Friday, January 18, 2013

World Cup skiing when "The Essentials of Skiing", break down?

In this article and the one before it, on Hirscher's technique, I explain how my, "Essentials of Skiing", are easy to identify and where the lack of them breaks down skiing technique. Without all of my "Essentials" in place, racers lose time and struggle with the course. 


Here is a position you see too often with Ted Ligety in slalom. It's easy to explain why Ted doesn't break into the top 10 in slalom. I'm not saying it's easy to do, but there are explanations for it. Ted's fundamental, "Essentials", are missing. Feet too wide here, he's leaning and rotating to the inside with his torso, showing lack of counterbalance and counter acting. Compare this to Hirscher in the article I posed about World Cup skiers using "Essentials", on this Blog, just before this article. 



 Here is Manny Moelgg, he's already rotated before he's even close to the gate. (compare this to the article with Hirscher below) His feet are too spread and he's already on his big toe or stemmed ski before the top of the arc. This shows he has not released his stance ski properly , he stepped out of the arc. You never see Hirscher doing this unless he has really screwed up the turn. This is a consistent pattern with skiers in Fisher boots. I'll post other skiers doing the same in another article on skiers who use Fisher boots.




Here again we see Ted with his upper body and torso rotated. This takes the pressure away from his outside or stance ski. These are not one time photos or occurances, these are consistent technical breakdowns I see in every race. He's dragging his inside arm and pole, and leading with his left, that's backwards. Notice how this causes no angles to develop with the inside ski. His balance is moving away from the outside ski, that's where it should be focused! . OK, so there are at least three "Essentials" of skiing missing in this one turn. 

Many observes often comment that all the top skiers ski alike. Well I disagree, these are not small differences between the top skiers, they are huge technical differences. 



Here is Andre MYHRER he is often fast, but inconsistent. His inside ski is scissored or pushed forward; therefore no angles develop on the outside ski. His upper body, also like Ligety, is leaning toward the gate, most of his weight and pressure are on the inside ski. You can't concentrate the pressure to the outside ski with this skeletal alignment. Also, if you weight the inside ski, you can no longer tip it to a higher angle. His hips and torso are square to the skis, this is a huge biomechanical disadvantage.

Compare to Hirscher!
The difference between these three top skiers are enormous when compared to Hirscher. They have breakdowns in technique in almost every turn. The question is why? Is it lack of discipline in training? Are their coaches aware of the breakdowns? Do they train with the "Essentials of skiing" as a focus? I would love to be able to sit down with them and show them the differences in their skiing compared to Hirscher's, (Marcel may no like it)  that are costing them the race wins.

2 comments:

P3 said...

Harold, funny you mentioned Fisher boots... I had the same experience getting a wedge while engaging the turn in steeps with them. So I always force myself to remember to float and tug legs back which gets me back on track.

P3 said...

Harold, funny you mentioned Fisher boots... I had the same experience getting a wedge while engaging the turn in steeps with them. So I always force myself to remember to float and tug legs back which gets me back on track.