The World Cup Season is in Full swing. What is big and what isn't, misconceptions already abound!

Misconceptions I've already read and heard from analysts in the 2023 season. 

"Odermatt extends in his GS skiing." This is one of the biggest misconceptions out there in ski technique. He never pushes off to extend, and just using that wrong terminology can set back a development skier for years.

If you look at this release and think it's an extension you better go back and change your instructor manual.

                                                

                                                  This is just before he releases. 

                      Here again, Odermatt uses the classic retraction, bend, flex, release. 

Sure there is an extension in skiing and one leg gets longer than the other, but not by pushing into the snow, against the snow, therefore lengthening the leg. The most important thing people should have learned from Hirscher is to transition without pressuring the skis (the float). That is why we call the transition a float across and a change of edges with no pressure on the skis. A retraction release is the GOLD Standard in performance skiing. Odermatt accomplishes this by using a strong retraction of the legs using the energy he created from the forces of the turn and the bend of the ski.