In medium radius turns

[markojp]

PSIA-NW annual event... Three days near the end of the season. This spring's was at Mission Ridge.

I mentioned Sean because I think he (and Greg Dixon and Brad Jacobsen, both at Bachelor) could really help you get your CoM over the outside ski. Sean also has a great eye for boot issues and fitting experience. In my humble opinion, there's still very limited ankle mobility even in your K2 boots. Which fitter(s) do you work with? Of course this may or may not be a boot issue...

 

[alexz]

PSIA-NW annual event... Three days near the end of the season. This spring's was at Mission Ridge.

No . I was in March at 3 days PSIA-NW Divisional at Meadows, then had CS2 Apr 2-3 and Level 3 exam on Apr 4-5 at Stevens, then I taught for a week for Interski in La Thuile, Italy.

 

[markojp]

Not to pester, but who's your local boot person?

 

[alexz]

Not to pester, but who's your local boot person?

Dr. Happy Feet and Jon at Stevens

 

[john petersen]

big improvement from the first vid Alexz...much smoother and what looks to be more patient. Turns are less forced from start to finish. You seem to have grown taller, as well!

Keep going the way and in the direction you are, it is happening, for sure.

constructively:
Tell me if I am noticing a bit of stiffness lower torso (core area where the upper and lower body separate) in relation to "skiing into counter"...which should be progressive in nature and just as smooth as some of the other moves you are now making that are gaining in efficiency. (left turns, sometimes you are forcing your inside hand forward and it goes to a "position" as opposed to making a more relaxed but progressive drive forward...and I do understand that drive forward! This seems to bring your inside half with it, and appears to "pull" it out of position out from under you. )

Think too of perpendicularity with both halves of the body in relation to the slope. (Im hinting that a little less knee/hip flex on the inside half will help your stance) but what do you have to do to make that happen?....its not just "less flex", but more extension, OVER YOUR BOS....perpendicular to the slope....(with appropriate anticipation of upcoming forces: lean angle ) I could say "less knee, more ankle on the inside half"...but thats only part of it. but this will help get it under you.....

A question: can you javelin and one foot while controlling the angle of the lifted ski? Can you keep the tip up, then tail up, then level? (where is your support foot in terms of being under you?) This is a fine motor adjustment exercise, but one that I think will help you alot.....

Lastly, a cool thing to try is "back slide shuffles"....I made this one up as I was frustrated with seeing what traditional shuffling exercises does to perfectly good ski instructors and lesson takers. The shuffle gets over exaggerated with forward movements of the feet and causes folks to get out of balance to the back seat either on the inside half, outside half and eventually both. My solution is to only shuffle to flex the ankle (move the foot back) and then relax back to center. dont let the feet slide forward at all. Try this one footed, then the other foot, then both feet once you are comfortable and feeling stable.
(the inside half feels much different than the outside half, but its that inside half that is uber important here!)

The biggest thing I can say is your improvement is very noticeable....keep at it!


JP

 

[Zentune]

Hey alexz, just wanted to pop in here real quick before I head to work. I do notice an improvement from your first video to the next. One thing that has remained largely the same though is a bit of "stifness" or limited range of motion in your upper body---specifically your pelvis and rib cage, especially in the transverse and frontal planes.

In addition to the many excellent suggestions above, I suggest spending time OFF the hill working on "de-coupling" your body segments and accompanying joints. In human movement, to include skiing, when one segment or limb moves one way, others must move in the opposite direction in order to keep the center of gravity within the base of support, be that one leg or 2. So things to work on would include indoor, preferably barefooted, "excercises" such as shifting your pelvis laterally to the left (which should place most of your weight in that left foot) while the spine and rib cage shift right to counter balance. Repeat for the other side. Do you find that one side is limited versus the other? Another good one is the try "side flexing" the ribcage only. Stand with both feet equally weighted and see if you can flex just the rib cage to the left and right (laterally). Try NOT to shift the pelvis to the left or right when you do this...just try and isolate the rib cage. You should feel the right obliques lengthen and the left obliques shorten when you side flex your ribcage to the left for instance. Again, is one side more difficult/painful than the other? Can you decouple the ribcage from the pelvis on this way? Yet one more to try is standing with both feet equally weighted again, but this time rotate the pelvis both left and right, deliberately yet not forcing too hard. This will shift the weight in your feet---as your rotate right, the weight will go to the right foot and vice versa. Again, decoupling is key here! As the pelvis rotates, try and keep your rib cage facing straight ahead! Can you do this? Is one side more difficult than the other? These and other movements are very important in everyday gait and also in skiing---the idea that one body segment to opposes another in movement.

Right now I see a decreased ability to move in this regard in your skiing, which could make implementing many of the suggestions you are receiving difficult. Fwiw, I coach at lookout pass Idaho, and work with many of our instructors. I notice you are in the pnw? If so, and you are ever out this way, look me up and we can go into more detail...

Josh Christopherson (alpine L3) aka,

zenny

 

[Zentune]

To put my post a bit more succinctly, as an example you WOULD want to try flexing your inside leg more and moving over the outside ski with your upper body, and you WOULD want to counter the rotation of the legs with your pelvis, and you are likely trying to....it's just that it's *possible* that your body won't "allow" you to "go there" in regards to those movements.

Fortunately, that likely IS something that can be addressed with some work.....

zenny

 

[Blue Streak]

Hey alexz, just wanted to pop in here real quick before I head to work. I do notice an improvement from your first video to the next. One thing that has remained largely the same though is a bit of "stifness" or limited range of motion in your upper body---specifically your pelvis and rib cage, especially in the transverse and frontal planes.

In addition to the many excellent suggestions above, I suggest spending time OFF the hill working on "de-coupling" your body segments and accompanying joints. In human movement, to include skiing, when one segment or limb moves one way, others must move in the opposite direction in order to keep the center of gravity within the base of support, be that one leg or 2. So things to work on would include indoor, preferably barefooted, "excercises" such as shifting your pelvis laterally to the left (which should place most of your weight in that left foot) while the spine and rib cage shift right to counter balance. Repeat for the other side. Do you find that one side is limited versus the other? Another good one is the try "side flexing" the ribcage only. Stand with both feet equally weighted and see if you can flex just the rib cage to the left and right (laterally). Try NOT to shift the pelvis to the left or right when you do this...just try and isolate the rib cage. You should feel the right obliques lengthen and the left obliques shorten when you side flex your ribcage to the left for instance. Again, is one side more difficult/painful than the other? Can you decouple the ribcage from the pelvis on this way? Yet one more to try is standing with both feet equally weighted again, but this time rotate the pelvis both left and right, deliberately yet not forcing too hard. This will shift the weight in your feet---as your rotate right, the weight will go to the right foot and vice versa. Again, decoupling is key here! As the pelvis rotates, try and keep your rib cage facing straight ahead! Can you do this? Is one side more difficult than the other? These and other movements are very important in everyday gait and also in skiing---the idea that one body segment to opposes another in movement.

Right now I see a decreased ability to move in this regard in your skiing, which could make implementing many of the suggestions you are receiving difficult. Fwiw, I coach at lookout pass Idaho, and work with many of our instructors. I notice you are in the pnw? If so, and you are ever out this way, look me up and we can go into more detail...

Josh Christopherson (alpine L3) aka,

zenny

 

[Blue Streak]

Hey alexz, just wanted to pop in here real quick before I head to work. I do notice an improvement from your first video to the next. One thing that has remained largely the same though is a bit of "stifness" or limited range of motion in your upper body---specifically your pelvis and rib cage, especially in the transverse and frontal planes.

In addition to the many excellent suggestions above, I suggest spending time OFF the hill working on "de-coupling" your body segments and accompanying joints. In human movement, to include skiing, when one segment or limb moves one way, others must move in the opposite direction in order to keep the center of gravity within the base of support, be that one leg or 2. So things to work on would include indoor, preferably barefooted, "excercises" such as shifting your pelvis laterally to the left (which should place most of your weight in that left foot) while the spine and rib cage shift right to counter balance. Repeat for the other side. Do you find that one side is limited versus the other? Another good one is the try "side flexing" the ribcage only. Stand with both feet equally weighted and see if you can flex just the rib cage to the left and right (laterally). Try NOT to shift the pelvis to the left or right when you do this...just try and isolate the rib cage. You should feel the right obliques lengthen and the left obliques shorten when you side flex your ribcage to the left for instance. Again, is one side more difficult/painful than the other? Can you decouple the ribcage from the pelvis on this way? Yet one more to try is standing with both feet equally weighted again, but this time rotate the pelvis both left and right, deliberately yet not forcing too hard. This will shift the weight in your feet---as your rotate right, the weight will go to the right foot and vice versa. Again, decoupling is key here! As the pelvis rotates, try and keep your rib cage facing straight ahead! Can you do this? Is one side more difficult than the other? These and other movements are very important in everyday gait and also in skiing---the idea that one body segment to opposes another in movement.

Right now I see a decreased ability to move in this regard in your skiing, which could make implementing many of the suggestions you are receiving difficult. Fwiw, I coach at lookout pass Idaho, and work with many of our instructors. I notice you are in the pnw? If so, and you are ever out this way, look me up and we can go into more detail...

Josh Christopherson (alpine L3) aka,

zenny

Great comments. Maybe @Brian Finch has some videos for us.

 

[Zentune]

I have videos, but I am not allowed to share them....anyone interested can inquire at
http://www.findingcentre.co.uk/, although I'd be willing to show what I know in person...

zenny

 

[Zentune]

I can share this, although it's pretty advanced and I would strongly recommend proceeding with caution (that's a disclaimer! )


You can see in this video how the psoas is lengthened/stretched/engaged in all 3 planes...although again, this is something that is worked up to once other more "basic" movements (to include the ones I described above) are understood and properly learned.

zenny

 

[alexz]

Thank you all for comments and recommendations. Today I included them in warm up and drills. In skiing I kept focus on legs separation and angulation:

 

[john petersen]

1st run to me was the smoothest and most relaxed. I believe this is that you are after. The decoupling advice is valuable. I think you simply need time to assimilate all the data you have been getting....put it all together. again that first run looked good. (it seems to me that you "stiffened up" in later runs...probably due to conscious thoughts)

as far as stance goes: be sure you stay tallish and over your feet. it may feel like they are behind you at the fall line, but I would experiment with this a bit. Simply put: less knees and hip flex as the turn develops. "decouple" your inside and outside halves and get them to work independently. transfer that flexing energy of all those lower joints at the same time to extension of the outside as the inside half flexes.

You nailed the first run.....build on that and stay relaxed. you got this!



JP

 

[jimtransition]

Looks like some good progress being made, can you do the railroad tracks exercise? I'd be interested to see how your edging skills are when you aren't trying to control speed. My first exercise for you would be those, maybe with some double pole drags to keep you lower and your upper body more stable.

Here's some of my mediums from a few weeks back if anyone's interested.

 

[Rod9301]

What is leg separation?
I see that you need to keep the inside ski back.

 

[alexz]

Today was the last day of the season: .
IMO, still too much bending of spine rather than in hips for angulation. Leg separation became less, though still too much.
Probably, before the next season I should mainly keep focus on the recommended by @Zentune drill: ?

 

[Frankly]

I'd smoke something and crank some tunes, loosen up man.

 

[Zentune]

Today was the last day of the season: .
IMO, still too much bending of spine rather than in hips for angulation. Leg separation became less, though still too much.
Probably, before the next season I should mainly keep focus on the recommended by @Zentune drill: ?

Yup. But again, what Brian is doing in that vid is something you would want to work up to....aka, develop the range of motion without overdoing it all at once! ;-)

zenny

 

[john petersen]

much better!....your percentage of efficiency is growing!

JP

 

[L&AirC]

I think you need to think differently. You need to be. Balanced on the outside ski. My perception is that you are focusing on the outside ski to make sure you are balancing on it. Instead try to focus on not being on the inside ski. This will get you to balance on the outside ski, but it will feel different as your focus is different.