PMTS Direct Parallel Skiing, "The Two Ways to Ski".

You can learn to ski with your skis in the snow surface or ski by barely scratching the surface?

Things to look for in this video of PMTS Skiing? Into this video, the first 5 seconds will demonstrate the difference between "The Two Ways to Ski".  Notice the group of skiers flying by, (noisy skis) they are barely scratching the surface of the snow, granted it's hard snow some places even ice. Then compare that skiing, to the skiing in the rest of the video. 99% of skiers on the slopes ski like the group that flies by.

This is fine on a groomed slopes with no obstacles, bumps or deep snow, however at any big mountain this skiing will not hold up. Yes, the skiing of the two in the red suits will hold up everywhere, in powder, bumps and be enjoyable on any snow.

"Two Ways to Ski" "PMTS Direct Parallel" Skiing Demonstrations,

                                          "Two Ways to Ski"

                (Video of this skiing is available on the Blog.)

There are two ways to ski, two ways to learn to ski. If you start on the correct path from the beginning everything will be much easier and more enjoyable as you head toward advanced intermediate levels. Most skiers never experience the true joy of the sport because they are compromised by the way they were introduced to the movements of skiing.

Below in these photos is one of the "Two Ways to Learn Skiing". This of course is the end result, but the process is just as rewarding as the end result.

Take note of the sometimes less obvious performance highlights of this "PMTS Direct Parallel" way to learn skiing.

This is a steep slope rated "Black Diamond Run" every photo is from a different run and set of turns, yet there is amazing consistency of performance in every set of photos. Take particular note of the lack of extra movements, the angles of the skis and the body. This is sustainable in all conditions and all slopes no matter what snow or surface, when skiing with this method. This is not "Old Fashion Ski Instruction". This is PMTS skiing, derived directly from World Cup skiing techniques.


               The Slope is on one of the Steepest in the Mid-West, at Welch Village.

                                                            Dual Carving with Diana Rogers

                               Above is a simultaneous release, knees flexed, and in transition.

       This is on the Welch Village Upper Snow Field. Who says the Mid West doesn't have Glaciers?

Hirscher not skiing like Hirscher: Something has changed in his boot set up.

After this series of 3 races where Hirscher had the worst results of his great career, he switched his set-up or went back to his old boots and won the last slalom at the World Cup Finals, to ice the Overall and Slalom Globes.  
In the years I have been studying Marcel Hirscher's skiing, I have never seen the following.


Up date: Fortunately they changed it back to the season beginning set up, before the last slalom of the season.


In these photo clips, he's extremely counter rotated, and knocked kneed, this is not how he was set up or how he naturally skis or how he skied at the beginning of the season. He is  adapting to boot changes, and not good ones. I don't know what,  exactly,  has happened to his boots. It could be a number of things.

1. The boots are breaking down.
2. He has new boots and the new set up has changed and it's not working.
3. Someone changed his present boot setup.
Which ever of the three has happened, it's not working.

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The above photo is so untypical of Hirscher's skiing. He has never needed to counter rotate his hips like this, this is not functional, it is adaptive. An incorrect boot set up, cuff change or poor sole alignment can cause this. This is easy to fix, but no one has done anything in the last 4 races about it. I started to notice something wrong about 4 slaloms ago.


Here we see the same thing again and this is happening frequently in his last races. It's more obvious on his left leg, but his right side turn, it is also not as good as it was early in the season.

This set up is causing him to load the ski late and hard. He's atypically getting far back on his skis and often leaving the ground, normally he could absorb these impacts, not any longer. I'm afraid with his strength and will power, he will try to overcome this with brute force and it might result in injuries.



This again shows far too much leaning and rotation for typical Hirscher skiing.

Lots of comments are being made about Hirscher's skiing lately, on Universal sports and elsewhere.. Most has to do with the Olympics and his results being behind his rivals, due to "pressure to perform". I did an article about his lack of performance a month ago on this Blog. Things have not gotten better.  He has lost confidence because his skis are not performing the way he likes, but it's not the skis, it is the boots.

Marcel himself says he's not skiing loose. No one can ski loose when you are fighting a boot set up to this extent. 

Developing world cup technique!

Before you can get to Here;
Felix Neureuther

 You have to have these basics at 9 years old!

Guess who?

Shiffrin can get even better!

Although "(Mikaela) is already a World Champion in slalom and an Olympic gold medalist, there is bad news for her competition, she can get even better.

 If you study her skiing closely you will see there is a difference between her right and left turns. This  analyses isn't from just one set of photos or one race, it's been evident all season. Compare the two turns and pay particular attention to the differences in her release, and knee, and foot proximity variance.

(Below photos)  a close up, show her ending a right turn on her left foot. The good turn, or better one of the two.  Here she keeps a relatively closer stance and tips her new inside foot simultaneously with the new outside one. Notice the Green arrows. The blue arrow shows how early she tips the inside foot on this turn relative to her left turn.

(Below photo) notice here she steps off her outside ski and during that step she sets a harder edge. (snow coming off her ski)

 The Green arrows (in the last frame) show how her knees are in a totally different relationship from the left turn. Her feet are wider than her knees and the new outside ski as a result of the push off is in a wedge relationship, and on the new outside ski edge. Often this is caused by a difference in alignment of her boots, and it can also be the reason for her delayed edge engagement in the high C part of the arc, due to an over aggressive cuff angle.

 I posted the High C delayed ski engagement explaination  in an earlier article on this Blog, about the  turn on the same side, but from a different race.

All skiers have a slight difference between right and left turns. This can be mitigated with precise alignment set ups and some focus from the athlete on the movements.

Universal Sports Coverage of Ski Racing has lost it's focus!

The two most boring people on television, why do they have to do this to Ski Racing? It's Sad. Now this program has evolved into 30 minutes of boring hash, then rehash, again, during the 7 racers they actually show skiing. They have destroyed the show, this Producer should be fired. 

It reminds me of "Pinky and the Brain" cartoons, "Hey Pinky, what are we doing today, same thing we did yesterday. We'll repeat everything and show you 7 skiers while making you wait and listen to our boring banter." Thank God for Tvo, and super fast forward.