Billy, Patrick 2

Everyone today is working on extending “Dynamic Range”.

• The skier has only one job – to fall over
• The ski has only one job – to lift the skier back up.

Patrick got his time down another 5 seconds to 32.07 and Billy down to 33.4

Skating

We worked briefly on skating on the flat:

• Diverging the skis
• Rocking the feet onto their inside edges
• Falling forwards and accelerating with gravity
• Lifting the legs up from behind when falling forwards
• avoiding using the legs for direct propulsion

Later we skated directly downhill and then introduced dynamics – converting the skating into skiing – but without the legs stopping their skating action.

Timing

The skating “down /up” timing of the legs corresponds to the down/up timing of dynamics – the toppling over into a turn and coming back up out of it. This is like a motorbike going down into a turn and back up out of it. We worked a little on this and due to his independent leg action (wider stance) billy was very good at this from the start. Patrick needs some attention in this direction due to his “two footedness”. Currently however Patrick is managing better dynamics due to his close stance – but unless he gets the legs working independently this will eventually become limiting.

Side Slipping

Increasing the awareness of the feet, ski edges and control of the skis through the motion of the CoM (Centre of Mass) we worked on side slipping on the steep sections.

• Both feet are held close together below the skier
• Both feet are rocked onto their inside edges inside the ski boots
• Both skis are on their uphill edges
• The uphill ski is on its uphill edge but the foot is on its downhill edge
• This is the first experience of feeling the independence of ski edge from foot edge.

The skis simply don’t flatten due to the lateral stiffness of the ski boot shafts running up the lower legs – allowing the edging effects

• Move the CoM downhill slightly to slip downhill
• Move the CoM uphill to stop
• Move the CoM slightly forwards to slip diagonally forwards
• Move the CoM slightly backwards to slip diagonally backwards

The motion of the centre of mass and control this provides resembles a “joystick” control.

Slalom

Billy: good work on the dynamics – falling due to drifting too much sideways in the ruts – but generally the weight is too far back and the fronts of the skis are not gripping and turning – leading to body rotation and being spun around.

Patrick: also very good work on the dynamics – sideways drift of the skis also causing falls. Less rotation than Billy but a “two footed” version of the same problems. We will work on changing this tomorrow for both of you.

Both are reaching the speed that their technical level will allow – hence the difficulty staying on line and the falls. This is all positive and part of the feedback process that exposes the need to make changes – and highlights the most appropriate things to work on at any particular stage of development.

Lilly, skiing strongly parallel, working on dynamic range, good centred stance – and nice smile!