|
Post by perry on Jan 2, 2014 19:36:53 GMT -7
Jim fyi - trying to be funny, not a smart a55. to elaborate on what works for me - i tend to be overly analytical and in my athletic endeavors that has tended to tie me up and my brain gets in the way of my body. So watching and trying to imitate helps me more once I understand the biomechanical fundamentals. So the video above helps me more now than spending a lot of time on the PMTS site. Harb, no questions, established my fundamentals. JC has helped with big picture feel. For me as a kid growing up playing golf, the best analogy is starting out with Ben Hogan with specific instruction on everything including how to waggle, and moving to people who teach with big muscle feel images ( you can't make the latter work unless you have a lot of the fundamentals ). Bottom line, Clendenin freed me from my mind and gave some tools to enjoy more of the mountain but i would like to think that the core of my skiing came from Harb.
|
|
|
Post by JimRatliff on Jan 2, 2014 20:02:12 GMT -7
Jim fyi - trying to be funny, not a smart a55. to elaborate on what works for me - i tend to be overly analytical and in my athletic endeavors that has tended to tie me up and my brain gets in the way of my body. So watching and trying to imitate helps me more once I understand the biomechanical fundamentals. So the video above helps me more now than spending a lot of time on the PMTS site. Harb, no questions, established my fundamentals. JC has helped with big picture feel. For me as a kid growing up playing golf, the best analogy is starting out with Ben Hogan with specific instruction on everything including how to waggle, and moving to people who teach with big muscle feel images ( you can't make the latter work unless you have a lot of the fundamentals ). Bottom line, Clendenin freed me from my mind and gave some tools to enjoy more of the mountain but i would like to think that the core of my skiing came from Harb. Perry: I didn't take it as a smart-ass comment at all, but it would have still been ok. I certainly contribute my share of humorous, smart-ass comments. That is an interesting insight into your own understanding of how you best learn. Thanks. .
|
|
|
Post by lynn on Jan 3, 2014 11:33:17 GMT -7
and because I told you to!
|
|
|
Post by geoffda on Jan 3, 2014 14:11:43 GMT -7
Jim, very good question. Some of the why has been answered earlier in this thread. First and foremost, counter-balance is integral to tipping. In fact, lately Harald has been calling counter-balance "counter-tipping" in his presentations. Counter-balance is the gateway to tipping past the range of motion that initial foot tipping grants you and achieving bigger angles which are necessary for tighter turns (at least is if you want the ski to do the work). Additionally, counter-balance allows you to hang on to your old LTE while you go looking for the new LTE to start the next turn. On steep terrain and/or in crappy snow, riding the pig (or developing the 'O-frame') can be a very controlled way to ski.
Counteracting is first and foremost about counteracting the rotation of the femur that is caused by foot tipping. On really, really hard snow if you are tipping aggressively you will break the ski loose with the rotation you've created if you don't counteract. We already get way too much rotation even when we aren't trying to rotate, so the best way to improve our skiing is to learn how to minimize rotation and control what we can't avoid. I consider "rotary" to be much more of a nuisance than a skill--unless we are talking about counteracting of course. When all of the movements are there at a high level and you need to lay down a Ligety skivot, believe me, it isn't hard. Yet another thing about skiing that is counterintuitive. The best way to learn to pivot is to learn how NOT to pivot.
Beyond the above, counteracting is necessary to stack your skeleton optimally to resist the forces that the turn will generate. It also keeps the tail of the ski engaged at the turn finish so you don't prematurely release your stored energy. It is also a critical component for managing fore and aft balance. And adding counteracting into your skiing is a necessary component to being able to counterbalance properly at certain points in the turn.
Both counter-balance and counteracting can be difficult to develop. Those of us who are older probably have decreased mobility in our hips. Dry-land training and stretching can help improve our range of motion which will likewise improve the quality of our movements. In addition, counterbalancing must be done early. Remember that when your skis are flat (neutral) they are flat to the slope which means you must already be applying counterbalance. If you don't start counterbalancing immediately with your tipping it can be difficult to catch up. If you can, the best place to develop both movements is in front of a mirror on a tipping board. Next best is just in front of a mirror. You don't even need to be in your ski boots. Dry land just works better because it is tough to develop the level of hip awareness you need on the hill.
With all movements, what we are really talking about is trying to put your body in the best position--at each individual moment of the turn--to maximize ski performance. The problem with force vector drawings when it comes to skiing is that bio-mechanics matter even more. My guess is that it is less about the sum of the force vectors and more about the position of the force vector that is pushing against your ski. I'm neither a physicist nor a biomechanist, but it seems at least intuitive that when you are counterbalanced well, the forces are directed in such a way as to push the edge of the ski into the snow. When you are leaning this is not the case. The difference is both dramatic and easy to experience on hard snow. In the first case, you have the feeling of being "over" the ski where your weight is driving the edge into the snow. This is not the case when you are leaning and edging can only be accomplished if your adductors are strong enough to force the edge into the snow with muscular effort.
But there is actually more to it than that. The deal with counter-balance and all of the rest of the movements is that they are leading you some place that you can't really understand until you get there. While all of the movements will improve your skiing immediately, they are also a guide to try to lead you to a way of skiing that is completely opposite of the way you are skiing now--even as you learn PMTS. What I'm talking about is a level that very few skiers will ever reach. A level that is involves skiing differently that almost everyone else in the world. You can be an extremely good skier--even a very good PMTS skier in fact--without ever experiencing what I'm going to talk about (which is why so few skiers actually grasp what PMTS is really about). But if you have the motivation and can put in the time, it really is possible for mere mortals to achieve that level of skiing.
Harald hints at it in the beginning of Essentials where he says something to the effect that skiers who go looking for grip will never find it. The idea is this: you get the best ski performance when you can balance so perfectly through the first half of the arc that you never push against your ski and pressure is generated entirely because continuous tipping increasingly engages the ski which causes it to bend and arc. Until your foot is at the apex of the arc, you feel no pressure. At that point, the tip of the ski is starting to pull through the bottom of the arc and the sensation is of instant grip and pressure. Because you are not pushing against the ski up to this point, the ski is able to slice through the snow like a knife. By not grinding the edges in this phase, you get a turn that is faster (i.e. less friction from the edges--which is why this technique wins races). And, because the ski is slicing, you get incredible grip in the slickest of conditions. When racers do this well, you'll usually hear the announcers commenting about how quickly they are on and off their edges. When rec skiers do this well, they will hold onto the bottom of the turn and you'll see the ski hook to finish. The sensation of grip and control when this is done on hard snow is exquisite.
Counterbalance is one of the necessary movements (can you guess the others?) for being able to balance perfectly so you can get the ski to slice. It enables you to rapidly and progressively increase tipping without falling onto the inside ski. If you can counterbalance properly, it allows you to create angles by relaxing as you tip your feet and letting your hip move down instead of pushing your hip laterally into the turn (which pushes you out of balance and away from the outside ski).
Momentum and energy can substitute for balance at the top of the turn and sometimes the release forces are so great that it is difficult to get immediate counterbalance at the top of the turn. For skiers that have the feel for what they are trying to accomplish, this is not a big issue. They may appear to be inclining at the top of the turn, but what they are absolutely not doing is pushing against their skis. Moreover, their inclined look will eventually be replaced by counter-balance at some point in the turn. You never deliberately "incline to angulate" to accomplish what I'm talking about. Pushing against your skis--even the tiniest bit--before you have pressure to resist decreases ski performance and lowers the quality of the turn. Racers who do this cannot win at the highest levels. Mikaela Shiffrin is a great example. She knows how to do what I'm describing, but she isn't consistent enough yet. She won a World slalom Championship and the season slalom globe because she could do it some of the time. But Marlies Schild is now back healthy and she is automatic at making the ski slice. The last two races have been won decisively by Schild because of her superior technique.
At the end of the day, PMTS is far greater than the sum of its parts. Yes, you need to learn the movements and yes they will immediately help your skiing, but there is still more. Mastering the movements is just the first step. At that point you have all the pieces, but you have to figure out how to put them together for yourself. If you ever do, you'll immediately recognize how radical PMTS actually is. Most skiers are like early astronomers that were stuck looking at the night sky with the naked eye. Skiers who can do what I'm talking about are experiencing skiing in the same way that modern astronomers experience the far reaches of the universe through high powered telescopes.
|
|
|
Post by meput on Jan 3, 2014 16:39:30 GMT -7
Geoff, Great post!
|
|
|
Post by JimRatliff on Jan 3, 2014 20:29:03 GMT -7
Geoffda: Wow, what a tremendous write-up. I am, quite literally, speechless; unable to find words to express how much I enjoyed reading it (except for these words, obviously). Thank you.
|
|
|
Post by JimRatliff on Jan 3, 2014 20:30:48 GMT -7
and because I told you to! OK, while Lynn's summary doesn't quite match Geoffda's literary excellence, it IS effective in its own way. WILCO, dear.
|
|
|
Post by ToddW on Jan 4, 2014 6:14:42 GMT -7
I suggest we invite Geoff to be the first Ice Coast Skier Society scholar in residence alternating weeks between Waterville Valley and Killington. Team him up with Glenn Scannell and the skiing world will never be the same again.
(Jim R., it's okay to wear your special skiing panty hose while posing for the mirror if that makes the experience feel more authentic.)
|
|
|
Post by meput on Jan 4, 2014 8:43:38 GMT -7
...Jim R., it's okay to wear your special skiing panty hose while posing for the mirror if that makes the experience feel more authentic. Bad mental image: "Fischer Girl" and "Broadway Joe/Jim" posing in the mirror on the slant board
|
|
|
Post by JimRatliff on Jan 4, 2014 12:17:45 GMT -7
Bad mental image: "Fischer Girl" and "Broadway Joe/Jim" posing in the mirror on the slant board Meput: You know, you have to be of a certain age to even remember Broadway Joe's exploits (as well as Jim Palmer modeling underwear).
|
|