MA for Dawgcatching

Sure looks like excellent skiing to me, Dawg. And as usual, great video work, Max.

I like the stay in the fall line longer idea....I see a little heel push rushing the skis around. Many, many people would be glad to ski like that though.

Your pole action is not harmonious (in tempo) with the action of your feet, Dawg. Fix that and you'll be a ski god.

What do they say about biting the hand that feeds you?

At risk of losing future ski deals.... :

I see strong "athletic" skiing. Early edge commitment. Comfort at speed and in control. I see a skier that has an outstanding natural "feel" for the snow under his feet with a strong internal sense of timing and feel for things. This is a skier with the natural ability to feel the mountain and ride it like a surfer rides a wave...the zen of it. You know what it feels like to carve your ski and are continually hunting for that carving feeling.

What I don't like most is the pop extension between every turn in that video. Some of the early edge engagement seems contrived. Dawg, you are pop extending and then trying to huck your body into the turn in order to get upside down with early edge engagement. For you, everything you need to work on right now is in the transition, including the release of the old turn. You shouldn't have to pop extend and you shouldn't have to huck your body into the turn or get such radical upside down early edge engagement for these relatively low speed turns(compared to a racer for example).

I agree about the "patience" factor, lingering in the fall line, but I think it is not only the fall line that you need to be patient about, its also the transition. You are first in a rush to get your skis carving, and then once they are carving you do seem a bit in a rush to see them carve around and you probably hang on to those carves just a little too long. My impression is that you just love the feeling of carving so much and that's why you are anxious to get on the edges and start carving and to hold on to that carving for as long as possible in the end of the turn.

But I think you need to let go of the old turn's delicious carve a tiny bit sooner, which will give you more time to develop a better release and transition and also it will take the momentum of that turn and utilize it to cross you over instead of you having to pop extend and huck yourself into the new turn. For you, its all about figuring out how to make better use of the G forces of the previous turn to initiate the next one. I'll know you have it when you stop pop extending.

BTS, I'm curious why you think the transition must always be drawn out. Establishing high edge angles quickly is how you decrease your turn radius so wouldn't a quick transition would be the logical choice if that was your intent? Do you think the quick transition is somehow making DC's skiing less effective? To my untrained eye, it appears that DC's CM is moving down the hill efficiently. It seems what you are calling "pop extending" is simply a rapid commitment to the inside of the new turn. Are you suggesting that DC should be using different movements in a slower transition? Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing more on this subject.

First off let me point something out. If you look back at the various times I have given MA on this forum, I almost NEVER give MA to lower level skiers. I find great enjoyment from working with a talented and skilled skier; and finding out how to help them step up to the next level. The very fact that I'm posting this MA means that I think highly of Dawg's skiing. Let me remind you guys that he asked for MA.

Well, I'm not saying that ANYTHING is ALWAYS supposed to be a certain way, first off. Skiing is a dynamic sport and there are many different scenarios. Dawg is showing some pretty consistent recurring patterns though.

I'm not saying a "quick transition" is bad either or that a long drawn out transition is what he always needs. What I am saying, is that often Dawg looked a big contrived in how aggressively he was upside down so early, for the speed and conditions he was skiing. I am saying that he was forcefully pushing himself that way using a forceful Com direction to the inside in order to get himself aggressively upside down early on. Many people have the opposite problem, so really this is not so terrible. But I do think Dawg is having to force these things. It is contrived, not natural. And its not necessary. He wants the big edge angles and he wants to be upside down, but this looks contrived.

Again, quick transition is not bad when its needed. But I'm not commenting about a quick transition. I'm talking about an ineffective transition. He could be as quick or even quicker if he wants to be, with better technique at the transition.

Again, I'm not necessarily saying a transition has to be slow. What I am saying though, is that he was hanging on to his old turn a little bit too long and losing some of the cross over energy that could be harvested from the old turn. He is not "releasing" very well, which kills that energy from the old turn, causing him to use a pop extension in order to unweight and change edges. A pop extension is when you see a skier use a visible up extension that unweights the skis so he can change edges. This is one of the reasons why his tails are fanning out a bit in the top of the turn following the pop. I think part of why he is being so aggressive to get onto his new edges so early is because he's trying to kill the tail smearing there.

One thing leads to another. The reason he does that is because something prior to that something was not right. And that prior thing may have been wrong because the thing before that was not right, etc.. Pop happens because of an ineffective release. Tail smearing happens because of the pop. too much contrived pushing of the com inside happens in an effort to get onto the new edges, etc.

In my view, with Dawg it starts with him hanging onto his carves a little too long. Then a chain reaction of events occur, including a pop extension, etc. Yes, he is getting the job done, but he could be even better.

Yea Dawg. You have good instincts.

I am watching it again and on a couple turns where you started to really turn it on, its more apparent that you are also not outside ski dominant for those turns when you should be and there is a lot of A-framing. Don't know if that's a boot alignment issue or not. But just wanted to point it out. Not being outside dominant could be because of the push of your COM inside which is off-balance to the inside from the start and for the duration of the turn.

Instead, get an earlier but patient transition happening where you focus on the release aspect. Harvest the G forces. But make sure to establish some early angulation to remain balanced on the outside ski from the get go. You are angulated like crazy later on in the turn. To the point of looking excessive. I think that is because at that point if you weren't angulated that much you would actually fall to the inside..that's how much you are not balanced on the outside ski for those turns. You have way more edge angle than you really need, way more angulation then you really need and you're riding a lot on the inside ski.

You are a natural athlete, its obvious....

BTS--speaking for myself, I wasn't being critical of your MA. I just didn't understand it so I was asking for clarification. Upper level MAs are interesting to me because I can usually learn a lot. Regarding your post, thanks for clarifying. I think see where you are going but I'm not quite there. Can you explain what a "pop extension" is and how it differs from the move you are looking for? How would it differ from a quick (but correct) transition? Also, what is the cue that tells you it is happening? <Ack> Never mind--somehow I missed the one critical sentence in your post. Yes, you are saying what I thought you were saying.

<Just saw the few extra posts>
So isn't the issue more of timing than patience? You have to start the release move while your CM is still moving down the hill. If you do this, gravity will pull you through the transition into your next turn without requiring much active inside leg extension. Certainly you can let your skies drift a bit in transition (or actively steer) to get them pointed more down the hill when they are flat, but this seems to me to be a seperate issue from transition. If your timing is right, why would early edge angles be exclusive to cross-over? If you relase at the appropriate time, shouldn't you be able to engage your edges as early as makes sense for the desired turn?

Dawg, allow me to be more precise: your pole swing is circular (see path of the baskets) which keeps you in the old turn; I believe that a more linear swing will direct your movements into the new turn.

IMHO great skiing, Dawg, if i could come close to that...... Nevils

I don't have time right now to really address this question adequately, but there have been many posts on this forum about it, with pictures to WC skiers. In a nutshell, If he unweights with an up move, then its a "pop". But that is not telling or showing the "right" thing to do, which really needs to be done prior to approaching the subject of how to choose quicker turn initiations, etc. Please read around the forum there are a lot of good posts. maybe someone else can link to a few.

You're getting the right idea!!

It was not my impression that he was actually that impatient in the fall line. That was the advice given to him by some other people. But its more my impression that he was late with his releases and also his releases don't have enough G force juice left in them; and then being late he was rushing to get the skis engaged ASAP to try to setup the next turn. Also, based on the message he just posted, he was skiing for the camara and trying go for too much edge angle etc, which is why I think it looked contrived to me. Given that he was trying to go for that on the camara, I would almost recommend that he needs new footage for proper MA. But the release issue probably will still be there I am guessing.

So he needed to be EARLIER with the release, but then patient after that, which he would be able to do if he released earlier.

I would recommend that Dawg focus a lot on strengthening Outside Leg Release skills (OLR) and basically see if he can ski a whole run without ever up-unweighting. There is so much more to that discussion that can't be covered in one thread, but that's the direction I would point him in on his quest for better turns.

heh heh. I hear ya.

Its a long video segment so you'll have to tell me more precisely which one before I could comment. Some of the stuff where you weren't really turning it on, you were holding back, trying to be in good form with slow easy ski instructor turns. There is no point analyzing those, I don't think that is how you normally like to ski.

But really the best footage of you would be to see how you ski when you aren't thinking you are in front of a camara.

Who is doing your boots? Perfectly flat on the boot board is not always right.

yes

Only a LITTLE bit earlier. And by the way, a "release" does not mean your ski stops to arc in that direction. It is not instantaneous. It means, to me anyway, that you are releasing your CoM from the inside of the old turn to allow it to move across into the new turn. You can still "complete" your turns to stay on course or control your speed.

I would need to see footage. Like I said, seperate the distinction between the path your skis are taking and the path your CoM is taking. You can be finishing a turn, carving it out, avoiding too much direct down the fall line speed issues...and meanwhile you can release your CoM sooner. Going fast should not be a problem. You should be able to go VERY fast and feel absolutely in control. When you have that loss of control feeling, a lot of that is because you become disconnected from the snow at certain times, like after the pop extension and then you're thinking you have to spend the second half of the turn getting it back under control again.

No. search the forum for "OLR". You will find a lot of good stuff. ILE is also good and related and you will find many discussions comparing OLR to ILE, but for you I would recommend first mastering OLR and then coming back to learn about ILE.

I've skied with Scott,fine skier and a nice guy. What few gliches I see in his skiing, one is the UP move. If he incoperated the ILE/OLR movements I beleive he would become a more dynamic skier and pretty much own it.

From the peanut gallery:

In the first run it looks like you are working too hard; that's likely just because the skis aren't up to speed yet and need to be forced into the turns you want to show us. BTW what are the skis and your weight? The next run looks better. On the whole it looks pretty good. If you wanted something to work on I would say try working on minimal input for maximum ski performance. Try to get the skis to do the most work for you with the least effort from you.

nice skiing dawg, and nice camera work Max.
BTS, nice info and eye, enjoyable reading.
DC, You are improving!
my favorite segement is the steeper crusty one coming out of the trees, your commentary is right, you let the mountain come to you a bit more here, with more willingness.

i second Nolo's, linear pole, and trying to make it more continuous, instead of flicked out at instantaneaously (that's a tough one, and a personal flaw of mine as well). so, linear, quiet hands, flowing motion,
and more relaxed and patient through release and trasistion. i know you've felt it, that elusive flow, and that's where it comes from. Max might comment, but i believe HH would call the piece that is avoiding your grasp a bit the "float".

I look forward to skiing squaw w/ you in a couple of weeks.

Cheers,
holiday

: Looks to me like you could be going a lot faster with the "crowded" slope in those vids. What do you mean by "too fast":? Are you saying that you have to ski slowly because it is usually very crowded where you ski? I can understand that, but I thought you lived in the land of big open slopes.

Yeah, I'd also be curious to know what skis you were on Scott. I thought I saw Fischer Heat graphics, but couldn't say for sure.

Very nice skiing by the way. I am going to hazard a guess that you probably ski more relaxed/natural when you're not being filmed for MA, which would probably address any minor nitpicks I can come up with. I saw some deliberate moves/motions that I bet smooth out when you're not on your best behavior as a movie star....

Ghost says, "Speed is your friend (just like gravity) . Working on that outside leg retraction release or a double release, should help with not getting stuck on the inside ski. It will stay there, but will be on the other edge and turning down the hill to catch you.

tush over tails?

Hi Scott,
nice skiing and nice snow. just spent a day on hardpack ice, so i'm jealous.

pop extension / transition: in the bottom half of the turn, it looks some heel pushing (early in the video)
and the rear end perhaps getting too far behind the feet. then, at transition, the rear end has a long way to
get back across the skis (20-30 seconds in).

if we dont continue the flexion and the flow of mass in the bottom half of the turn, the COM lags behind, and a large(ish) up extension move is one way to get the across the ski and inside the next turn.

a thought on groomers: try nice carve turns from a taller stance, with the hips coming (more) forward and less down as the pressure increases while the skis hook across the hill. this also places more pressure on the shovels.

some turns also show a slight a frame, but more worrisome (IMO) is the skis entering the turn scissored, ie tail closer than tips (might be camera angle but look at right ski around 50-55 seconds in). while it does not
look like you shove your inside foot forward, it does indicate the both skis are not doing the same thing.


in other news, i LOV the Elan Speedwave 12s. Like a set of razor bladers bombing down the fall line.
brad