Thursday, January 31, 2013

What does, Hold your counter", really mean?

Hirscher's chest is facing his outside ski, some people call that facing downhill.

(below) His skis are released and flat, his previous outside or downhill ski is lifted "a la" Phantom Move. He leads into the new turn with tipping toward the little toe edge of the new inside ski. This is all spelled out in PMTS and in the Essentials of skiing. And his upper body has not changed position, "That is holding your counter acting".

Here his inside hand begins to move forward for the next arc, no pressure on either ski yet. His retraction release has made his skis light to make the transition easier.
Holding your counter at the release and through the beginning of the tipping for the new turn is a crucial element of modern day World Cup slalom skiing.

2 comments:

Amin said...

Thanks, Harald. Reading the Essentials book, I thought there should be a neutral upper body position between the turns, leading gradually and smoothly to counteracting in the other direction as a new turn starts. I think there was a graph in the book that illustrated this.

This post suggests holding the counter. My question is: for how long before the new turn does he keep the counter? How does upper-body make the transition to a new counter in this method? Wouldn't Holding the counter at transition cause the skies to turn?

Amin

Harald Harb said...

You hold the counter acting until the skis are on their new edges or until the skis begin the arc of for the top of the next turn