Skiing Technique / Photo Critique Thread

[Greg]

One thing that I've been working on is trying to quiet my upper body, which I think is looking a little better than the last time I posted a video...

Upper body is definitely looking more still; a bit of turn initiation there, but not bad. Hands more up and out as was mentioned. Hips forward is tough sometimes; I've been working on that since last year and still end up crouching quite a bit.

 

[jack97]

Upper body is definitely looking more still; a bit of turn initiation there, but not bad. Hands more up and out as was mentioned. Hips forward is tough sometimes; I've been working on that since last year and still end up crouching quite a bit.

Yeah, defintie improvement on the upper body, in addition the banking is less pronounce.

As Jim said, ankle flex... alot more. I would suggest focusing on this flex and hips forward with longer turns, that way it would give you more time to feel the tip bite into the snow (another indicator of good flex) and feel the edge engage into the snow with the flex. Trying to do this in short turns, you might lose the sensation of the movement.

 

[bigbog]

while looking_at/thinking_about video 2...

Hi Brian,
As usual, great advice...particularly JimG and jack97.
Man, I'm just a wanna-be better skier...my words of wisdom can often be thrown into the trash bin ASAP :lol:

Relax those lowerbody joints to angulate!...stop the banking...and keep the butt up front!.
Elbows out ahead of belly-button. When you drop your hands...your elbows pull your shoulders backward!..not a good direction to be headed in.
EDIT:*..Guess I mistakenly deleted the part that said..Nice turns! First portion of your turns are skidded..bur are skidded very nicely! Your pressuring of the ski is just a little to the rear(in back of heel)..but as JimG mentioned previously, "If you aren't using some skidding somewhere, you aren't skiing much steep stuff".
Apologies for rambling....can we all spell Pow!....

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

Alright, here's a clip of me hittin' bumps on Twist at the Bush. This was just a day or two after recovering from the flu... so I wasn't quite hitting on all cylinders. The bumps were pretty good, though not quite in a perfect line. But then, what natural bumps are? It was definitely a bit thin, so you might see some random fast movements...... I was probably avoiding rocks!

Anyways... have at it:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHz_URNRL50

 

[2knees]

not much to say other then impressive. the speed impressed me the most. People tend to make a big deal out of all kinds of technique, but try ratcheting up the speed a bit and things happen alot quicker. i would bet there are a whole ton of people who would love to just get to the level you are already at.

i'll leave the expert analysis to someone else.

100 bucks says someone claims there should be more absorption and extension. :smile:

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

Thanks, 2knees. I actually just started skiing bumps last January. The only reason I'm at the level I'm at is because I ski just about every day. I'm shooting for about 110 days (some are only 2 hour days, but that still means at least 8 or 10 runs) this year. I should be a little over half way to 110 right now.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the absorption and extension comments to start rolling in. But before they do, I must say that in order to absorb and extend properly, one must assume bumps that are big enough and formed properly to do it. Some of these were, most weren't. Believe me... I've absorbed and extended to the point where I've hit my chin with my knees, and worried that I broke my jaw!

 

[2knees]

Thanks, 2knees. I actually just started skiing bumps last January. The only reason I'm at the level I'm at is because I ski just about every day. I'm shooting for about 110 days (some are only 2 hour days, but that still means at least 8 or 10 runs) this year. I should be a little over half way to 110 right now.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the absorption and extension comments to start rolling in. But before they do, I must say that in order to absorb and extend properly, one must assume bumps that are big enough and formed properly to do it. Some of these were, most weren't. Believe me... I've absorbed and extended to the point where I've hit my chin with my knees, and worried that I broke my jaw!

Damn that crazy, 110 days. The fact that you've only been skiing bumps for basically one season makes your second statement more amazing. And also very accurate. You dont know how easily people forget what kind of bumps are being skied. Small bumps or soft bumps or low angle bumps dont require tons of aborption and extension. For me to keep full speed i try not to eat up all the bump cause cause the crap lives on the backs and troughs and the old a&e line of thinking has to be altered.

 

[bigbog]

issues for you = issues for me

:lol: B,
Didn't really mean to raise the font to a shout.....= same issues for me, particularly on steeps! Relaxing to angulate is my pseudo-mantra, especially on steeper terrain :lol:

 

[jack97]

Yeah, I'm waiting for the absorption and extension comments to start rolling in. But before they do, I must say that in order to absorb and extend properly, one must assume bumps that are big enough and formed properly to do it. Some of these were, most weren't. Believe me... I've absorbed and extended to the point where I've hit my chin with my knees, and worried that I broke my jaw!

First of all, I agree with 2knees, impressive. And I totally agree that you can get by with little A&E on small bumps however you can still use A&E.

Having said all that here's the other foot. Looks like your CM is a little on your tails. More than a couple of times you pressured the tail to bleed off the speed, definitely at 10 sec. A tell tale sign was at the middle of the vid at 12 sec, the way you went up the bump. This becomes problematic when the bumps gets bigger, put enuf weight on the tails and the skis will jet out in front of you going from frontside to backside. Puts you out of position for the next bump.

Getting back to small bumps, you are pointing them east-west to pressure the tails. By using more A&E, you can point them north-south and back off from the tail pressure. Just an opinion, guess 2knees should collect his 100.

 

[bvibert]

:lol: B,
Didn't really mean to raise the font to a shout.....= same issues for me, particularly on steeps! Relaxing to angulate is my pseudo-mantra, especially on steeper terrain :lol:

Thanks for the tips. I didn't think you were shouting at me, more like strong emphasis.

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

First of all, I agree with 2knees, impressive. And I totally agree that you can get by with little A&E on small bumps however you can still use A&E.

Having said all that here's the other foot. Looks like your CM is a little on your tails. More than a couple of times you pressured the tail to bleed off the speed, definitely at 10 sec. A tell tale sign was at the middle of the vid at 12 sec, the way you went up the bump. This becomes problematic when the bumps gets bigger, put enuf weight on the tails and the skis will jet out in front of you going from frontside to backside. Puts you out of position for the next bump.

Getting back to small bumps, you are pointing them east-west to pressure the tails. By using more A&E, you can point them north-south and back off from the tail pressure. Just an opinion, guess 2knees should collect his 100.

Thanks. Yeah, I'm working on keeping the CG over the middle of the skis. I do hate it when the tails bind up from leaning back too far!

Anyone else?

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

First of all, I agree with 2knees, impressive. And I totally agree that you can get by with little A&E on small bumps however you can still use A&E.

Having said all that here's the other foot. Looks like your CM is a little on your tails. More than a couple of times you pressured the tail to bleed off the speed, definitely at 10 sec. A tell tale sign was at the middle of the vid at 12 sec, the way you went up the bump. This becomes problematic when the bumps gets bigger, put enuf weight on the tails and the skis will jet out in front of you going from frontside to backside. Puts you out of position for the next bump.

Getting back to small bumps, you are pointing them east-west to pressure the tails. By using more A&E, you can point them north-south and back off from the tail pressure. Just an opinion, guess 2knees should collect his 100.

Just looked back over the video... at 10-12 seconds, I was going to stop, but my brother (who was filming) told me to keep going. If I had kept the audio on the video you'd have heard him tell me to keep going and me having to say "what" before it sank in :lol: .

 

[jack97]

Just looked back over the video... at 10-12 seconds, I was going to stop, but my brother (who was filming) told me to keep going. If I had kept the audio on the video you'd have heard him tell me to keep going and me having to say "what" before it sank in :lol: .

At the beginning of the video, you can see the back leaning during the turns, especially since you point the skis east-west. You got a good amount of flex at the knees and most likely ankles (hard to see). This is whats saving you from jetting out on the smaller bumps. The knee flex forces your tips to drive down after you crest the bump. I think once you go on a steeper pitch or the bumps gets bigger, the leaning back is going put you out of position.

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

At the beginning of the video, you can see the back leaning during the turns, especially since you point the skis east-west. You got a good amount of flex at the knees and most likely ankles (hard to see). This is whats saving you from jetting out on the smaller bumps. The knee flex forces your tips to drive down after you crest the bump. I think once you go on a steeper pitch or the bumps gets bigger, the leaning back is going put you out of position.

Hmm... yeah, I can see that. Although, I spend most of my time on stuff significantly steeper than that with much bigger bumps, and generally don't have a problem.

 

[jack97]

Hmm... yeah, I can see that. Although, I spend most of my time on stuff significantly steeper than that with much bigger bumps, and generally don't have a problem.

If you can ski like that on steeper stuff with bigger bumps, then toss out what I said.

Going back to initial comments, that run was impressive and the only minor critique was the cm being a little back.

 

[JimG.]

If you can ski like that on steeper stuff with bigger bumps, then toss out what I said.

Going back to initial comments, that run was impressive and the only minor critique was the cm being a little back.

That's what I would say...a little more ankle flex would fix the CM being a little off, but we're getting awfully picky.

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

Thanks, JimG. I guess I'll work on ankle flex and CM, for lack of anything better to do!

 

[Skier75]

Okay, I know this hasn't been up for a while but I've finailly have a pic of me skiing. Now I'm probably not as good as a lot I've seen here, but here goes. My biggest problem is to get my feet closer together, not sure how or when this has happened, but I used to have a closer stance than this:

What do you think? How do I get this more together?

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

First thing I would say is to keep your poles up and in front more, like you're holding a tray. Then, I would try to keep the skis more parallel, and bend a little at the knees. Keep the body upright, but give a little flex in the knees.

I'm sure JimG will chime with some more detailed advice. He's the AZ instructor, you know :wink:

 

[bvibert]

First thing I would say is to keep your poles up and in front more, like you're holding a tray. Then, I would try to keep the skis more parallel, and bend a little at the knees. Keep the body upright, but give a little flex in the knees.

I'm sure JimG will chime with some more detailed advice. He's the AZ instructor, you know :wink:

Jim is going to be away from a computer for a few days, so you'll have to wait on that one...