Hard day working on special slalom! Alex worked very had doing over 40 runs. Fortunately he rapidly abandoned his “plastic” skiing nonsense – but not before breaking one slalom pole with his ski boot. Beyond this he was stuck skiing as if he was in GS and that isn’t really ideal – because it all happens so rapidly in slalom. In the video he is trying various ways to exit the turns – leg retraction and just moving rapidly over the lower ski – but is nearly always late. Part of the problem is that he is distracted by the poles and wants to ski around them as he does in slalom. Although the still photo here looks good the right hand should be to the inside of the ski pole not reaching outwards – this should be helping to drive his centre of mass into the turn. The arm is part of the body and so the arm sticking out contributes to his center of mass going the wrong way. Much of today was just about desperately needed experience in the poles and getting used to them. It takes a while to adapt and start to ignore the actual poles then focus on good skiing principles. The body moving across and into the turn should put the arms in the right place. Alex was shaping his turns and moving his body as if he was in GS and then relying on “stivoting” when it was all too late. Fortunately we still have tomorrow to work on this.
After training we worked on skating timing during the run back into Tignes. This should help immensely in slalom – just like understanding the Centre of Mass helped him in GS. Alex started to feel how the turn was formed from a single skate and how this projected him (sideways – relative to the torso) across the slope at the end of each turn. Lateral speed – across the hill – generates pressure on the turn to the outside of the pole bringing the turn apex higher up instead of beneath the pole. I’d already explained how each turn has to be seen in 3D as a sort of scoop on the outside of each pole – a banked track spitting you across to the other side of the course – not a flat turn. If Alex can get this timing tomorrow then he will be set – but that is really asking a lot. In reality he is already doing very well because slalom on the steep like this is extremely difficult.
Compensation for yesterday’s weather delivered us a perfect day for working on Slalom. Alex chose to spend nearly all of the day in race training and made an excellent choice because this permitted him to make some real progress – ending on his fastest run of the day after 26 runs. (23 filmed and three not filmed). He is now down to 23.86 seconds – reducing his record today from 24.38. That is a big margin of improvement for one day at this level.
The first video shows the fastest run – on his GS skis – and with his best technique of the day. Included are some examples of what happens when bindings are clearly not doing their job and Alex’s skilful handling of the outcome.
The second video is to let people see what it’s actually like being Alex…
Retraction Timing
Technically we worked on only two things today, beginning with the timing of the leg actions for leg retraction. Normal “skating” timing (which Alex still doesn’t have right) requires a flexion down into the turn and an up motion out of the turn – with the legs flexing and extending accordingly to assist this. With very high loads on the body and particularly on steep slopes this action is far too slow and there is already far too much energy in the system – so the timing of the legs reverses! The release of the turn then requires an active retraction of the legs – which lets the body come out over the skis to get out of the turn – the energy level here means that the centre of mass still comes upwards a bit . Once the skis are being crossed then the new uphill leg xetends with full force to drive the centre of mass downwards and into the new turn. We practiced this with static exercises first. When you have speed this is the fastest way to transition turns – but should only be used when there is no time for skating to increase propulsion across the hill – when there is no time for holding onto the turn during the “cross over” and using the pressure to direct momentum across the hill.
Centre of Mass
A bicycle is controlled by the motion of the centre of mass (CoM). To go left you move the CoM left and the bike acts to support this. Skiing fundamentally works the same way. Static exercises were once again used to explain CoM to Alex to make sure that he fully understood it. I showed Alex that making angulation itself – changing the body shape – does not move the CoM. Only inclining moves the CoM and during the turn the CoM must always be leading the ski. The ski will obey the CoM. I held Alex leaning over so he could see his skis and the relationship to the CoM experienced in a turn. Alex got the picture in his head – went up for his next run and demolished his prevous record – despite it being an old rutted race course. He found that most of his skidding (which caused the skis to ping off) vanished and he coud grip. This is the key to “grip”. Alex felt that by controlling the entire turn with the CoM he was now the boss of his skis (his words). Alex could now feel the slingshot effect of the skis throwing him across the slope (the horizontal component) towards the next gate – the extra grip totally changing the experience!
Bad weather day today, -19°C at the top of the Tovière and wind up to 100 km/hr. Alex, in the true spirit of racing was not in the least phased by the weather. On arrival at the training piste there was nothing set out – but we skied down the slope and were asked at the bottom how we found it to be. The honest response was that it was good to go. While a course was being set out Alex did a few warm up runs and self preservation kicked in due to poor visibiility and today I had to ask him to ski a bit faster. His turns were in good control, the lessons firmly taken from yesterday and the skiing looking good. We sideslipped the course to prepare it – Alex twice and me three times before it was ready.
Right from the first run in the course Alex focused on early turn release and deliberate leg retraction to help this. Despite the snow being slower he was only 2 tenths of a second behind his best time yesterday. Video clip 1 is his fastest time, video clip 2 is his smoothest run when focusing hard on leg retraction and video 3 is part of his only run on long GS “stivoty” skis. We only had time for one run on those as the training area was closed early.
Alex is very stable with his skiing now and did an excellent job of attacking a course in bad weather with poor visibility and unseen ruts – unperturbed. That’s a sign of a good technical base. His times in both perfect and bad conditions are almost identical.
Alex – this is not a successful “stivot” – this is a dramatic braking action which loses you huge dollops of time. Use the ski to turn instead of turning the ski. This was on slalom skis too – which CAN carve!
After our ejection from the slalom area we concentrated on technique. Mike shared in the instruction because he is also working on the same fundamentals and it is often better to work with two people at the same time because that way different questions are asked and different issues raised. Both Alex and Mike made noticeable progress.
Forward Pressure
We all took off our skis on the slope (out of the wind) and standing across the slope adopted a “sitting” position. This is impossible without falling backwards. Repeating the same facing downhill and relaxing you come to rest on the shins – even with a stiff and strong ankle. Mike didn’t feel this at first which was interesting as it revealed unnecessary tension. I wanted Alex to understand that flexing (sitting uphill on an invisible chair) creates pressure on the boots (shins) and fronts of skis. Turning the legs and boot side on and still sitting uphill maintains this pressure but simulates the end of a turn – without rotation! I wanted Alex to feel this when skiing in short turns – always staying on the fronts but completely safe. His skiing at the moment is nearly all on the backs of the skis and this is a major area for him to develop to have much more control. Alex was able to do this successfully.
I tried to show how the leg turning in the hip causes an optical effect that makes it look like the knee is being pushed in – but it is only the adductors holding the foot on edge and the entire leg itself being turned relative to the non-rotating upper body. Never twist the knee inwards!
We did exercises up on the balls of the feet leaning forwards hard on the fronts of the skis – just to feel the grip and the deflection from the skis. Only the flexion is necessary as the turn evolves - to maintain pressure on the fronts – not a “leaning” forwards. On the contrary – in the second half of the turn you need to pull the centre of mass back up the hill into the centre of the turn to increase the build up of pressure on the outside ski and this ensures that you cannot be thrown over the fronts. We experimented with ths by making arcs in the snow with just the ski boots (static exercise).
Skating
It turns out that Alex has never actually understood the concept of skating for a whole turn. This is why in the video yesterday he just skated to start off then switched to skiing by dropping his hips into the turn. He didn’t realise that the skate takes an arc and becomes the turn. We only found out this misunderstanding over a hot chocolate at the end of the day – so it will be priority tomorrow.
Alex was required to warm up on the slope beside the slalom poles before uisng them, meaning a few runs in control on the steep piste. Exactly as happened back in October on the glacier he simply could not control his speed and was forced into huge braking actions. The problem appers to be that he practises on plastic back home and goes so slowly that he can just drop onto the edges of the skis and wait. Trying the same on snow is catastrophic – leading to runaway speed, poorly formed turns, no use of line to control speed and then urgent braking actions to compensate. Various atempts to explain the obvious to Alex went straight over his head – until he followed me down the hill copying and then he understood. Alex was immediately back on top of his skiing to a level that permitted good times in the slalom and competent basic performance.
Early Turn Release
We only worked on one thing in the slalom and that was at releasing the turn early – immediately after passing the gate/pole. Alex was given a detailed explanation of the illusion of “centrifugal force” which is a fictitious force (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_force). The fact there is no force pulling you out of a turn means that you have to act decisively and early to get out of each turn and not become blocked “resisting” this imaginary force. Until this moment of release you should be trying to build up force driving yourself inwards in the turn. If the skier waits any time after passing the pole before trying to get out of the turn then he will become late for the next turn automatically and set of a cascade of errors that lead to braking actions.
There are two main ways to get out of a turn – one being to use the driving inwards force to then lift you up and out – or to break the “resistance” altogether by retracting the legs. This second way is sometimes referred to as a “cross under” – best used when there is already great force and very little time to get out of the turn.
Natural and reflexive leg retraction from Alex as he tries to exit the turn to the left early…
The run where Alex retracted was his smoothest and most technically accurate. (First run on the video). Alex’s next run on the video was faster still – but because he managed a tighter line – though he didn’t mange the leg retraction and was losing time stivoting instead. He can still go faster despite already reaching a very respectable 24.38 seconds. It will be harder to get his time lower from here on because it depends now directly on him proggressing in technique.
Skating
Outside of the poles we worked on skating which will eventually be used to control “race timing” properly. On video I do a short demo where the skating action is amplified by the skis and great purchase is made on the fronts of the skis. The body is transported across the hill during each skate. When Alex tries this he becomes too passive – just dropping his hips into the turns and waiting - not managing to use the fronts of his skis at all. Alex needs to get this rhythm and skating action to be able to create the real timing to be able to stay solidly on his outside ski, to use the front of the ski effectively and to make the apex of his turns towards the outside of the poles and not beneath them. Alex already has very good dynamics – he now needs good skating skills and to combine this with even better dynamics skills.
Mike was having trouble skating effectively – his boots turning out not to be aligned well (though at maximum canting). I explained how to get the supporting hip pulled in beneath the body so as to act as a fulcrum for generating skating actions and angulation but we will need to look at this more carefully. In contrast Alex’s previously chronic postural problems appear to have gone away even if he tends to get onto his inside ski far too much.
Warming up today meant negociating broken down chairlifts but we did have a completely clear run down from the top of the Borsat allowing high speed carving all the way. Timothy was feeling the cold as it was minus 14 degrees so prior to going to the slalom we had a pit stop to warm him up. After the pit stop he did three slalom runs then returned to the café to warm up again. Unlike Rodion – Timothy’s brother, who would have rather died from hypothermia than miss any slalom time – Timothy’s tolerance of the cold was not a strong point. Perhaps there were not enough layers of clothing. I always wear a down feather layer duing the winter months. This keeps you warm even when relatively inactive and compresses into a very small pack when not being used.
Timothy tried to apply the work we had been doing yesterday to the slalom – but could only manage a 29.8 seconds. In his run on the video he is trying to use racing timing (apex of the turn to the outside of the pole) and to increase inclination (dynamics) and carve. He manages it for the first couple of turns and then reverts to braking to slow himself down. Lots of work to be done here! We dropped it at this point and went skiing. For the rest of the day the focus was on skating and racing timing – at which Victor greatly improved – as seen in the video…
Racing timing is when – as I described yesterday – the turns achieve maximum pressure towards the outside of the gate – not below it. The skier effectively skates directly down the fal lline – the upper body facing downhill and being projected from side to side. Initially Victor was letting the ski skid at the start of the turn but once he realised that he had to commit to fully gripping and mostly carving (skating) then it all fell into place. In the video you can see Victor powerfully being displaced from side to side. In contrast Timothy – although trying his best and carving, doesn’t manage to pick up on the feeling of his body being pushed across the hill – so he cannot develop his dynamics. Victor felt the early and extra grip and felt his stance to be more relaxed and functional. The basis of my teaching for the past 20 years has been the combination fo Skating and Dynamics – but this is quite an advanced level and it is not easy to learn. Timothy made a good effort but there just wasn’t time to take it further at the moment. This timing can be used to ski fast over difficult terrain because it does not involve turning hard across the slope at any moment.
Before today’s warm up run I suggested to Victor that we try the slalom for Timothy. Timothy would either respond by becoming even more defensive – or it could work the other way and encourage him to be more assertive. The best strategy would be to go straight to the slalom stadium and use a fresh course where there would be no additional complications.
Rushing the Turn Starts – Perpendicularity – Line
During the warm up I had a look at the skiing and commented that Timothy had improved but was rushing the starts of his turns. The start of the turn should take the longer than the end because it is a spiral which tightens up towards the end. Timothy was effectively just trying to get his skis around beneath him on the mountain and was pushing the skis outwards to do so. I explained that when standing on the flat or across the hill we are vertical to gravity and 100% of gravity is resisted, stopping us from falling through the snow. When pointing down a slope a percentage of gravity (say 33% – actually Fg sin α where α is the slope angle) is used to accelerate us until matched by air resistance giving a constant speed – but the remainder acts perpendicularly to the slope (say 66% – Fg cos α). It’s like our entire world has moved into a new reference plane – exactly the same as when vertical but with reduced force beneath the feet. In both reference frames we are perpendicular to the ground. The point is that you have to remove the idea of uphill and downhill to a large extent and reference the slope to “perpendicular”. This mental reset helps to avoid rushing the start of the turn as you see it in your mind’s eye as being on flat ground.
Good skiers control speed through the use of “line” – not by braking. The skier may actually travel faster but by shaping the turns and completing them the time to get down the slope may be considerably longer. This of course is the basic principle of a race course which is set to determine a skier’s speed for a given discipline. The best skiers will all be within a few seconds of each other while negociating the complexities of the given line and using the least braking and most acceleration possible.
Slalom
Timothy had a fast 29.33 seconds first run in the slalom and was clearly positive about attacking. In fact he would have to be slowed down at this stage to correct his technique. The slalom really showed up his lack of understanding of line and his strong tendency to brake for speed control. He was told to take a wide and high line to bring him directly close to and below each gate. The idea is to improve the technical skiing and forward speed even though it is a slow route. Once the technical skiing is stronger the line can be tightened up accordingly, more directly downhill and faster altogether. Timothy in the video is deliberately using this slow line, attempting to avoid rusing the starts of his turns and also trying to come over the lower ski with his centre of mass just after he passes beneath each gate. He does a good job but is still pushing out the skis and braking.
Timothy going sideways still half a mile from the gate!
Carving
Racing is essentially about carving as much as possible. This is not always achievable in Giant Slalom because men now have to race on 40m radius skis – but the principle remains. My feeling is that skiers should develop first on properly carving slalom skis giving clear feedback – and then learn to make the appropriate compensations for artificially limited GS skis. We started our carving exercises simply traversing holding the skis on their uphill edges (inside edges of both feet). Keeping the legs quite close together allows the two skis to be angled by almost the same amount. Part of the obvective was to use the fronts of the skis to carve – using the mechanisms we had already worked on during previous days. The start of a racing turn – where carving is possible – is aided by pressure on the front of the outside ski – pulling the skier into the turn. The main goal here was to move Timmothy away from his rushing of the starts of his turns. Although Timothy’s fist few traverses showed that he could not lock the skis on edge this rapidly changed and he managed good linked carved turns on flat and moderate terrain.
Despite Timothy’s carving he was rotating and failing to generate any hip angulation as a result. Racing requires good hip angulation to be able to generate greater edge angles and more agile movement of the body across the skis at turn transitions.
Victor has his legs too far apart and the outside leg is trailing. Unlike Timothy he almost has too much angulation. This is probably due to weight going onto the inside ski allowing too much angulation for the relatively low speed and turn tightness (not tight). Working on “Feet Forwards” technique would help to address this.
Timothy’s much improved perpendicular stance…
Using the Feet
Both Timothy and Victor had been complaining about having sore shins so we needed to spend some time looking at the support they were getting from the feet. “Shin Bang” really comes from allowing the ankle to go weak and flex inside the ski boot. The best way to strengthen the ankle is to stand on the front of the heel – right below the ankle bone. If weight is manitained there during bending (hips and knees) then the ankle reflexively stiffens and the anterior tibialis muscle tenses up (outside of the shin bone). With this stance the feet are also easily rolled from edge to edge.
Even better is standing on the balls of the feet – the heels raised – but this makes rolling of the feet and awareness of the adductor muscles a bit more complicated. The advantage of this stance however is that it pre-tensions all the muscles in the legs and protects the joints plus guarantees greater elasticity in movement. This is probably best reserved for more advanced skiing when there is already good control of the rolling of the feet and adductor muscle use.
Feet Forwards Technique – Generating Angulation and Stopping Rotation
Our video today finishes with a tricky exercise for pushing the outside foot forwards during the turn. The foot never gets in front of the other foot – it just tightens the turn instead. The exercise is hard to do because it involves coordination of the whole body and centre of mass. Using pole support the body is moved downhill with the feet facing across the hill. The outside boot is pulled over onto its inside edge and pushed forwards in a natural arc. When the boot faces straight downhill the centre of mass must start to move uphill so that angulation is created. All of this happens in a real turn and is very active. Timothy can be seen flattening his boot and letting the heel push outwards - not moving the centre of mass uphill and losing all angulation – exactly as he does in skiing. Due to this his hip comes outwards and he rotates instead of creating angulation. The message here above all else is “PULL IN” do not push outwards. Victor passed on my explanation about the illusion of “centrifugal force” by translating it into Russian. There is no “outwards force” and nothing to “brace against”. Everything in skiing is a deflection inwards (gravity later on in a turn is an exception to this). The ski deflects us inwards and we must work with it – moving the centre of mass inwards – pulling inwards with the legs and feet. The reason people fail to grip on ice is because they usually fail to perceive or do any of this at all. Timothy improved a lot and was able to stay behind me when skiing even on hard, icy terrain. Directing the centre of mass towards the inside of the skis is critical.
Racing Timing
In preparation for tomorrow’s slalom training we worked on racing timing. Looking down a course the apex of each turn should be towards the outside of each pole not underneath it (The slow line I gave Timothy this morning has the apex below the pole). This generates a higher terminal velocity – but it is still controlled and permits a free-skier to travel very fast over bumps and in cruddy off-piste snow as well. The turns are simply not finished off to the same extent – but a racer has to be able to use both timings to cope with a complex race course where there are changes of line and rhythm.
Yesterday’s video in reality didn’t show much improvement for Timothy but this was partly due to the challenging terrain and snow where it was filmed. While Timmothy was definitely better centred over his skis and more relaxed and bending at the hips, he had very little control of rotation, rhythm, use of poles, anticipation, angulation etc. He was told this straight away today and that his current level of effort would be unlikely to bring results. Rodion – his elder brother – was always truly excellent with instruction – genuinely giving his best efforts and getting corresponding results. Timothy appears to have his own agenda – but it seems to be partly guided by fear/anxiety and over-controlling.
Todays skiing began with me asking Timothy to ski very close behind me – to turn where I turn. This is so that he is forced to follow my line and not turn where it is easiest for him – a bit similar to the way a slalom course imposes constraints on the skier. He didn’t get it at all and within two relatively slow turns he was distanced – as is usual for him. I asked him to engage his brain and stay close – there being no reason at all why he couldn’t if he tried and put aside his own agenda for a while. Of course he then did manage to ski right on my tail. Later, when on steep, icy ground I let him fall behind because the issue was more technical and due to his fears and I could watch him then from a distance too and analyse what was likely to help him most.
After our warm up run we skied the Face de Bellevarde while the snow was still in good condition. Timothy struggled with the steepness but we focused on applying the principles that we had worked on yesterday – fronts of the skis, fronts of the boots, hip pulled back to stop rotation, create angulation (increased edging) and anticipation plus prepare for a pole plant and motion over the downhill ski. The type of turns we were doing were braking, pivoted turns designed to slow down and remain safe. I’d expected to see Timothy struggle here but this is the sort of situation he needs to stimulate change.
Arriving at the top of the Solaise sector it was time to structure the training better. Timothy appeared to be more receptive and responsive when pushed so that was encouraging. He didn’t appear to be discouraged by the earlier criticisms and seemed to try harder. It takes a while when properly training someone to get inside their head and read exactly what they are doing. There are many aspects to skiing, not just physical actions. Actions are driven by emotion, instinct and self preservation as well as ego (trying to look good) – but all that counts is correctly learned appropriate skills. There is an infinite number of ways to mess up skiing – but a very narrow path of “getting it right”. We had now reached a stage where I knew the main areas to focus on with Timmothy and how he would respond so it was clear how things should proceed with appropriate exercises.
Skating exercises
– using the adductors, insides of the feet and separating the edges of the feet from the edges of the skis. Skating across flat ground the insides of the feet correspond to the inside edges of the skis. Skating across a steep slope the uphill ski goes on its outside edge – but with the aid of the shaft of the ski boot the foot remains on its inside/downhill edge. On the final skate you stand up on the uphill ski and then let the centre of mas fall downhill into a turn – starting from the uphill edge of the uphill ski – but the foot on its downhill edge. Once this was achieved we then started to get the turn to start by coming over the downhill ski with the centre of mass – both from a traverse or from the end of a turn. The body has to come up out of the existing turn – standing on the downhill ski (inside edge of foot) – centre of mass moving over the lower ski. This is quite a scary move compared with standing on the uphill ski – but the point of the exercise is to clarify the differences. The timing of the second exercise is still “skating” – coming up out of the turn. If you hold back instead and go onto the uphill ski then this delays the turn start – but if you use the energy of the existing turn to come up and out over the downhill ski you are very quickly and securely into the next turn. This move is always scary but it always works. Timothy was able to work on this but had a strong tendency to delay his turn with a slight traverse and so lose the energy, momentum, rhythm and ability to get over that downhill ski with confidence.
Bumps
We used bumps to practice the pivot and to work on flexing/compressing to come over the downhill ski – using the bump and pole support. Leg timing needs to be reversed in this way in bumps or else you become airborne due to the bump if you try to come “up” and over the ski.
Short Swings
The video is of linked short swings. Timothy is trying to jump downhill (to get perpendiculqr to the skis as they swing into the fall line). Failure to get over that downhill ski is one of the main reasons for ending up on the back of the skis and the body being stuck vertical – instead of perpendicular to the slope during the turn. Short swings are the opposite from bumps with all the energy comming from the legs (not from a bump and so jumping is necessary). There are many ways to do short swings but we did not have time to go into that. All I wanted was to see control of rotation, angulation, anticipation, solid pole use and expecially a bouncing rhythm. Timothy failed to use his left pole so struggled. He also killed his bounce – just the same as he kills the energy in his longer turns. He did however manage to jump downhill and significantly improved his efficiency from his previous efforts. Victor didn’t have enough angulation and was not braking enough with the action – the skis running too fast forwards and the pole use being weak and late – as if in a slalom turn – so his speed control was limited. Short swings are to exaggerate the braking action and this is the only time (other than bumps) where heavy pressure goes on the poles.
We started out with a warmup run over to Val d’Isère from Tignes. Timmothy is growing and as his body changes it’s important to supervise his skiing correctly because it’s this period when things can go wrong. The first clips in the video are of both Timmothy and Victor skiing just after a warm up run so we could record and study the current level and any issues that might be present. Timmothy’s main problem here is that he is on the back of his skis and boots with no flexion at the hips and a strong rotation. Victor was skiing well – but later on I spotted that he was defending his right hip – this turning out to be due to back pain. Those two issues for both Timmothy and Victor are partly connected and can be helped by working on the same principles.
Timmothy was told that we were going to work on being on the fronts of the skis and boots – but carefully – so as not to bend/collapse the ankles. Victor translated into Russian for me so I tried to keep the explanations as simple as possible. The goal was to stay on the heels but press against the shins of the boots at the same time – lifting up the toes and trying to apply pressure on the fronts of the steeps. Timmothy had said that he found steep ice the most difficult so this was an appropriate way to start the session because it is also the best way to grip on ice.
We did a few exercises – just leaning hard forwards (this time up on the fronts of the feet) and exaggerating the action of using the fronts of the skis. Almost immediately Timmothy’s stance looked far better now that he was not locked in the backs of his boots. To help all of this I asked Timmothy to roll both feet onto their inside edges, squeeze the adductor muscles together and tighten the muscles in his legs in general.
Victor mentioned about how in the past I’d explained that the feet and knees remain ahead of the body in deep snow – so there appeared to be a contradiction. There is no contradiction but it was necessary to explain – however this made a good lead more deeply into the subject exactly in the direction I was intending.
Standing still facing across the hill – if you bend the knees and hips in ski boots so as to “sit” then you fall backwards. Face everything downhill and then as you “sit” you end up resting solidly on the fronts of your ski boots – knees and feet “in front of the body”. Gravity pulls you into the boots. Now only turn the boots across the slope below you and keep your bottom sitting uphill and you still remain on the fronts of the boots. To achieve this when in action you need to pull back the outside hip more than the shoulder to face the pelvis downhill. By pulling the hip out of the way you can sink down into the turn – sitting on an invisible uphill chair – staying on the fronts of the boots and with no danger of being pitched over the fronts of the skis in deeper or unpredictable snow. This also allows the hip to flex while removing strain from the lower back and permits postural muscles to function correctly – helping Victor’s back issues. (Though we didn’t go into that much due to language issues for Timmothy) I explained that the hip action was made during the turn transition. Victor found for himself that this mad the new turn initiation automatic by getting the hip out of the way for the body to cross over the skis.
We looked at how the build up of pressure and edge grip was developed by this sitting action – but then with the aid of preparing for the use of the downhill pole this would then be used to bring the body out over the fronts of ths skis downhill into the next turn (called “anticipation”). Only short pivoted turns use the pole in this way – to restrict the dynamics but give support instead and to act as a feedback so that you know you have avoided rotation and are not too far back with the body to start the next turn. I did one static exercise when Timmothy was held by me and pulled over the fronts of his skis so he could feel the process. Timmothy did well skiing with this – correcting his pole use, stance and rhythm whenever it fell apart – as seen in the second series of video clips – where also Victor shows no problem with his right hip.
We used the same movement pattern for carving – fronts of the skis – hip position/flexion. Feedback is often clearer when carving so it is good to develop both the carve and pivot together.
After watching all four ski I decided that with Jenny’s skiing being very similar to Leonie’s from last week – and that with Leonie improving so much – it would be appropriate to try the same approach with Jenny – which would also be a program for addressing fundamental issues with the three stronger skiers simultaneously. Leonie had almost five days – but working with her through her particular issues had provided insights that Jenny could perhaps benefit from. With Jenny having only half a day of coaching she might not get quite as far – but as she had retained much from previous years this could still be very significant. This set the scene for the session.
Mindfulness
The session began with James being asked what he felt with is feet when skiing. James answered “nothing”. “Nothing” is pretty much what most people think about when skiing – or they are concerned about how they look, how fast they are going (especially people named Andrew apparently), where their friends are, which lift or restaurant they are headed for etc – basically a lot of superficial noise.
Skill is a trained and acquired quality – a programming of the body and mind to be able to do something that is not instinctive to the point where it is automatic and unconscious. However, there are endless layers of skill and when one level is acquired then it becomes the base for building the next level. The need for awareness, attention and focus actually grows – it doesn’t disappear. This “mindfulness” brings its own rewards as focusing within the body induces calmness and removes stress, tension and anxiety that come from otherwise being otherwise distracted by the external world. Effectively, your thoughts are engaged directly in the moment and not absorbed in worrying about consequences. Through mindfulness and internalizing your thoughts within your body you then relate to the outside world more accurately, rationally and with better results. The recreational skier who is anxious, terrified, frustrated or bored by the end of a week on skis has missed the boat entirely in this respect – but it’s not usually the skier who is to blame – it’s usually the teaching. First of all, you can’t even visualize if you don’t have sensible (literally – relating to the senses) and accurate technical information to work with – because the physical results just won’t add up. Most people don’t even start to focus correctly – because when they are not taught correctly they simply can’t. Being taught “balance” and “snowplough” or “up/down timing” is like being brainwashed into mindless oblivion.
When you do have the right information, understanding, perception and the opportunity to practice – then make a point of being mindful – applying attention, awareness, focus and visualizing with all the senses as much as possible. The rewards are unlimited if this is done – otherwise the ubiquitous learning plateaux are the usual long term outcome.
In skiing attention can sequentially move between individual aspects such as muscle tension in a foot to the slight rotations between the base of the spine and the 12th thoracic vertebra – but mostly it should be directed at the centre of mass and its overall motion. Skill levels are associated with ever finer and more detailed selective muscle relaxation. Muscle contraction takes energy – consuming the ATP molecule at a cellular level. What most people don’t realise is that it takes more ATP to relax a muscle than to contract it. Relaxing requires focus, effort and practice – and is very counter intuitive in many ways.
Feet, Adductors, Skating
Beginning from the feet upwards everyone was asked to stand on their heels – specifically the fronts of the heels just beneath the ankle joints. Supporting the body from here permits the feet to be clearly rolled over onto their inside edges by using the subtaler joint just below the ankle. This also activates the anterior tibialis (shin bone muscle) and strengthens the ankle – providing stability and security – enabling feedback and transfer of power and pressure with the shaft of the ski boot – both laterally and in the fronts.
Both feet were required to be rolled inwards and the corresponding adductor muscles tensioned right up to the groin. Previously I would have taught both feet to be rolled to the left or right together – one being on the inside and the other being on the outside edge – but this common understanding appears to be limited and generally inappropriate. Rolling both feet inwards and tensioning both sets of adductors provides core stability and a correct technical base for all aspects of skiing from pure pivoting to pure carving. This became clear to me through apparent paradoxical issues with pivoting whereby it was already clear that no matter which foot or ski edge was used it was always necessary to remain on the inside edge of the foot. Later this proved to be effective in carving for maintaining a powerful stance on the skis – and to instigate “double carving”.
We used skating exercises to cultivate the required feelings and control – skating on flat terrain on the inside edges of the feet and skis. Going across a slope the uphill ski would have to remain on its outside edge – separately from the foot being on its inside edge – thus developing the feeling whereby the lateral stiffness of the boot comes into play to permit this. The reflexive response is to let the foot roll onto its outside edge to match the ski – so the opposite has to be cultivated – prioritizing the stability of the body and the body’s geometry.
The skating in steps was simply taken to the end of each traverse with the final skate onto the uphill ski then being used as a platform to allow the centre of mass to fall downhill into a turn – the point being that the turn initiated from the uphill edge of the uphill ski and that the foot and body were already oriented over the inside edge – thus clarifying that there is no need to be on the inside edge of the ski to start a turn – only the inside edge of the foot. We didn’t have a lot of time to practice this as the overall goal for today was much further along the progression. Everything so far was just to establish a base to develop upon.
Hips, Posture, Fronts of Skis
Moving up the body only Jenny was properly aware of how to work with the pelvis and hips. The boys had totally confused and literally dangerous interpretations of posture control taken from weight training and rugby – so this turned into a very valuable part of the session.
James in particular was actively hollowing his lower back, tilting his pelvis downwards at the front as he had been instructed in the gym to do so. Static loading demonstrated to James and William how in fact “neutral pelvis” reflexively activates the postural muscles which protect the spine – and that this nearly always requires an upwards tilt of the pelvis with a relaxing of the hip muscles when flexing. If the lower abdominals are not felt to contract reflexively under load then the spine is in danger. The contraction compresses the fluid filled organs creating a “hydraulic sac” which distributes the vertical load over the whole cross sectional area – instead of only through the spine itself.
Skiing poses a special problem for posture and is an exaggeration of the same problem created with “over-striding” in running induced by thick and soft heels in running shoes. Notably in skiing any effort to face the shoulders downhill for “anticipation” causes the outside hip to be pulled in front of the ribs and for all postural control to be lost even more surely than with the above pelvic tilt problems. When you combine pelvic tilt with this issue it’s a surefire one way trip to disaster for the spine in the long run. When the shoulders are turned downhill during the turn completion then you can visualize the spine (from the pelvis up to the ribs) twisting slightly in the same direction as the turn – bringing the hip around in front of the ribs. Static load testing in this position reveals that the postural muscles will not activate and there is no protection for the spine. Those also with a poorly tilted pelvis will even kink their spine sideways – and anyone can see that there is an unnatural problem present. (James was doing all of this!)
The antidote to the above is to pull the outside hip backwards during the turn – twisting the spine deliberately in a counter direction to the turn from the bottom up. This stretches the supporting hip backwards opening up a space between the ribs and the hip joint and allowing the abdominal muscles to contract under load the fully protect the spine. Pelvic tilt is quite simple here – always tilt upwards at the front – because the pulling backwards of the hip tends to tilt the pelvis downwards.
James had a lot to focus on to correct his posture but he did a good job once it was understood – the pelvic tilt being the main issue in his case. William had a different problem due to facing his shoulders strongly downhill to be able to pivot effectively – so he had to swap this for facing his pelvis downhill instead and reversing the twist in his spine. He did a good job of changing this and looked vastly better on his skis as a result.
The point of all the above was just to integrate everything from the feet up through the body in a coherent biomechanical movement pattern. In reality we move from the core – the centre – and working from the core actually aligns the femurs correctly for using the adductors and the feet. The overall effect can be felt directly through incredibly smooth and effective turn transitions. The switch from pelvic rotation one way to the other is made during the turn transition and is once set it assists angulation and anticipation as the turn develops.
All of the above was aimed to eventually allow the possibility of being able to maintain contact in the fronts of the ski boots throughout each turn and so to be able to use the fronts of the skis – everyone until now having a tendency to end up on the tails of the skis – particularly in steeps, bumps or off piste.
I demonstrated to Jenny how – without skis on – standing across the slope, if I “sat down” I’d fall backwards. However, facing down the slope I’d settle comfortably on the fronts of the ski boots – without the ankles collapsing and without falling backwards. With all of the components of movement built up correctly this frontal pressure can be maintained and exploited throughout the turn as angulation and anticipation are developed – the bottom still sitting uphill on that invisible chair even at the end of the turn. If any of the components – feet, adductors, hips – are out of alignment – then this can’t be achieved and so the skier starts to rely on the tails of the skis and finds ways to compensate. The point is that even in unpredictable off piste snow the directing power of the ski, stability and security all come from the fronts and there is no danger of being pitched over the fronts as would happen if this was all constructed incorrectly.
The boys in particular did an excellent job towards the end of the session applying this very effectively off piste.
Short Turns, Pressure Feedback, Turn Development
The overall goal for the session was to help Jenny turn into a more stable and secure skier on steeper terrain. Typically an anxious skier like Jenny will rotate defensively on the steep and skid sideways to brake – dissipating energy and trying to slow down but in a very unstable and insecure way. What the skier really needs to do is to sink the centre of mass down into the turn, not only resisting the build up of forces (partly due to opposing gravity) later in the turn – but to use the skis to build up the forces (pressure) and exploit them. When you get deeply enough to the inside of the turn then you win the battle against the ski trying to lift you up and so out of the turn – but this takes control, coordination, strength and determination. The energy is used then for directing the centre of mass – either farther around the turn, across the slope or off into the next turn in a stable and controlled manner – this can be viewed as “turn development” and is a complete contrast to the skidding, dissipating failure to control the mechanics. Speed is controlled then through choice of line – any single fully completed turn being able to totally stop a skier – or the rhythmic linking of many shorter turns in the fall line etc. Rhythm itself generates stability and when the timing is correct the effects of the energy harnessed tunes into a natural resonance (like someone on a trampoline).
To help Jenny I set her up statically in an angulated stance to represent the build up of pressure through the turn (holding her arm) and then physically pulled her out out of that position directly over the fronts of her skis – and each time off she went into a successfully pivoted turn. The “anticipation” is in effect the knowledge or intention that the deepening of the turn and build up of pressure is going to provide the entry into the next turn. Preparation with the pole – for solid pole support during the turn transition – is critical here. If there is not enough angulation or pressure on the fronts of the skis – then the angulation and pole preparation will not be adequate and this is very visible – usually seen as the complete absence of pole use in even short pivoted turns (fast dynamic turns do not require pole support). The first stage for Jenny to develop is the containing and build up of pressure during turn completion on the steep – instead of just giving into the situation and drifting sideways. Jenny was able to make progress with this – and this was the target of today’s session. The boys also did a good job with greatly improved coordination in all aspects. Andrew linked it into his awareness of the need to use pole support in bumps – but tended to be a bit on the tails in general – though he is more likely to hold onto the information than the boys – of course, that remains to be seen.
The video clip is when working on the steeps. The boys performed markedly better later on off piste with the same principles.
Bad weather and hangover day today! Not a great combination but the cold wind is a good way to forget a hangover – though personally that’s not been an issue for me since stopping drinking around twelve years ago and I never miss an opportunity to gloat about it when others suffer self inflicted carnage.
Being far too cold to stand around working on detailed technique – and being the last day skiing – we had to ski. Staying warm is easy when you rhythmically put together millions of short turns – so that’s what we did. Each turn is an opportunity to practice – mindfully – selectively focusing on a few relevant components of biomechanics or the feedback and actions of global movement (simplified by focusing on the centre of mass – which is why the concept is used in physics).
Weather and self inflicted issues were clearly affecting Luke, who appeared to have locked into default mode in the back of his ski boots – so we gave the slalom a miss, leaving that behind on a positive note from yesterday. Luke was happy to allow Leonie to be the main focus of attention so we started to put the short turns to use to help her to conquer the issue of “flow” that had emerged as the current limitation of her progress.
The video clip shows Leonie finally managing a consistent and intentional flow – doing even better than Luke who specifically dragged himself onto his shins for the camera.
Anticipation and Bumps
The answer to Leonie’s “flow” lay in a doctored version of the old concept of “anticipation”. Anticipation was always an extremely nebulous subject due to all the other technical issues connected to it being hugely incorrect in their own definitions. However, like most of those issues there is an element of truth in it if only it can be extracted and identified correctly. The ground work for this “extraction” was simply the total of all the work we had been doing in the previous four days – but just with a slightly modified goal and feel. On the spot, I thought up an exercise for Leonie that worked.
Yesterday Leonie had started to complete her turns better – first angulating more deeply to build pressure then releasing it for dynamics out of the turn – instead of just skidding and dissipating all the energy in a braking action – though she wasn’t really tapping into the energy generated at the end of the turn. We had been working on forming turns to control speed and direction through line and rhythm – as is normally developed in racing through adaptations to poles (over many years of brutal Darwinian natural selection!). Despite this advance in her skiing Leonie was still not flowing well – a quality that Luke on the other hand finds spontaneously even in his worst technical moments. The exercise for Leonie was to stand across the slope statically and adopt a strongly angulated position with pressure against the shins and the downhill pole held ready. I then pulled Leonie from the downhill arm literally straight across her skis – causing a pivoted turn. The sensation of the complete movement from deep angulation – still against the shins – to coming over the fronts of the skis with the body facing downhill, is very distinct and goes far beyond the range of movement that Leonie was finding on her own. Leonie immediately understood the feeling and was able to replicate this in her skiing directly – flowing from turn to turn using the energy built up from one turn to get into the next. Prior to this Leonie had a short delay where she killed the energy induced by the ski and failed to use the end of the turn dynamically – so no rhythm or resonance could be developed or exploited – hence no natural flow. The missing ingredient was “anticipation”. Anticipation is when the development of the end of one turn is formed in a way that it becomes the critical mechanical facilitator of the start of the next turn – and the subsequent motion of the body over the skis is appropriately and intentionally applied. In the video Luke made a determined effort having been battling with the backs of his ski boots and although not as flowing as Leonie it was better than he had skied earlier in the day. More importantly, Luke, just by watching had picked up the same idea. Further down the slope we came to substantial bumps and I showed how to apply this anticipation to the bumps – as usual a solid pole plant being the guide as to whether or not adequate anticipation was present. Bumps are classic for leaving the skier in the back seat but Luke skied them smoothly and effortlessly for the the first time ever – remaining flexible and freed from the glue on the back of the boots. We called it a day at this point to finish on a positive note.
