Drills and exercises to make a technical difference! How does it work and what makes it work?

First and foremost a ski drill or an exercise should be relevant to a specific movement, to the individual's skiing need. Drills should improve a movement the skier doesn't have and it should be designed for the individual specifically. The exercise has to be explained and demonstrated with the precision it deserves. I rarely see drills being prepared and set up in this expert manner.

 Most teams I see on the mountain, all the kids on the team are doing the same drill and most are doing it incorrectly.

It's no wonder kids hate doing ski drills or exercises.

One of the big reasons kids don't like drills is their "History"with doing drills, They know drills rarely do anything for their skiing. Look guys, kids aren't stupid.  Tying the drill or exercise to how it will improve their speed in the race course and how the drill is relevant to what the best world cup skiers are doing, "in their skiing" is important. You have to know how to use one underlying fundamental in all ski coaching and that is knowing how to develop motivation. Yes, that means a motivation not only to do drills, but believe they are beneficial.

It isn't difficult to motivate any young racer for learning an exercise, if the racer knows why he is doing the exercise, how it builds into their skiing, how it will make them faster in the race course. And as a bonus, showing them where and how the best world cup skiers are already using that movement in their racing technique.

A drill should be tied to movement you want to encourage. I see time and again year after year,  all the kids, doing the same silly drills, with little enthusiasm or reasonable outcomes.

A coach needs to be very careful how he sets up drill free skiing or he will demotivate his skiers. He needs to be precise about the quality in which the drill is performed. The accuracy of the drill relative to the movement he wants to develop for the athlete. The athlete needs to be part of the process and also believe it's valuable time spent.  I know few (almost none), coaches who are skilled in all of these areas.
This isn't some psycho-babble from a sport shrink, it's what we do as coaches on the hill, create correct movements.

Relevance of a drill is everything. Individually designed drills for a specific skier, creates motivation and doesn't de-motivate the whole group. You know if you were once a ski racer, and you could easily accomplish a drill the coach picked, you wondered why you had to do the same thing the weaker skiers had to do. Design the drills and free skiing, so that your better skiers are challenged and the weaker ones have success, it's natural.

I hear this often, "My athletes don't like to free ski". Part of the blame has to go to the coach for not demonstrating how free skiing can be fun and beneficial.

An expert coach knows what the weaknesses of his athletes are and he makes sure the athletes, know how to cure their weaknesses.  An expert coach doesn't just go out, free ski, do a few silly drills and never bring up the reasons for the drills the rest of the season.

The drills, if the coach really has a plan have to be performed perfectly, and rehearsed day after day, until the athlete is completely confident he understands and has the movements wanted, down pat. Closing the loop with free ski exercises is not only motivating to the athlete, it establishes a working relationship and faith in the coaching process.

Not everyone is going to be a Bode Miller or Marcel Hirscher, but everyone you are coaching, deserves the chance.

Addressing boot flex for ski racing and advanced skiing.

Under repair, for revisions and photos.

Harb imitates a bode turn.

Professional ski racing in 1973

Training, How's that for carving on straight, stiff, GS skis, who says we didn't carve in 1973? So what Ted?

Professional ski racing in 1973. My Teammates on the Kneissel Team, on the left, Werner Bleiner, Silver medalist in GS at the World Championships in 1970 and Manfried Putzer, former Austrian B Team.

Doing one thing and talking about another?

These are clips from an instructional video on You Tube. The instructor in this video  is telling us that to get on an early edge you have to roll the outside ski on edge without standing up or extending up. 

I guess if it's not working for him, how will it work for you?

                                        I won't even mention that this is not a parallel turn transition.

          

"Intelligent Image Analysis" New learning and teaching techniques from Harb Ski Systems

Click on this URL for more explanation!
http://www.pmts.org/pmtsforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3997&p=40841

PMTS Check Point, number 8

Here is the two time Overall World Cup champion, and arguably the best technical skier since the great, Alberto Tomb, demonstrating the Phantom Move.

This begins by lifting the old stance ski and foot off the snow.

Once lifted the ski is tipping toward the little toe edge to increase angles.

As the tipping increases the body angles  increase, weight is totally on the outside ski.

This is a skill that every skier should develop if they want to become experts. The Phantom Move is a copy write and trademark of Harb Ski Systems, invented by Harald Harb.

Check list 10 Little Toe Edge mastery!

A short while ago I received an e-mail from a racer. He was asking about transfer to the LTE. He said a coach told him that it isn't something you should use.  Well, I do advise you learn what it is and how to use it.

Once you release the big toe edge of the stance ski your weight and balance need to go somewhere and this is where it should go. 

PMTS Check number 9, Counter Balanced and Counter Acted,

Shoulders level, torso vertical, outside leg long, inside leg flexed and tipped.

The word "stacked" in skiing is batted about often these days. I don't like words like this because everyone can interpret them differently. And they have different meaning for different people. Effective words are accurate and they say exactly what you want to see done.

Counter acting is reversing the forces that act on your body in an arc. In this case it's counter acting with your hips. To counteract you have to physically make an effort to move your outside hip back.

Counter balance is to keep your upper body from leaning into the turn or toward the gate. To accomplish these tenants of skiing you have to move the inside hip higher and keep it engaged. This makes it look like the pelvis is more level, that's what you want. 

PMTS Check Point number 1

Is the skier balanced on the outside ski? All the way through the turn? Can you hold this inside ski like this, all the way through the arc?

(below) My inside leg flexed and ski lifted, one of the best tests for high level skiing.

Alexis Pinturault (below) has it all, his inside foot management rivals Hirscher and Neureuther. Here his inside ski is light on the snow and just slightly lifted. Perfect!

PMTS Check points, number 7

Is there a point in every turn where your outside leg is straight, (stretched) and the knee is touching the inside ski boot?

Mistakes: Most skiers stance is too wide, this has been taught for decades by the instructors of traditional methods. If you use a wide stance it really hurts your skiing development. A wide stance  limits lateral movements, it causes two footed weighting and lack of balance.

Achieve your best angles by flexing and tipping the inside leg and keep your inside ski from spreading away from the outside ski. No stepping the inside ski forward or to the side.

Mario Matt, notice how there is almost no weight on his inside ski. His inside boot is pulled back and the shin angle is dramatically forward. This makes for fast slicing arcs.

PMTS Check List number 6

The inside arm and ski pole tip should be moving forward through the arc, this helps to hold the counter acting and stop rotation of the torso.

Use the "Phantom Move" to increase your tipping and angles.

Here are two movements you need with your inside foot, ski and leg. 

Small and simple movements with the correct body parts make efficient skiing.

 When the inside ski is light, off the snow,  like in these two photos, you can tip it easily.
Also notice how he hold that inside ski and ski boot back. Don't let that inside ski slide forward if you want a quicker turn.

Here you can see the effect of tipping. The inside ski base is visible and his body moved to the inside of the turn, the outside ski is angled and pressured.

All of what you want to know about a world cup slalom turn.

This photo just about tells you the whole story. 

-Tip the lower ski toward it's little toe edge before putting the upper ski on edge.
Don't move your upper body, keep it facing the same way as you were at the end of the previous turn, until you set the new outside ski on edge.

-Keep the skis pointed toward a target to the side of the slope, straight ahead. Do not turn your skis or pivot your skis. Just tip them onto new edge angles with the lower body.

-Stay bent and keep your skis light until you are in the falline.

-Notice how he has changed ski angles, with his retraction and leg tipping, yet has not changed direction. Lower level skiers and racers, will try to pivot and turn the skis here.

Counter balance, isn't accomplished by doing a few exercises, it's technique that you have to build.

Counter Balanced

Not Counter Balanced

                                           Counter balanced, yet over or too extremely counter acted.

Marcel Hirscher: What else would you expect, perfect counter balance, perfect counter acting.

Leaning in slalom, no longer wins on the world Cup!

Leaning the upper body toward the gate. Not much technical progression or evolution from this skier, he's the same skier as in the bottom photo years before. This shows the coaches are not aware of the evolving technique of the better skiers.

 

Keeping the head upright and the torso vertical. This is counter balance and today's technique.

Even guys who used to get on the podium have mistakes in their technique.

A straight line from the armpit to the outside ankle means he's leaning. This causes the stance to become too wide, because the weight is shifting to the inside ski too early, and reduces valuable pressure on the outside ski. Therefore; the outside ski doesn't bend as much or as quickly as for those racers who don't lean.

 This makes the turns longer and the skier has less rebound at the release. It also causes more often than not, a stepping movement out of the turn, which makes for a really slow late transition. This type of technique can easily cost 1.5 second a run.

Views of my You Tube videos from all over the word!

Gaining momentum every year and more developed videos coming for next season.

Hirscher poses like most gymnasts can't! Amazing body control.

Two more "Essentials" demonstrated clearly that no one else can accomplish in slalom except maybe his training partner Felix Neureuther. Counter balance and counter acting. Also inside leg flexing.

Skiing isn't about just strength, if you don't have flexibility you are not in the slalom game.

Key points to watch for in successful slalom skiers.

In this post I'll point out the key "Essentials of Slalom Skiing". These are common amongst the top three or four racers. The racers that keep these elements together for most of their runs usually are near the top 3. For the racers that lose or where the Essentials break down, time is lost and positions drop.

 (Above) Neureuther uses his bending and tipping of the inside ski to set up the outside extended leg. The ruts on the inside of his hand on the snow are from previous racers moving the hand forward through the arc.

 (Above) This is Marc Gini, no longer a consistently top slalom skier, but very talented. He lifts the old outside ski while holding the tipped angle to transfer, to the previous inside ski. This ski has to be tipped toward it's little toe edge throughout the arc, but held to the angle, at the end of the arc, to except the transfer at the release.

(Above) Felix, again exceptional skiing. Inside ski tipped and leg bent or flexed. Notice his hand is down on the snow, but he is not leaning his upper body toward that side. Many of the big errors happen when the upper body leans in, this is called "lack of counter balance". Many slalom skiers skied out of the course in the first run of Kitz because they leaned their upper body away from the outside ski.  I see this in juniors often, rather than creating "Counter Balance" with the upper body, they are trying to reach for the snow with the inside hand. Big mistake.

Here again Felix performing perfect Essentials, the hand closer to the gate should lead and the leg closer to the gate should lead the tipping into the new turn to develop the correct angles. In the essentials this is called strong arm (creating counter acting) and inside ski tipping. His upper body remains in the same relationship to the skis as at the end of the previous turn until the skis begin the top of the new turn.

The Essentials discussed here are: Tipping, Flexing, Counter acting and Counter balance. The only one of the 5 Essentials we did not mention here is Fore/aft Balance. Which I have discussed on the Blog in other posts. With some training these Essentials are recognizable and easily learned by skiers. 

When ski boot brands make a difference!

OK, Let's keep this really simple: look at every one of these photos and evaluate the outside knee relative to the inside knee. These guys all know how to ski. Yet there is a distinct similarity in their stance. Knees together and what we call an "A-Frame". There is also a common ski boot in this equation, it's a Fischer Boot!

                                                                Knocked-kneed!

                                                        Late release, knee inside!

                                          Huge counter, reverse or counter hip, "A' frame.

 Outside ski going straight, upper body rotated! J. P. Grange, previously a great slalom skier, on Fischer boots now.

Wow, Fisher boots again, Huge "A' frame. Manny!

More of the same!

Notice the difference in leg angles compared to the above skiers, these guys are winning. 

Now let's look at the difference: "A" Frame here!

(Above) Knocked-kneeed or "A frame"

        Notice the difference in leg angles compared to the above skiers, these guys are winning. 

Bow-legged

Much of this has to do with boot design and boot set up by manufacturer's boot reps.

 Felix Neureuther has a great set up, as do most of the Nordica skiers in tech events. .

 His legs or shin angles are very close to always being parallel. In big vertical separation situations;  is when you can really notice what the boots and movements create. The above photo shows his inside leg and ski more tipped and diverging. This is hard to do. But it's excellent, because it brings the hips lower to the side, and more access to bigger angles on the outside leg.