Austrian Women after a few rough years, are currently dominating world cup races.

Fenninger, last year's World Champion in Combined, wins GS, Schild wins the last 4 slaloms. Lindsey preying for the Downhills.

Looks like Fenninger is well set up in Head boots, so it has to be the US Head boot techs that can't get it right for Lindsey, Ted and Bode.

New Series, "How to Ski"

"How to Ski",  is a new instructional Series with the basics for all skiers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s9qBIQtB4Q&feature=youtu.be

Counteracted upper body

                      Sometimes counter acting is better seen looking down the slope.

Inside hand leading, chest pointing toward the falline, skis headed toward the side of the slope.

Razzoli, Olympic champion finally comes through on World Cup

Podium at Alta Badia slalom!

Slightly undisciplined with his upper body compared to the Austrians, but very fast when he makes it.

Same characteristics for Ted compared to Hirscher, as you see below with Schild and Vonn .

Here you see Hirscher outside leg already straight, with strong edge angles at the skis. He has a bowlegged set up with his boots. The Bowlegged set up  is the most successful in Slalom with shaped skis. 

Knock Kneed Alignment

Here you see Ted Ligety, this is a weak position, his ski, edge angles that let the skis slip. Ted has to wait until the back of his skis hold, but with this set up, his knee has to drop in, which is weak, it makes him late and hold on to the turn too long. Hirscher is on and off the edges fast, Ted is skiing too round because he can't get the immediate pressure on his skis he needs to be quick.

Compare best slalom skier in the world to Vonn's set up.

                                               Knock Kneed Alignment
Vonn, twisted up! When the knee drops inside as shown here, the upper body follows with flexing at the waist, this loses power to the ski. Upper body rotation follows in this case, which helped to skid the tail of the stance ski. Notice how lindsey's outside boot doesn't have a strong angle it's slipping.

Schild, Straight leg, but still countered! Check out the great alignment on this girl. She just won her 30th World Cup slalom, amazing. Straight leg, upright upper body and skis headed where they are tipping. Strong angles on both skis, no knee drive, excellent!

                The next two photos show not an subtle difference, it's dramatic.

Collapsed at the waist, excessive hip drop and excessive twist of the hips.

Head ski boot technicians still don't have ski boots figured out.

Lindsey Vonn in slalom, over counteracted and knocked kneed.

Here you have the best skier in the world and she can't buy a slalom run on Head boots. When she skied on Rossingnol boots, she used to win 2 out of 3 slaloms.  Neither can Ted Ligety or Bode Miller score in slalom, they used to win on other products.

So what is up with Head boots?

All three US champions used to win slalom races and were almost a sure bet to be on the podium in slalom, when they were on Rossingnol Skis, Boots, and or Nordica and Fischer.

Head has yet to figure out slalom, they have great skis and even their boots are great, but setting the boots up for any of their athletes, to win a World Cup Slalom, is mystifying for them.

Here is a hint, your setup for slalom, is too soft or too knocked kneed. This doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, even if you have one, which I do.

"World Cup", ski technique, by Harald Harb

Keys to focus on, inside hand lead, inside ski tipping and flexing. PMTS shows you how you achieve these movements. Skiing is not a position! You have to know how to move into these body angles and we can teach you how. www.harbskisystems.com

This is Deville a young Italian. Great skiing! The Austrians better watch out the other countries are producing some amazing skiers.

Svindal, If you thought when you were attending one of our ski camps, that inside leg flexing and tipping, was just for fun, you might be mistaken!

Cuche, Even the best skiers in the world, screw up, if they don't counter balance earlier in the turn.

This is Bode at his best, counter acting, and with strong counter balance, the inside ski has huge angle and the outside knee, is right up against the boot. His inside ski is too far forward, but that's Bode; he never follows established, proven skiing performance. But never, I say never, model yourself after Bode, there is only one Bode.

Exiting the turn by Dopfer

Here Dopfer, one of the new stars of the German Team, is in the releasing phase of a turn. He has relaxed his holding leg, which begins his transition to the new turn. He will change edges using a strong retraction move to get the ski light. 

The releasing movement result in flat skis and and  floating light skis in transition.

Ivcia Kostelic: Winner of Slalom

This is a much more efficient body transition and angulation. From here his release is easy relative to the winding and unwinding Ligety has to do. Ligety's boot set up is the main reason for his need for contortions and adjustments. (this is an update on the previous post, so read the previous post first.)

Ligety has had to adapt to his boot set up, rather than the other way around. Most racers don't even notice this unless their coaches or Boot Technicians bring it up. Such a minor change in the boots, can improve this situation,  but not changed can effect hundreds of world cup points through a season. 

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Casper Nolan, US slalom star, Perfect body alignment, strong turn exit.

 Ted Ligety, rotated, dropped hip, weaker knee angle. Minor differences like this in each turn result in differences of consistency and time over 50 or 60 gates.

Nolan Casper best of the Americans in slalom.

Ted Ligety

This is a really weak set up for Ted Ligety, if it's not fixed soon, it will not be a nice scene. The outside knee behind the inside boot is not a good sign, also notice his knees are crossed and his blocking is much too early. His upper body is already far to over-rotated.

Nolan Casper on the other hand looks really strong, great set up and his technique is much cleaner than Ted Ligety's.

Ligety's slalom not ready for the best yet!

Starting turns with leaning and rotation, doesn't set you up well for a hard, round, World Cup slalom turn. His hips are already back behind his boots. It means you have to save the turn late,  when you should be releasing. That makes for a hard edge set, which is slower.

Huge difference here, same turn, compared to Ligety, this is the winner, Kostelic. He is on the outside ski, already Counter balanced and countered. His hips are forward and over his boots.

Hirscher performances the seemingly impossible.

Photos by: Diana Rogers, Harb Ski Systems.

Another secret that coaches and instructors don't know. You can be forward on your skis without engaging the tips. Here the best skier in the world, Marcel Hirscher, he is forward with his body, but not loading his tips. His ski tips are off the snow. How do you explain this?

Follow this "Blog",  more to come!

The "O" frame release is prevalent on the  world cup!

For more information about "O" frame releases consult the Harb Ski Systems web site, for vidoes and books!

Release old stance ski with movement, to the little toe edge! PMTS!

Few in the world have equaled Mario Matt in Slalom, World Champion and Olympic Medialist.

PHOTOS BY HARB SKI SYSTEMS, DIANA ROGERS PHOTOGRAPHER.

Ted Ligety is still ahead until this mistake.

Ted Ligety: Reminiscent of a Bode Miller save! Ted had to recover from this mistake for the next three turns, that's what cost him the victory. 

                               Marcel Hirscher:  Perfect Balance wins every time. 

Hirscher at the gate compared to Ted Ligety

                                              Leaning

                                               Perfect Balance

Ligety Technical Comparison to Hirscher

You can already see what is going to happen here. Ted is still ahead at this on the course.

He loses counter balance, you can see it by where is head is and his upper torso angle relative to his hip. It's almost a straight line.

Hirscher is more upright with his torso. His inside hip is higher  as well.

Ted loses the race here, the next two turns; he is in saving mode, where Hirscher is attacking. A momentary lapse like this can be the difference between winning and coming second in a world cup race. These guys are the two best GS skiers in the world right now.

Proud to Say, another "Expert" skier and a PMTS product.

                                  Geoff Darst, Silverthorne Colorado

Marcel Hirscher, more on Perfect Transition

Read the post below, before you read his one, they are in order of posting: Here is the second half of the next turn more detailed.

Frame1. After releasing his right ski, (see previous description) by flexing the leg and flattening his outside (downhill) ski, both skis are flat and his legs are at the same flex angle.

Frame 2. As Hirscher increases his inside leg tipping and flexing it allows him to add more angle to that ski because it's less weighted. This brings his body across his skis for the new arc.

Frame 3. Increasing his inside leg flexing and tipping allows his CG to move inside the turn.

Frame 4. Again he becomes more compact bringing his inside arm forward and flexing the inside leg  to move it out of the way so his body can move closer to the snow creating more outside ski angle.  He has yet to apply full big-toe edge tipping, that comes next.

Most coaches are focusing on the wrong side and wrong leg, for modern day skiing. The big toe or outside ski edge, has to come on late, but strong. This can only happen if the body is properly set up. If the big toe edge is the focus (from the beginning) the body is never set up correctly and the skier then grinds his turns, rather than slices his turns. 

Marcel Hirscher perfect GS transition

Setting up well above the gate, inside ski (the left foot) tipping and flexing to set up his body.

Here is the critical move, he brings his body together "compact", Hands forward, yet he continues to tip his inside foot and flex his inside leg. He also adds big toe edge  angle, (that's the right foot and ski) Boots and skis always working together to create the same angles. Inside ski and boot tucked and held, well back, under his hips. Too many racers bale-out here and let the inside ski move forward, that's just slow.

Here is where you can be confident, he flexes his inside leg even further and to do so he has to clear space for it to move up, out of the way. This moves the hip more inside the arc. Most racers here, try to step out of the arc, with the up hill ski, hold on for more speed. 

Hirscher begins to flex and relax the outside leg, (right leg) and prepares for transition. 

Flexing the right leg allows the old holding edge,  to dissipate, moving his Cg, center of gravity to the new turn. Now both legs are now evenly flexed. Notice there is no ski lead. Hirscher has minimal ski lead compared to most other contemporary racers. 

Again little or no tip lead. This part of the turn is created because he continued to increase angles by tipping his inside leg and ski. Too many coaches focus on the wrong leg; the outside ski leg, it is less important and doesn't set up the correct body situations.  Of course, once you are in the right part of the arc, adding outside leg tipping and ski angle is correct, but not to set up the arc.

I'm much more a Porsche guy. Especially this one.

It's a little over the top but sure is fun.

Saw this in Cherry Creek yesterday, Denver.

New Lexus Super Car!

PACKING UP AFTER A GOOD DAY OF TRAINING

                                   Harald and Jon Olsson

Shut up Lance everyone knows you are a doper!

It's time for Lance to own up. We have lost total faith in him and any sponsors that are still using him are despicable.

One of the scariest pictures I've seen in a long while!

What is really scary is, one of them "might" be our next president!
And the best one of the lot, the one, who's "up front" 'quote ha,ha', he's the best candidate for the right, and he's an independent, Good luck!
I'm not an Obama fan, but this is ridicules.

Skied with Jon and Warner today.

Jon Olson studying his video between runs. You thought this guy was brilliant in the air, 6 time X Games big air champion, well let me tell you, he can lay down angles with his skis, on the snow, rivaling many of the world's best.

The last skier who could ski race at the world class level and be the best in the air at the same time was Hermann Gollner.

Jon Olson studying his video between runs.

Audi Corporation, supports the organization that unfairly uses or abuses ski athletes world wide.

The FIS (federation international de Ski) is the world wide ski organization that controls all aspects of international ski racing. Sort of like how Bernie Ecclestone controls F1 Car racing.

There are tremendous amounts of money coming to the FIS from members, license fees, race fees, race organizers, national dues, sponsors, logo rights, TV rights, etc. Where does all this money go? It is difficult to ascertain how it comes back to the athletes, except for the fact that the FIS does maintain and publish a complicated ranking and points system.

The FIS does not organize or run the races, it doesn't pay athletes, it doesn't support training, so what does the FIS do with all this money? It does sanction events, but that is just a stroke of the pen.

It also makes rules, in many cases rules that are unpopular and unjustified in the view of athletes, coaches, manufactures, ski resorts, and spectators. Does something smack of a total authoritarian organization here?

The scary part is that the FIS also can arbitrarily change rules, about course setting, skis, length of courses etc. Often these rules directly impact the safety of racers and even spectators.

In the most reset situation the FIS has mandated a change in Giant Slalom ski, side cut or shape, which directly effects how racers ski or can ski a course. This in turn affects the speed, and trajectory of the skiers. The FIS maintains the new rules make GS skiing safer, everyone else disagrees, yet they are still going ahead with the changes.

Everyone presently associated or formerly associated with the sport has expressed their displeasure over the new ruling. Those in the know, including the athletes, say the new rules make the sport more dangerous, less fun to watch and less elegant; this ex-racer and coach agrees with the athletes.

The battle is ragging and the athletes are speaking out in their defense. In response the FIS has instituted a gag order on athletes; if they speak out, they are fined or sanctioned. Now is that democracy in action?

How can a respected company like "Audi Auto Corporation" and the other sponsors want to be associated with such Tyrannical organization?

Stay tuned for more to come on this subject.

How to beat the FIS

Protests work, but not by athletes, by the public. Sponsors will disappear if the public stops showing up to watch GS races. You have to hit these idiots in the pocket book. Stop buying Atomic ski product, they are the biggest supporters of stupid rules. The World Cup towns, hotels and restaurants, will start to tell the FIS what to do when they stop selling rooms, and Wiener Schnitzels, and schnapps.


BTW. AUDI CARS ARE OVER PRICED AND THEY COST A FORTUNE TO MAINTAIN, A SUBARU IS A MUCH BETTER VALUE. PLUS AUDI SPONSORS THE FIS, A TYRANNICAL ORGANIZATION THAT MAKES RULES THAT HURTS ATHLETES.