Sunday, May 13, 2012

Climbing in Indian Creek

 Every climber has to come here at least once, its the Mecca of Crack climbing. The best in the world.


                                             Resting before the hard part.
                                       Me on "Super Crack" first time up.

 Moab Camping
 Don't occupy Wall Street, climb it.
                                       Friends you meet along the trail.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

More Technical Freeskiing analysis to come.

Skier 3 in the order on the free ski video below.
Notice how extended he is. This resulted because he didn't absorb the last release well enough. Once you are extended this much, you can't tip your legs and effectively engage your skis early. Here he will compound the issue because he will build pressure late again, and have to deal with the hit at the end of the turn.

Ligety not competitive in slalom

HH quote: "Compare yourself to the best and you will never go wrong!"


Hirscher inside boot tucked in, back and under the outside ski boot--a PMTS fundamental.




Even Pranger, who used to be "king of the wide stance" has had to change to stay competitive on the Austrian Team. Notice how well his inside foot is tucked back, hips ahead of the boots.


                




Poor Ted, (below) he still labors with a bad boot set up for slalom, and the ski team  technical skiers labor under inadequate coaching. Ted is back on his skis, even at the top of the arc. His inside ski is forward and well inside. 


His body looks close to Hirscher's, in almost every respect, except for his fore/aft position and outside to inside boot relationship. However in skiing at this level it is crucial. The whole thing falls apart for him after the gate. Everything in skiing can be evaluated by the relationship of the inside ski, to the outside ski, and Ted isn't able to keep this relationship strong for slalom. In GS he has more time to adjust his Fore/aft problem.





The Austrians (Hirscher and Pranger top two photos) and the rest of the Austrian technical skiers, all look alike and ski alike and there is a reason for this. They are begining coached with a system that works. There couldn't be two skiers that are built more totally differently than Hirscher and Pranger, yet their skiing still looks the same.
The Austrians have a technical coaching program that works and they are the only ski team that demonstrates the ability to convert racers to a universal national system within their ski team. Proof that the system works, is in the depth and undeniable podium finishes by numerous racers on the team.

This is movement analysis of Technical Freeskiing in video below. (Scroll Down)

Korea Technical Freeskiing contest, short turns.


                                            Movement analysis of Top Level skiers.            
                                                             Skier 1
 Right turn, left leg, this is his better side. His hip is counter-acted and his upper body is more vertical. His inside arm and shoulder are leading in the arc.
Here on his left turn, right leg his upper body is leaning, his hip is rotated and his torso is rotated. This disconnects the skis from the center of gravity. The CG is moving away from the stance ski. This photo clip is less than a 1/100 of a second before he falls. This is typical of a skier with weak alignment or under-edged alignment.

Skier 2
This obvious "A" frame, is not good,  even through the release is really hurting his performance, what is amazing about these skiers is that they don't extend, which is what is saving their performance, very hard to do with these alignment issues. They'd rather stay flexed and transfer weight without a push, great job.
In the lower of the two frames, this skier is rotating out of the arc with his upper body, the ski isn't turning, the tail is washing out, so he has to help with his upper body, he uses strong body rotation to get the ski around.