He also purposely jams his ski tips into each bump which may affect smoothness.  He is more forward, where I don't like to be.  I'm not saying it's wrong or anything, just different.  Another difference I notice is that he's definitely on machine-made moguls in all his shots.  I have never skied machine-made moguls but I'd like to.  The lines in the shot of him at 3:41 are awesome! 

I haven't heard of Willi Furr, but I think that's really cool that a mogul skier is doing both moguls and big mountain events. 

You've got to be kidding me. 

Joey, if you're still wondering how you end up getting dragged into arguments, look to your own svmm supporters.  Nailbender just posted a video of you while saying numerous things that are insulting to non-svmm skiers (and believed to be wrong by non-svmm skiers). 

So only unskilled mogul skiers absorb huh?  Does it ever concern you that you are one of VERY few people that believe this in the skiing world?  There are probably some people out there that believe that the earth goes around the moon as well.  I haven't ever heard anyone from anywhere except Sun Valley say this stuff.  The only skiers that are skilled at mogul lines that could not turn on a mogul face or mogul top would be skiers that have no business being in a line at all... or anywhere in a mogul field for that matter. 

The truth about the svmm style vs the regular style is that it is probably possible to have high enough standards in either style so that perfect skiing is impossible in both.  So from that point of view, either style is difficult enough.  My personal opinion however is that skiing outside of lines is step one and skiing in one is step two.  Suggesting that anyone who has skill in a line cannot ski out of one is just as absurd as saying that a baby learned to run before walk.  I have taught many people how to ski moguls and they always start outside of lines and get comfortable with going over and around bumps both, often with speed before moving in to a line.  Many of the people I teach are pretty fast and good outside of lines in the bumps before I meet them then show them at their request what to do with a line. 

Who are these horrible parents that you have seen shoving their first run-first time skiers into mogul lines and only mogul lines thereafter without having them learn anything else first?  You must have seen it happen otherwise I can't imagine why you would think that skiers who like mogul lines can't ski anything else.  I hope you called social services. 

I really find this point of view commical sometimes.  I have never seen a skier who likes mogul lines take off his skis and walk when the moguls didn't line up the way he wanted.  You are really reaching to believe that others cannot do what you can and you are really reaching to try to convince people of that. 

The video posted of cvj is a fine video.  But where I live there are no moguls that are that small and that spaced out on any of our actual mogul runs.  This is not meant to be an insult to cvj, he's a fine skier at his own style, but this is a fact.  You must know that with different mogul shapes, turn shape tends to change if only slightly.  If I was on moguls that were the same size, shape and frequency as the ones in the posted cvj video, my turn shape would be similar to cvj's.  We do have moguls like that one one run.  It is a blue square called Mary Jane trail that sometimes gets some bumps at the top.  Among my group we call those "half moguls".  Again I am not trying to be insulting, I'm just trying to paint a picture.  I know that moguls don't always show up well on film, but with many of the moguls where I am you don't have a choice but to absorb deeply no matter what line you choose and you can always see how big they are on film by looking at knee movement.  Think of the biggest, most packed together moguls you ever saw at Sun Valley, but I don't know what exactly those would look like I suppose. 

I know a lot of people that like to ski mogul lines and prefer to film mogul lines because they like the way the rhythm looks, but that doesn't mean they can't ski out of a line, ski on one ski, or ski with no poles or anything else not filmed. 

While we're on the subject though here are a few shots of Chuck Martin going over some tops.  He only does it when one is in his way I suppose (and what else would he do when one is in his way), but he does it easily without breaking form or having any other kind of trouble.  He just doesn't think it's a big deal to go over the tops (and neither do I) which is why our style is not centered around the idea of going over tops.  The fact that we think it's no big deal to go over the tops is also why we don't write on the internet constantly trying to convince people that it is a big deal. 

Could the fact that you think it is a big deal, and so difficult to go over the tops say something about your own skiing skill?  Maybe? 

This is not Chuck's video, it was filmed randomly by someone else which may be why it shows some things that may be showed less in a normal video. Based on this video apparently he can do wedge turns too.  I didn't know that because it wasn't in any of his other videos... just kidding. 

These are rough estimates with the timer because vimeo wasn't playing that well when I just looked, so look for the double turns on the tops at roughly 6:15, 8:38 and 8:57.  Blink and you'll miss some of them.  Make sure the HD is off because at least on my computer, the timer is off when it's HD.   http://vimeo.com/3067901

If this is going to keep going shall we just copy and paste the whole argument from last year, minus one Bushwhacker? http://www.epicski.com/t/108299/how-to-ski-bumps-dynamically

Agreed : )

The times that I originally posted to look at in the Chuck Martin video above were wrong.  You have to watch it in non-HD because the timer is not working when it's in HD (at least not on my computer).  I went back and edited, but anyway, the corrected times are 6:15, 8:38 and 8:57, just make sure the HD is off first. 

Wait a minute, isn't the Chuck Martin clip the smoother of the two in Bob's post?  What happened to all that slamming that Nailbender was talking about?  There seems to be less slamming in Chuck's.