Friday, December 6, 2013

Mikaela Shiffrin has picked up her game from last season. Impressive for someone going from 18 to 19 years old.

The two big factors that Hirscher and Shiff have over the field is inside foot management. Most racers at any level, don't pay attention to this crucial inside foot, boot and leg dynamic. Notice on all the photos on my Blog;  there is one thing represented, and only the best 2 or 3 skiers in the world demonstrate it.

Which is, inside foot and the inside leg leading the movements into and in a turn. Notice that the top skiers don't have to reach to make contact with the snow with the inside hand. They get their angles by performing differently. They create the angles needed with the whole body with inside leg flexing and inside boot tipping. If you dig deeper into this Blog you will see this occurring over and over. 

Shiff has improved in these areas. She keeps the inside foot back and under the outside knee by pulling back on that boot. She tips and bends the inside leg out of the way to allow her body to drop to the inside. This creates huge ski and body angles. Therefore: her upper body doesn't need to lean or rotate. That's another special set of movements she has learned and improved on. She is therefore stronger skeletally, which is bad news for her rivals. 

In slalom this has also improved, so she's even a better slalom skier than last season. She could win the overall this year. Riech is strong in all events like Tina Mase was last year, but she isn't going to win enough points in GS and slalom. If Shiffrin does what she shows now, and continues to build on it,  she will win GS and Slalom races, like Hirscher, to win the overall without speed events.

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