Skiing with the world's best technique, means "tipping", your feet, boots and skis to a greater angle, than you would normally stand with on any slope. Most skiers never realize this, and are not taught it in traditional ski school. "Tipping" is the foundation of "PMTS Direct Parallel". Study this quick sketch I put together to grasp what tipping on a slope really means. All the best skiers and experts in the world "Tip" their skis like this. Harb Ski Systems teaches "Tipping" at every camp session.

If you are missing the next step in your skiing, this could be it. "Tip More and Tip often". Angulation is a body position, tipping is an action and a movement, that either continues to increase or decrease, in a turn, but should never be static in skiing.

Best skiing I've seen in many a decade.

http://youtu.be/JBKiExf-Ab8

Young Italian Talent: shows "Essentials" of PMTS in her skiing.

The best 13 year old skier in the world.

Counter Balance: upper body vertical 

                                      Inside leg well bent and tipped to the Little Toe Edge

Great Skiing from another young Italian women!

Training for skiing!

The ride 2 hours 3minutes, it was 45 degrees up there so winter is coming. From the shop, 4100ft of climbing, 22.5 miles, average speed going up 11.3 mph. Elevation at shop is approximately 8000ft.

Just some nice Porsche photos.

Putting in the miles and the time! Guanella Pass,

Guanella Pass (el. 3557 m./11,669 ft.) is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado, US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanella_Pass

                       4,700ft of climbing, in 1:20 minutes about 12 miles up, average 12mph.

Training, training, training, you have got to like it.

3 hours, 4100 feet of climbing, average speed 12 miles per hour, there and back. Twenty miles uphill.

What is the PMTS, "Direct Parallel Movement System?

PMTS, Direct Parallel, "The Essential Movement Based System".

Skiing involves the whole body, sometimes the whole body moves, and others times only isolated, regional, refined small joints move. Combining and co-ordinating these movements is what makes skiing fluid. We call it the “Essentials of Skiing”, using the PMTS  "Direct Parallel" system.

 The PMTS movement approach is unique in the world of skiing? 

PMTS teaches the same movements to a beginner, that are “coached” to top racers. The same movements used by the best racers in the world are PMTS movements. PMTS is not just a movement based “system”, it is the Movements of  skiing. 

PMTS movements are show-cased by the “Essentials of Skiing,  PMTS brings to the table a straight forward simple agenda of 5 “Essentials”. 

The 5 PMTS Essentials are, 1-Tipping, 2-Flexing and lengthening, 3-Counter-acting, 4-Counter-balancing, and 5-Fore-aft balance.

PMTS is straight forward, because it doesn't discard, reverse or eliminate any “Essentials” along the path to becoming an expert. 

With other systems you waste time learning maneuvers, that change, like wedges, wedge turns and wedge Christies, which you discard, to learn a different set of movements for parallel. With PMTS Direct Parallel, you learn the Essentials that you will always own as part of what you do as an expert. The PMTS system offers the same movements of skiing to all levels. 

As the skier's skill with each “Essential” increases, they improve the movements at each level. The formula has been perfected, skiers come away from each PMTS lesson, knowing what to do, even if they are not yet expert at the movements. Confusion is eliminated, confidence is gained. Knowing what to do, “exactly”, makes skiers successful, very quickly.

Harrison Harb Wins White Mountain Classic bike race.

Looking strong in the break, Harrison comes in 10 seconds in front of 2nd place.

Climbing in our backyard.

This is literally 5 minutes up the road from our house. 

                                        Diana making the last moves to the top.

 We meet up with Richard Wright, a local icon of Colorado Front Range climbing. He is a prolific route developer and great climber.

                                    Diana and Richard top of Mill Creek Crag.

From the Book: "Essentials of skiing".

Marcel Hirscher, Overall World Cup Champion and GS Globe winner.

Hirscher demonstrates his means for holding the previous line, to set up his timing for the new gate. As soon as he senses he can accomplish his next arc, he flexes his outside leg and the arc begins. Here he holds a strong "Counter Balanced", hip and upper body. One of the Essentials of skiing.

Pole use: notice how there is no pole swing only a tap, from a CA upper body. This is what we have been teaching at Harb Camps for years.

Climbing in Indian Creek

 Every climber has to come here at least once, its the Mecca of Crack climbing. The best in the world.

                                             Resting before the hard part.

                                       Me on "Super Crack" first time up.

 Moab Camping

 Don't occupy Wall Street, climb it.

                                       Friends you meet along the trail.

More Technical Freeskiing analysis to come.

Skier 3 in the order on the free ski video below.
Notice how extended he is. This resulted because he didn't absorb the last release well enough. Once you are extended this much, you can't tip your legs and effectively engage your skis early. Here he will compound the issue because he will build pressure late again, and have to deal with the hit at the end of the turn.

Ligety not competitive in slalom

HH quote: "Compare yourself to the best and you will never go wrong!"

Hirscher inside boot tucked in, back and under the outside ski boot--a PMTS fundamental.

Even Pranger, who used to be "king of the wide stance" has had to change to stay competitive on the Austrian Team. Notice how well his inside foot is tucked back, hips ahead of the boots.

                




Poor Ted, (below) he still labors with a bad boot set up for slalom, and the ski team  technical skiers labor under inadequate coaching. Ted is back on his skis, even at the top of the arc. His inside ski is forward and well inside. 


His body looks close to Hirscher's, in almost every respect, except for his fore/aft position and outside to inside boot relationship. However in skiing at this level it is crucial. The whole thing falls apart for him after the gate. Everything in skiing can be evaluated by the relationship of the inside ski, to the outside ski, and Ted isn't able to keep this relationship strong for slalom. In GS he has more time to adjust his Fore/aft problem.

The Austrians (Hirscher and Pranger top two photos) and the rest of the Austrian technical skiers, all look alike and ski alike and there is a reason for this. They are begining coached with a system that works. There couldn't be two skiers that are built more totally differently than Hirscher and Pranger, yet their skiing still looks the same.
The Austrians have a technical coaching program that works and they are the only ski team that demonstrates the ability to convert racers to a universal national system within their ski team. Proof that the system works, is in the depth and undeniable podium finishes by numerous racers on the team.

This is movement analysis of Technical Freeskiing in video below. (Scroll Down)

Korea Technical Freeskiing contest, short turns.


                                            Movement analysis of Top Level skiers.            
                                                             Skier 1

 Right turn, left leg, this is his better side. His hip is counter-acted and his upper body is more vertical. His inside arm and shoulder are leading in the arc.

Here on his left turn, right leg his upper body is leaning, his hip is rotated and his torso is rotated. This disconnects the skis from the center of gravity. The CG is moving away from the stance ski. This photo clip is less than a 1/100 of a second before he falls. This is typical of a skier with weak alignment or under-edged alignment.

Skier 2

This obvious "A" frame, is not good,  even through the release is really hurting his performance, what is amazing about these skiers is that they don't extend, which is what is saving their performance, very hard to do with these alignment issues. They'd rather stay flexed and transfer weight without a push, great job.
In the lower of the two frames, this skier is rotating out of the arc with his upper body, the ski isn't turning, the tail is washing out, so he has to help with his upper body, he uses strong body rotation to get the ski around. 

Korea Technical Freeskiing contest, short turns

The major realization of this video is the poor alignment of the competitors' boots and legs.

There is some very good skiing and a few great skiers in this video. The amazing thing is that the alignment of the right boot on most of the skiers, until the very end; is off by a considerable amount. There is one skier I noticed that has bad left foot alignment, see if you can spot him?

Its interesting to see that alignment in general is not addressed in ski instruction. However what is noticed is that the skiers with the best alignment are scoring the best points here. You can see the point scores in the video frame below each competitor.

  It ironic that the ski industry doesn't understand or want to deal with bad alignment, but we reward those that are naturally well aligned, because they naturally ski well.


That should tell you something! Good skiers have good alignment. Bad ones struggle.


This is not the case at Harb Ski Systems, where we understand alignment very well and know how to fix it.

The first skier leans to the inside and falls. If you use slow motion and stop action you can clearly see the asymmetry between his body from one side, or turn, to the other. This is also true for most of the skiers coming after him. The first skier doesn't have enough Counter Balance or CB. You can see this by how his upper body to boot line,  is almost straight, from his boots to his shoulder. He is probably also adapting to the lack of response of the ski in that turn to the left where he falls, so he tries to push against the snow to get more ski engagement. This is his downfall, ha!. Had he increased his lower body tipping and CB, he would have easily made the turn.
But the problem still exists, you can't adapt to bad alignment in very fast turns, because the body can't make the adjustments fast enough.

Watch the video and enjoy the skiing, then review it and begin to pick out the obvious right leg "A" frames in most of the skiers. Compare the right side to the left side  and you will see that the left side for the right turns is more solid, and much less "A"framed.

I will continue to add and make new comments about each skier over time, so come back in a few days to investigate the Movement Analysis.

Your first clue will be to look at the still frame show in the video box below, that's an "A" frame on the right leg.

Short Turns 2

More on how to learn short high energy turns.

Modern Teaching Methods

Relaxing and floating over the snow through the High C part of turns is crucial to building balance. 

Modern skiing methods such as the PMTS Direct Parallel, is based on not creating pressure with your extension in transition. Creating pressure by body actions, destabilizes the center of your body at this crucial point. Extending in transition, especially to move you Center of Mass into a turn and works to move the body away from the balance point.  Unfortunately most ski instruction methods, still use this to exit a turn. THey have not analyzed closely enough what results from these actions they teach.  Most instruction includes pushing the body and extending. This is especially damaging to your skiing in transition.

PMTS is the first and only teaching method that allows you to naturally develop proper body alignment through expressly taught movements, that deal with forces that build through the arc of a turn. Using this method allows pressure to build through the natural forces of the mountain, gravity and momentum (Speed). This allows pressure to come to you,  as you establish balance through the radius of an arc.

Real Skiing, not ski school or Interski demo skiing.

Check out the right foot alignment on many of these skiers.




Some really great runs, many of the earlier skiers have obvious asymmetry from one side to the other. This means some slight canting would really help them, even at this level of skiing. Mostly on the right leg. You can see it if you slow the video and watch the knee drop inside the turn.
The last skier is on Head Super Shapes, not surprising, a perfect ski for this event. His alignment is almost perfect and he's a great skier. His outside leg gets really stretched out in the radius and then you retract beautifully from the load and pressure from the turn.

If you slow the video down or stop action it, you can see the amount of flexing to release and in transition the skiers are using. Most of the skiers use the "no swing", pole tap and CA is more obvious in the hips then the upper body. Mostly PMTS technique and technique used in World Cup Slalom, is seen here, rather than traditional skiing shown by the Demo Team skiing at the Interski events.
The skiers are running according to their placing, last being those that scored the best.