Technique feedback thread - post a video.

[fisheater]

@Brynski While you don’t drive a ski with a short leather, pressuring the cuff. It’s about posture, and weight distribution. When you’re in the shins to the boot position, your ankles are flexed, and your hips are over your ankles.
You are not as tall by a couple inches.

[Montana St Alum]

I have more trouble with visualising how to make shin pressure work with the lower cut and softer boots. My interpretation would be that in order to drive more with the cuff/shin of the rear boot/foot, I would need to flex both ankles and knees a little more, basically sinking lower into the stance. Is that what you mean?

If this is correct, then my next question would be how to do this without getting all spread out? I have noticed that it's easier to keep the stance compact if I don't bother trying to go low. It's also much less tiring to ski tall (for me).

Rob
[/quote]

Part of the "problem" is that your stance is really quite good. I tend to ski the same way, so I'm biased!

I would say that any modifications you make should be subtle. I think of dropping into the stance as utilizing 3 basic options.

1. In the lead change, pull one ski back to get the spread. I'm not a huge fan of this, but there are times when I definitely do it. An example would be that when you go into a right turn and your left ski is becoming the lead ski, it does so by bringing the right ski back, rather than pushing the left ski forward. It's like standing with feet together and stepping BACK to get the stance. The downside is that, if you go to more active gear, it becomes hard to use this method because there is a tendency to just not get enough weight down to be on the ball of the foot, Vs the toe as well as the next option.

If you see someone starting the turn with a knee drop and they allow the rear ski to "pop forward" into a parallel stance before completing the turn, it's likely they used this technique, Vs. the next one.

2. Instead of pulling what will be the trailing ski back, use the rear ski as a base for pushing the other ski forward. I think this focuses pressure a bit better onto the rear ski without unduly underweighting the front ski and the result is a firmer engagement of that back ski without overdoing it. It's important to properly weight the rear ski, but in method #1 it's easy to get too much weight back. You just want enough. Think of it as standing with feet together and then stepping FORWARD onto the new lead ski. I tend to prefer this method; It feels a bit like "walking or running down the hill" and I think it subtly positions your body better.


3. Drop down front and back like the scissor strut on the nose gear of an airplane. That works pretty well also. All three techniques have their place and once you get the muscle memory are pretty interchangeable.

I mostly use #2 but will use the other techniques if I need to, but to begin with, I think I'd advise #2 as the most useful early on in learning. If you step forward, it's likely you will get the proper weight distribution more consistently until you master the other two.

I consider an upright stance to be the most useful in my case and would only drop lower to accomplish specific goals. If you're going over the handlebars, a lower, slightly more spread out position (think spastic velociraptor and your rear ski is the counterweight that keeps your forehead off the ground.) that can be useful, but your observations on the advantage of more upright are spot on. I am almost never too upright, but am often lower and more spread out than I would like to be.

Edit: I see @fisheater eater put it considerably more succinctly. And I f*cked up the quotes, as usual.

[John Dee]

- I have found success with a tighter and more rear-ski weighted stance.

- Bring skis closer together (in the left-right axis). I have been told imagine you are holding your car keys between your thighs. This helps with the concept of turning your 2 skis into one big ski during a telemark turn. Leaving parallel "train tracks" in soft snow during a turn is a bad sign-- skis should come together as one and leave one arc.

Tennis ball... a tennis ball! Though, hyberbole is good for habits. This is what I realized today. I've been working on weight distribution, have started to compact my stance, and now this is obvious. My bad side tends to wander to the outside while its the forward ski. When I go to release the edges and transition, its too far out, not under me. I start out somewhat compact, but my bad leg goes out or downhill at some point.

It reminds me of the first time I saw other backcountry skiiers and tracks. It was at Camel's Hump and I saw the tracks before the skiiers. I thought they were split boarders going straight down the mountain. Then, I started to see skiiers and the tight lines that they made. I'm not skiing like that, but it applies.

[Montana St Alum]

My friend decided to take up tele. She's a fantastic alpine skier and is now 61 years old. This is day 2. She got in 9 runs at 5870 feet of lift served vertical on day 3 and was noticeably better. Pretty damn good, I think!

[Montana St Alum]

Relearning switch. With some loss of sight, I have a tendency to look down by moving my head down rather than by just pointing my eyes down.

That downward look tilts my head forward and that head tilt results in my body folding forward, which shifts my weight. Seeing this really makes it clear.


It's really obvious at time :14, where moving my head down completely throws me off. The other thing is that I have to look over my shoulder to (1.) see were I'm going, but more importantly (2.) to rotate my body properly for the turn. As I look over my shoulder, I have less range of motion looking left than looking right. Looking left, my head is up and looking right, a stiff neck makes it harder to stay in a nice upright position. Now that I've seen these, it's going MUCH better!




My carve is progressing pretty well, but I had to relearn that a bit as well.
I do have to use my hands as "curb feelers" though.
A DV ski school guy (who is a tele enthusiast) waved me down and gave me a thumb drive with this on it. Very nice of him!

[fisheater]

@MSU Alum If I can’t ski switch, but ski steep bumps as well as you do, in ten year when I catch up to you, it will be okay! I hope you’re still setting the bar then.
Eyes are really important, we don’t think about them until there’s a problem.
Nothing but the best

[Montana St Alum]

@MSU Alum If I can’t ski switch, but ski steep bumps as well as you do, in ten year when I catch up to you, it will be okay! I hope you’re still setting the bar then.
Eyes are really important, we don’t think about them until there’s a problem.
Nothing but the best

Thanks. It appears my vision has stabilized. I have begun to realize how lucky I actually am. On the one hand, I can't drive, but on the other hand my lovely bride seems fine with driving me up to the ski area all the time!

[tnt2of4]

I finally got to play with my S-Bound 98's and Alpina Alaska NNNBC on some groomers at my local resort. Feeling better and matching edge angles and fore aft balance, but I look very static and feel off balance at the end of my turns.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ngLOzUjDt88?feature=share

[Montana St Alum]

I finally got to play with my S-Bound 98's and Alpina Alaska NNNBC on some groomers at my local resort. Feeling better and matching edge angles and fore aft balance, but I look very static and feel off balance at the end of my turns.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ngLOzUjDt88?feature=share

My vision is a bit degraded, so it's hard for me to make out some details in the video.
I think your pole plant is opposite of what would be considered "conventional". It appears you plant the right pole just prior to a left turn and plant the left just prior to a right turn.
My oldest son does the same thing, and if I could catch him, I'd correct this "flaw"!

As you progress, there are advantages to using the technique of planting just prior to the turn on that side. So, at the end of a left turn, for example, plant the right pole in preparation for the right turn. I think this will be more effective in transferring weight and help with edge changes from turn to turn more efficiently.

[Lhartley]

RIP on me