Airria skidiary - Page 2

Airria,

 

The timing of your extension is late.  I do see steady improvement through the course of the videos.

 

RW

What jumps out at me is how in these free ski turns and stubby gates your rotation (reaching for gate with outside hand) has gone away, and you're carving is much cleaner because of it.  The skis find a larger edge angle, and the hip is able to drop into the turn better.  Keep that feeling when you get in the long gates.

 

Now, about that up move.  It's pretty strong, and robs the end of your turns of much of the potential forward energy and speed.  It directs it up into the air, instead of towards the next gate.  Wasted.

 

While your turns are so much cleaner, a couple double turns did sneak in on you.  Wait for the rise line to really dive into the edge angle.  And I saw a fall inside.  Keep the angulation strong.  But overall, a nice improvement, Airria!  Well done!!

 

 

www.YourSkiCoach.com

 

 

Rick is spot on about the vertical move. My thought is that it's due to the hips being too far inside at the end of the turn. So getting the pelvis and the feet vertically aligned at that point involves the rapid up move. The consequences of such a strong pop include the redirection of the body upward instead of into the next turn, edge re-engagement is delayed and the whole thing feeds on itself, making the skier later and later.

The simple solution is to extend the amount of time we use to get the hips over the feet instead of trying to do it all at once. Obviously, this means starting to move the hips over the feet earlier. How, depends on the turn and I'm sure collectively there are a lot of ideas on how to do this. Mine is to not be so set on using up unweighting for every turn. Mix it up with some down un weighting and maybe even some simultaneous ILE /OLF.  

Airria,

 

Wow, really good improvement in the last few months.  The timing of your movements is much better.  As far as the up move, keep moving toward the next gate in transition (laterally) and use your ankles to engage the tip of the ski.  This will keep you in a more centered position over the skis.  You flex your ankles nicely through the turn, but after you change edges, open it up a little to engage the ski tip instead to extending your body up to flatten the edges and then re-engaging.

 

RW

i am not a professional at advice giving but just a racer (:
but i do think some more knee separation would help.
can i ask what kind of ski you use?
also when you are coming into the apex of your turn you just need to drive your knees into it, then release and do not hold onto your turn for too long.
also its a bad habit to bank your turns, what will help is to have separation between your hips and your shoulders if that makes sense.
you do have a nice flow in your skiing, very nice

When I freeze the frame, what I see is a relatively flat inside ski and a relatively tipped outside ski, ie an a frame.  One approach to "correcting" this is to focus on tipping the inside ski to the little toe side a lot more than you currently are.  This works for me..It is the Harald Harb approach/focus  

I am interested in the Schlopy drill since I have an A-frame issue as well. I didn't see it with a quick search.

In July I visisted Jeff Bergeron in Breck for an alignment and he made some changes to my footbed - hopefully that  will help solve the issue. I still need to order the cants he suggested for my Lange boots.

Photo below is taken on a relatively flat Midwestern slope.

I am familiar with this drill but would love to find video of it. It is also sometimes referred to as the teapot drill.

Karl

U.S. ski team training DVD from about 4 or 5 yrs. ago.  I think Schlopy may actually be the demonstrator, along with D. Rahlves doing some other good drills.  I don't have it, but remember seeing it back then.
JF

Hi MWP,

I'm not familiar with the Schlopy drill. I can give you some advise. You are inclining, not angulating. Try initiating the turn by rolling onto your edges with big toe, little toe actions. Let your knees and hips move into the turn while you actively counter balance by moving your shoulders to the outside of the turn.

The second video shows this very nicely. As the demonstrator rolls his ankles and knees into the hill, he is on his right little toe and left big toe. To finish the partial turn, he flattens his skis and then repeats.

To make complete turns, start from a position going across the hill, roll the skis to flatten them (which is using big toe, little toe) and continue until you are on your new edges. Counter balance by bending sideways at the waist a bit so that your shoulders are back over you skis. This will keep your weight on both skis. On a very gentle slope your skis will be weighted 50-50. As you increase the pitch of the slope and/or speed you are travelling, the weight will shift more and more to the outside ski.

The whole process is made easier by adding a little counter rotation as well. When you are moving your shoulders to the outside of the turn, also rotate slightly to the outside of the turn.

See you next weekend. I have a dryland drill I'd like to show you then that may help your turn initiation, too.

I'd be happy to give you some on slope pointers when you are in Breck when there is snow on the ground. Maybe I'll have even more stuff in the collection for you to see, too!

MR

I agree with others that you really need to focus on eliminating the upward motion of your hips through neutral. I don't know your skiing, I've only looked at your last two video posts, but this may simply be habit from 'old' style skiing. Your technique is good other than the high neutral position. You are tipping your skis nicely to initiate a turn, allowing the skis to travel away from your body and using counter balance to keep proper pressure on your skis.

You need to flex your legs more through neutral. As you finish your turn let your legs flex as they come under your body in neutral. Try exagerating the flexion. Your skis will get lighter on the snow as you flex more and they will travel across the hill faster. Visualize your hips being at the same height above the snow at all times.

A drill you can try is doing a boot touch with both hands in neutral. You will bend at the waist a bit during this drill but that is ok in this drill. You will also flex your legs in the process. As you achieve a lower neutral position you are going to feel more extension as your skis seek the fall line as well.

Good luck and nice skiing,

MR

Sounds good - thanks! I would love to get on one of these (posted earlier this week).
http://4seasonsskiing.com/


I purchased the Advanced Edging dvd from Rick Schnellmann earlier this summer -- it has quite a few great drills - some are probably the equivalent of the Schlopy drill.
Edited by MidwestPete - 8/30/09 at 11:27am

There was an 'endless carpet' for sale in the Summit Daily classifieds earlier this summer, $35,000.

I wonder if I can disassemble and fit into my Thule box!

It was a 25' x 25' (or there abouts) ski deck. You'd need a box truck to haul it and more than a two car garage to set it up.

It would be a nice addition to any skier's training regimen.

MR

Very nice skiing Airria, especially in such a short time!  The one thing that I feel that could use improvement is to stand a little taller.  You're bending at the waist which in turn is throwing your hips back a touch.  Think "vertical thigh". 

Nice Job!

The stance through neutral is wider than hip width -- ideally, the stance through neutral should be hip width apart.  The track width in the turn will get wider as the legs tilt, but the feet should remain under the hips.

To cure the A-framing, narrow the stance, and tip the feet. To make sure that the A-fram goes away,tip the inside ski first, then match that tipping with the outside ski.  When you first do this, you'll create an O-frame, like you're riding a barrel or horse.  Then, as you improve, this O-frame will be less and less visible.

The notion to this is that the inside ski is the "guide ski" and the outside ski is the "ride ski".  So, you ride the outside ski and set the edge angles by matching the tipping to the inside ski.  Turn sharper? Tip harder!

I like your upper/lower body separation -- how they work independently.  That's looking nice.

Hey, Pete, sorry I missed this post.  Too busy editing the last 2 DVDs, and lost touch with Epic for a while.  The Schlopy drill is displayed in the Building Blocks Angulation DVD.  That DVD is now complete, and should be available on my website within a couple weeks.  Just waiting for the last one, Transitions, to come back from the duplication house, then I'll be offering them individually or as a package. 

Well for the first part you will have to learn to commit to your outside ski, at almost every turn is gets away from you thus shifting your weight towards the inside ski.  A bit steeper a bit more icy and you are all over the place. Also pay attention that your outer ski is not staying behind, I guess you call that "off set" in english. Your weight should push straight down on the center of the ski at full force.

Take off your skis and go home. Ok just kidding, what I mean is practice your stance without your skis at home in front of a mirror, reach with your hands as far out as possible and as low, your body should form an arch.  And do that often, this way you learn to "see" yourself.
Observe now where your weight is, outside leg or is it on the inside, cause your hip really did shift toward the inside, but as you know your upper body weight is supposed to be on your outside leg. And that is why you should not focus on the hips, but on your upper body weight and where it is.
Once you master that blind on and off skis, use a bit of your imagination.
So imagine that in free skiing that there are stubbies set on the outside of each turn, go and reach for them as you go down. More, less whatever you feel is necessary. Now it is important that you know how to stand on your skis, remember what you did in front of the mirror. Maybe leave your poles behind at first.
Then go ahead and imagine those stubbies are still there, but as you approach the apex of the turn they become shorter and you have to reach lower (also bend your knees and flex your ankles) and as you leave the apex they become longer again. Now your turn should become more dynamic.
Practice that well and just imagine that the stubbies are still there, but the set for each turn becomes shorter and shorter, concentrating just at the apex. You'll be doing the same thing still, but on a more concentrated spot.
Not sure if it is enough but after you get a good feel for it, you should be able to snap the turns real well for SL.

Good luck.

Watch out and get rid of your rotation, your outer arm wants to make speed but it drags you into a rotation causing the ski to skid in the end of the turn. Don't do it.