Skiing Technique / Photo Critique Thread

[jack97]

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?

If your doing this in the turns, this means that you have not committed most of the weight on the down hill leg. One drill you can do is on a very gentle pitch, initiate your turn by placing your weight on the upcoming downhill leg, you can lighten, lift the heel slightly or the whole leg of upcoming uphill leg to start the turn. So to turn left, lighten or the lift the left leg. Turn right, lighten the right leg.

If your legs are spread in the flats, keep the legs closer, roll your ankles to make small turns, this will keep your speed in check. Again, less weight on the uphill ski.

 

[SkiDork]

not me (I suck) but my son in his 1st mogul comp a few weeks ago.

Any of you bumpers cart to offer up some tips? I know he has room for improvement...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9aRwxepQbo

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

not me (I suck) but my son in his 1st mogul comp a few weeks ago.

Any of you bumpers cart to offer up some tips? I know he has room for improvement...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9aRwxepQbo

That's pretty impressive for, what did you say, a 9 year old? Not bad.

I would just say make sure he works on keeping his shoulders square down the fall line, keep the upper body as still as possible (make the legs do the absorbing, and keep everything else still), and tighten the stance a little. But seriously... for his age, he's really impressive. I liked the pole plants. He already pole plants better than 3/4 of the people I see skiing bumps every day at Sugarbush.

I think the best advice for him would be... keep skiing bumps as often as possible. Ski ski ski, practice practice practice, attack attack attack, and everything else will just start to happen.

It's so refreshing to see young kids who are actually interested in mogul skiing!

 

[jack97]

not me (I suck) but my son in his 1st mogul comp a few weeks ago.

Any of you bumpers cart to offer up some tips? I know he has room for improvement...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9aRwxepQbo

He is controlling his speed by braking with his turns. He needs to use absorption and extension with the turns. A good drill is to do this on a set of rollers, the youtube vid attached has this, look 14 sec into the vid. They want to kids to control their descent using A&E alone. BTW, from what i have read, its a standard exercise. If you can't find a set of rollers, even one is good to get the feel and get some sense of timing, look for them in the terrain park or a (snow cover) water pipe or ditch across the trail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOHodIf33HE

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

Just watched it once more, and the only thing I'll add is that he seems to skid his left turns more than his right. In other words, when approaching a bump to make a left turn, he rotates his skis further and slides into the bump, so the turn takes longer to initiate, and longer to release.

Again, very impressive.

 

[SkiDork]

yeah, I've heard about speed control using A&E. I'll look for some rollers for him to practice on. Good suggestion.

Yes, he's 9. I also need to practice A&E speed control so we can both work on it.

 

[ski_industry_enthusiast]

He is controlling his speed by braking with his turns. He needs to use absorption and extension with the turns. A good drill is to do this on a set of rollers, the youtube vid attached has this, look 14 sec into the vid. They want to kids to control their descent using A&E alone. BTW, from what i have read, its a standard exercise. If you can't find a set of rollers, even one is good to get the feel and get some sense of timing, look for them in the terrain park or a (snow cover) water pipe or ditch across the trail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOHodIf33HE

That's good advice. The only thing I'll say about it, though, is that you need to remember that he's, quite frankly, still a little kid. There's only so much absorbing a small pair of legs can do. But yes, do work on A&E. That will come, too, with practice and time.

 

[SkiDork]

yes, someone else mentioned he looks like he tends more to one turn than the other. I guess being ambidextrous in your turns is important. We'll try to work on that.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[SkiDork]

BTW - can someone explain how A&E can control speed? I know it's how all good bumpers do it but if anyone can explain it well (e.g. how to do it MORE on one set of turns and LESS on others) that would be quite helpful. Not sure if I explained myself well...

 

[SkiDork]

another reply - is he absorbing at all? After watching it a few times it seems like he's just using his young knees and slamming into each bump and then turning quickly into the next. I think he needs work on his A&E...

 

[2knees]

Just watched it once more, and the only thing I'll add is that he seems to skid his left turns more than his right. In other words, when approaching a bump to make a left turn, he rotates his skis further and slides into the bump, so the turn takes longer to initiate, and longer to release.

Again, very impressive.

That’s exactly what I was going to mention. Although the troughs could be playing a part in accentuating the skid as it looks like they are more crosscut, or horizontal to the fall line on left turns. tough to tell. very good skiing though and a solid base to build upon.

 

[bvibert]

BTW - can someone explain how A&E can control speed? I know it's how all good bumpers do it but if anyone can explain it well (e.g. how to do it MORE on one set of turns and LESS on others) that would be quite helpful. Not sure if I explained myself well...

IIRC there was a pretty detailed explanation in a thread not too long ago. I'll try and find it when I get back from lunch...

 

[jack97]

That's good advice. The only thing I'll say about it, though, is that you need to remember that he's, quite frankly, still a little kid. There's only so much absorbing a small pair of legs can do. But yes, do work on A&E. That will come, too, with practice and time.

The sunapee freestyle team has kids around that age, they use A&E in the turns. I saw the coach teaching it, on the pitch they where on and how the bumps got formed (tight with deep troughs), they needed it.

Some kids have short legs so do some adults. But it's really about moving the center of mass to control speed. Analogous to how a skier can accelerate out of a turn by shift his/her CM. A bumper can control their speed by moving the CM, the timing is key; at the crest of the bump you want to be in your deepest absorption, in the trough you want to be fully extended. The physic behind this was posted in another thread #288

http://forums.alpinezone.com/5633-everything-instructors-never-told-you-about-mogul-skiing-29.html

 

[SkiDork]

The sunapee freestyle team has kids around that age, they use A&E in the turns. I saw the coach teaching it, on the pitch they where on and how the bumps got formed (tight with deep troughs), they needed it.

Some kids have short legs so do some adults. But it's really about moving the center of mass to control speed. Analogous to how a skier can accelerate out of a turn by shift his/her CM. A bumper can control their speed by moving the CM, the timing is key; at the crest of the bump you want to be in your deepest absorption, in the trough you want to be fully extended. The physic behind this was posted in another thread #288

http://forums.alpinezone.com/5633-everything-instructors-never-told-you-about-mogul-skiing-29.html

Thanks Jack - I'll be examining that thread to see what I can pick up.

Keep 'em coming...

 

[jack97]

another reply - is he absorbing at all? After watching it a few times it seems like he's just using his young knees and slamming into each bump and then turning quickly into the next. I think he needs work on his A&E...

No, he is slamming some of the bumps (partly what I mean by using his turns to brake), he has to work on the timing to absorb it and use it to control speed. It takes time but once he "gets it" its worth the effort.

 

[jack97]

Thanks Jack - I'll be examining that thread to see what I can pick up.

Keep 'em coming...

Marc has a great analogy on conservation of angular momentum in post #302....if you like this type of stuff.

 

[bvibert]

The physic behind this was posted in another thread #288

Those are the posts I was thinking of, here's a link to the post that starts the discussion directly:

Post# 138659

 

[2knees]

all this bump talked has me jacked. i feel like i havent skied good bumps in a year. anyway, here are 2 videos from this year. One is hunter under spring conditions. second is my local hill, sundown. the sundown run is quite mellow in pitch but i THINK i may have actually used decent absorption and extension. probably more by accident since the trail is not steep enough to be conducive to hopping or slamming. anyway, have at it.

http://www.gregblasko.com/skivids/2knees_Hunter_121506.wmv

http://www.gregblasko.com/skivids/Sundown_13107.wmv

edit: i'm the first skier in the sundown video.

 

[SkiDork]

2knees - it looks prety damn good. I'm not sure I could hang with ya..

The moments I've had clarity, I've absorbed a little more. Thats what I would pick on. You're not bringin the knees up far enough and pushing down into the troughs enough. You've got to push on the acclerator pdeal into those troughs.

Pretty damn good, though.

Dork

 

[SkiDork]

Greg - the one thing I see is, it doesn't look like you're lookin 4 turns ahead. I have that problem big time, and whenever I concentrate on doing it I'm amazed how it smooths me out.

Other than that, nice bump work.