garydranow
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Posts posted by garydranow
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Okay folks, for more information just check out the EpicSki.com discussion. It should keep things on track.
http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?t=28471
Thanks for your understanding
Peace!
Dranow
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Where is it going to be??
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MSR Team/Rossignol Race Camp Slated
The MSR Team in conjuction with Rossignol Ski
Corporation will offering a 3-day Race Camp this Thanksgiving,
November 25, 26 and 27th.
Check our website for more details in the coming weeks!
Nastar Rules Changes
Nastar comes out with new class break down! To read about it go to
the Nastar MB and check the Rules Section. Some really great
changes for all of us!
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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Tommy Kirchhoff, 435.901.2546
For Immediate Release
*Is running this saturday in the Park City Record and then
a national media relealse
Local Racers Develop New Ski Technique
"When you do it right, your body looks like an upside down
tuning fork,? says Park City local Tommy Kirchhoff. ?The
key is in the rotation of the waist. It?s feels something like
doing the Chubby Checker Twist.? Kirchhoff invented the
technique he calls ?Waist Steering? last winter based on the
Chinese art of Tai Chi.
Kirchhoff continues,?Rotation of the torso and other body
parts is innate and natural ?but many ski racing purists shy
away from rotation because it?s very misunderstood. All of
the balance and power in Tai Chi comes from turning the waist.?
When Kirchhoff felt his Waist Steering technique was starting
to solidify in January of 2005, he began sharing the concepts
with Park City local Gary Dranow, a certified USSA coach.
Dranow was able to understand and apply Kirchhoff?s radical
fundamental changes, and began skiing much better. In turn,
Dranow began formalizing a learning progression for the new
technique.
How effective is ?Waist Steering?? For starters, the
ModernSkiRacing.com website, which represents the
partnership of Kirchhoff and Dranow, publishes many glowing
testimonials. Also, Gary Dranow is ranked as the number one
Nastar expert age 50-54; he?s nationally ranked 9th overall,
with Daron Rahlves, Casey Puckett and A.J. Kitt all ahead of
him in the top seven. Dranow is also ranked second in the
Intermountain Masters Division, Class 6.
Kirchhoff is the number one ranked Nastar expert in the state of Utah
for ages 30-34, although he does not race formally very often.
If none of those accolades turn your head, maybe this will: The
Modern Ski Racing Team has just received a generous sponsorship
from Rossignol. When asked why the giant ski manufacturer would
want to partner with two unknown ski racers seemingly bent on
challenging 60 years of ski racing fundamentals development,
Rossignol responded this way:
Rossignol views the Modern Ski Racing Team as a unique instructional channel for recreational ski racers. They (the MSR Team) will help Rossignol gain market share by increasing product awareness within the recreational racing world and by teaching their cutting-edge Waist Steering technique. Thus, recreational racers throughout the country will gain interactive exposure to innovative products.While the technique may not yet be turning the heads of Bode Miller or
the Austrian national team, Kirchhoff and Dranow taught a ?Waist Steering?
clinic with almost 30 nationally-ranked Nastar racers in March, and have a
tour of clinics across the country slated for this winter. Their first will be
a Thanksgiving race clinic at Snowbasin Resort November, 25, 25 and 27.
Many racers have studied the Waist Steering technique informally on
www.modernskiracing.com, and have drawn very diverse
conclusions. Some bulletin boards even have people arguing and
getting emotional about it. While Kirchhoff and Dranow offer all of
the technique?s details for free on their website, they don?t understand
why people get upset about a theoretical new ski technique which has
shown to help racers ski faster and more safely.
Tommy Kirchhoff teaches Tai Chi at the Park City Racquet Club.
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The privacy thing IS at the kid's request. She'd FREAK OUT if her name was being posted around.
Also, this picture is not all that great. A better one is at:
Understandable - maybe someday her name will be as well known as
Bode Miller
All the luck to her from the MSR Team!
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Just a little tidbit. This is ok here, but please keep it isolated to this topic. I am trying to avoid letting this site be the place everyone comes to sell stuff for free. I don't think that's what you're doing but I don't want to set a precedent, either. If people want to go to your site, it's in your sig and that'll be enough.
(this is in no way a flame or an angry post)
Thanks!
Roger that. Let me explain what this is. Holmenkol and Uvex are
two of our sponsors. Our deal with them is that they simply pass
on discounts to folks that come through our site. They are passing
on the savings for the "cost of selling savings" to our visitors/friends
and racers. We do not take any profit from this arrangement at all. It
follows our philosophy of providing cutting edge concepts, current
informationas well as products we can to the community.
If this does not fit with your policies, let us know. We completely
understand. -gjd
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Get discounts on Uvex and Holmenkol products at www.modernskiracing.com
Just an FYI! Nothing in it for us, BTW, just a great deal for our friends
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Now that you have calculated the angles, vectors and understand the
Kinesiology principles we are espousing let me take you further into
the murky waters of the MSRT.
Tommy, myself, and the rest of the team are truly playing with concepts
that I highly doubt are being verbalized or even thought of from a
parallel logic/theory platform.
First I believe that unless one is a student of Fu Style Tai Chi Chuan it
is doubtful to me that anyone would relate to the concept of ?Waist Skills?.
Master Fu said of Ted Ligety in one of Tommy?s classes for the
US Ski Team, ?You have no waist skills?. Dr. Liz and I have made
the decision to start studying with Tommy next week. Why? I only
have a rudimentary understanding of ?Waist Skills? as it pertains to the
serious Fu style practitioner. Tommy is at least a few years a head of
me in his development of these skills and I must catch up for us to plot
the evolution of what we both believe may be a shift in coaching paradigm
for racers in future years.
That is not to say, however, that these world-class athletes in ski racing or
any world-class athlete do not possess some natural waist skills and can use
them to affect their technique. They do, they just don?t understand how deep
it goes and really don?t put much thought into the waist or torso being the
engine that is driving their ability to do what they do. In other words,
someone once discovered ?if I do this then I can do that and go
faster.? That?s about as deep as it gets today.
I don?t believe there are many coaches in the US that have any clue what
we are about to unleash on the recreational racing world. We believe
there may even be a ?trickle up? affect from our work. We certainly
hope so.
The Problem with Pictures
Analyzing any racer?s ski technique from a single photo is folly. We can
certainly draw some conclusions about what has happened before the
picture and what is likely to happen right after the picture but without the
full turn, making any sense of what we are seeing is very, very difficult to
do with great accuracy.
In this article I am going to try and give you all some skills in recognizing
what is happening a single picture so you can draw your own conclusion
about what the skier has done and is about to do. The ability to visualize
the entire turn from a picture representing 1/1000th of a second will develop
one of your most important skills for learning - visualization.
In the MSRT, Recreational Racing to Win we hope to use a combination
of illustrations, stills and photo montages to get each skill, exercise and
technique across.
Breaking it down then putting it all together
Thanks a lot for the effort. Tommy. I am gonna buythe book for sure.
In the meantime I stay confused. In the diagram the skier turns right and
the waist turns right. On the steeps, I assume the skier is setting up for a
right turn as well. His waist turns to the left and after a pause keep turning
left ?
If this is getting too much for you, just ignore the post.
Hopefully there will be lots of pictures in the book. A CD would be
great. Too bad I have to wait an other year before winning the
worlds.
Here's our response
Wolf,
Now that you have calculated the angles, vectors and understand the
Kinesiology principles we are espousing let me take you further into the
murky waters of the MSRT.
Tommy, myself, and the rest of the team are truly playing with concepts that
I highly doubt are being verbalized or even thought of from a parallel
logic/theory platform.
First I believe that unless one is a student of Fu Style Tai Chi Chuan it is
doubtful to me that anyone would relate to the concept of ?Waist Skills?.
Master Fu said of Ted Ligety in one of Tommy?s classes for the US Ski Team,
?You have no waist skills?. Dr. Liz and I have made the decision to start
studying with Tommy next week. Why? I only have a rudimentary
understanding of ?Waist Skills? as it pertains to the serious Fu style
practitioner. Tommy is at least a few years a head of me in his development
of these skills and I must catch up for us to plot the evolution of what we
both believe may be a shift in coaching paradigm for racers in future years.
That is not to say, however, that these world-class athletes in ski racing or
any world-class athlete do not possess some natural waist skills and can use
them to affect their technique. They do, they just don?t understand how deep
it goes and really don?t put much thought into the waist or torso being the
engine that is driving their ability to do what they do. In other words,
someone once discovered ?if I do this then I can do that and go faster.?
That?s about as deep as it gets today.
I don?t believe there are many coaches in the US that have any clue what
we are about to unleash on the recreational racing world. We believe there
may even be a ?trickle up? affect from our work. We certainly hope so.
The Problem with Pictures
Analyzing any racer?s ski technique from a single photo is folly. We can
certainly draw some conclusions about what has happened before the picture
and what is likely to happen right after the picture but without the full turn,
making any sense of what we are seeing is very, very difficult to do with great accuracy.
In this article I am going to try and give you all some skills in recognizing
what is happening a single picture so you can draw your own conclusion
about what the skier has done and is about to do. The ability to visualize
the entire turn from a picture representing 1/1000th of a second will develop
one of your most important skills for learning - visualization.
In the MSRT, Recreational Racing to Win we hope to use a combination
of illustrations, stills and photo montages to get each skill, exercise and
technique across.
Breaking it down then putting it all together
As Tommy has done with this illustration, he has allowed you to think and
visualize how the vectors of the skier affect the turn and how the vectors
of the turn may affect the skier.
Tommy has given a brilliant analysis of the illustration in this post.
We believe that there are four elemental skills to becoming an advanced
?learner? or student. Those are;
1) Visualization Skills (The mind?s eye)
2) Cognitive Learning (From concepts and verbal cues)
3) Tactile Learning (recognizing feelings and sensations)
4) Total body awareness (the most advanced skill).
We also believe in keeping it simple. USSA Masters break the turn down into
just 2 phases:
1) The Stance Phase
2) The Carving or turning Phase
While this makes teaching a race turn easier to understand, the truth is that
there are many phases/component motor skills of each turn and we pass
through those phases quite quickly to affect the best turn. The combination
and sequence of how the component motor skills are applied is what makes
one skier faster than the other.
So let?s look at some pictures.
We will start with one of Wolf?s favorites (and mine), Thomas Grandi. He is
an OLD dude from Canada and skis on the best GS skis in the world,
Rossignol (there is no question about that from those ?in the know?).
This is a picture for the 2002 Olympics during the Slalom at Deer Valley.
As the principles of waist steering are basically the same in GS and Slalom
I?ll use both disciplines in my examples. At this time Thomas wasn?t even
on the radar screen but here he is in the Olympics running both Slalom
and GS for ?Oh Cannnadaaaa?.
In the picture above you can see the vestiges of the Old School WC
technique (remember, this is only 2 years ago). In this Slalom turn you
can see that Thomas has his feet relatively close together and has probably
taken the gate with both shins close to the top of his boot line (running very
straight with major forces at the END of the turn). Let?s concentrate on
his outside shoulder and the apparent direction of his torso or waist.
In this picture he is actually reaching across his body with his outside
hand to get ready for the upcoming pole plant, which has pulled his
outside, shoulder forward. From the bottom right of his right rib cage,
however, you can clearly see a bias towards the new turn (already).
Though his hips are still ?square? the old turn you can see that from this
position he cannot get sufficient (IMHO) weight onto his uphill ski to
transition off this ski. In other words, due to the lack of waist steering
deep enough into the turn he will have to rely on a twist of his upper
body to get his hips up and through (rather than waist steering) and
does not have the leverage of a well edged and weighted uphill ski to
make an earlier and more dynamic transition thereby relieving the
forces later in the next turn.
Thomas again at the 2002 Olympics, this time on CB?s in GS.
This picture is probably taken just coming on to the entrance of Gotcha
Face, one of the photographers favorite spots to shoot. Once again, look
at the outside shoulder actually turned ahead of his right hip. This is the
lack of waist skills in at work. His waist is fairly bent and his tailbone is not
tucked up and forward, as we will see later with Bode and later pictures of
Thomas himself. What is most evident is that his uphill ski is well weighted
and ready for an uphill ski release but his downhill ski is not finishing the
turn aggressively enough which will undoubtedly cause him to be 1000ths
to 100ths of a second off his mark for the optimal release point to the next
turn, especially with a much steeper pitch just about to hit him. He does not
have the ability to ?steer? his outside ski independently of his tracking inside
ski to stack over his engaged inside ski. Not bad, just not current. I know,
we should be all this lucky right now, especially at these speeds.
Okay, let?s fast forward with Thomas to the 2005 World Championships. He
has since won two back-to-back GS races this year and finished well in
Slalom and yes, on Rossignol Skis!
This is very hard to see and probably needs a computerized analysis
program to really bring out the subtle angles, line and muscle involvement
(we are working on this). In this picture Thomas is just entering the
?carve phase of the turn right above the Apex?. Here is the fist evidence
of what we all the ?Twist? which short for all the goes into the waist steering
theory (which is way more involved than we can get into on this forum,
please keep this in mind). Simply notice that his torso is mostly square to
the new turn and appears to be leading both his outside hip AND shoulder.
What you can?t see clearly in this picture is that his inside hip IS stacked
over the uphill ski and that the ski is carving right under his foot, this is
very, very important to notice. As he continues through this turn he will
be able to independently steer his outside ski while decreasing his radius
of his inside ski as he skeletally stacks his weight to the uphill inside edge
right before his release to the new turn. The shape of the turn, as indicated
by Tommy?s diagram, has been changed by the addition of waist skills that
we simply did not see two years ago (thanks to Bode).
Here is Bode at the World Championships. The first picture is in GS and
the second below is SuperG. Let?s see what we can see.
I believe that most people would look at this picture and cry ?FOUL? saying
he IS using hip angulation on this turn. Not so. We will look at a true ?hip turn?
a little late with Hermann. If one could rip off his shirt, peel off his layers of
skin and see the muscles in his abdomen it would be clear that his waist is
leading his outside hip and shoulder into this turn. Note once again that Bode
has more weight stacked over the uphill ski and it is carving right under foot.
How does he do this? Let?s go back to Tommy?s illustration of the vectors and
line of center of mass by the Old School turn and the Twist
(the waist skill turn). His center of mass is actually rotating towards his
uphill ski radius allowing him to align skeletally over the outside edge of his
inside ski but maintain subtle control of his outside ski for minute adjustments
for terrain, conditions and line. He can only do this because his waist is
CONTROLLING where his momentum is headed and that is along the
radius of the inside ski, not downhill towards the next turn ? TOO EARLY.
We all know that a ski turn is incredibly dynamic and that we are
constantly adjusting millisecond by millisecond to the forces, terrain and
the line we want to affect. It should be clear that the ?Twist? does not
continue forever in the same direction and that once it ceases to be
necessary there may be other muscles at play that are equally as important.
This is particularly true in those milliseconds from the finish of the last turn to
the initiation of the next turn. It is in those critical milliseconds that
photographers shoot many of their pictures that get people confused as
to what they are actually seeing. In video, which is imminently more valuable
to study, we can slow down the speed or even advance frame by frame to
see all that is going on. I recommend everyone pull out their DVD?s of the
2002 Olympics and whatever you have from this season. The changes
will be stark, I promise you. What exactly is happening just before
the release is beyond the scope of this article and of course will be
fully addressed in our next posts and eventually, our book.
So be patient for now.
So here is Bode making a SuperG turn.
This is one of the clearest examples of waist skill and using the uphill ski
I?ve seen to date. Look at how much ?twist? he has towards the current turn.
His waist is absolutely leading his outside shoulder and hip. His inside ski is
absolutely skiing a shallower radius than his outside ski and he IS going
to transition off that uphill ski to the next turn. IMHO. Fabulous shot and
from my perspective says it all.
I believe this is Karbon in GS. Women are built differently than men as they
have wider hips relative to their feet placement. This creates certain
optical illusions especially past the Apex of the turn. Look at her number
on her bib. You can see her trying to utilize her waist but she doesn?t
have enough skill yet to have the waist control her decent. Not to say
she is not using her waist, she IS, just not to the degree that Bode,
Benni or Thomas are. You can still see that the waist is barely leading
her outside hip and that her hips are square to the turn. There IS NO
COUNTER here. The tell-tale sign is the inside ski tracking while the outside
ski makes a longer but more radical radius turn which is setting her up to
stack over the inside ski and release off it. I could be wrong, but I?m
not.
And last but not least, everyone?s favorite, the Hermaanator. This is the
old classic HIP Angulated turn. Only Hermaan can win using this today and
that is only if Blowupde blows up. I?ll just let you all look at this picture for
a while and compare it to Tommy?s illustration, my comments and the
pictures above. You tell me what you see as the differences.
We are working on more posts, you will find them on
By Gary Dranow for the MSR Team
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Principles of the MSRT
By
Tommy Kirchhoff and Gary Dranow
Over the last 50 years, ski racing has changed again and again. But still,
the core principles of ski racing have not changed, and probably won?t.
The principles are:
1. Balance
2. Posture or Stance
3. Edging/Carving/Edge Angle
4. Control
5. Sensitivity
6. Power Release
Balance is quite difficult to define; in fact, the only way to define
balance is to compare it to imbalance. Science tells us that balance
can be improved a number of different ways.
Stance would seem to be an obvious concern. Keeping the limbs
bent to absorb shock and a lower center of gravity are ubiquitous
to athletics. Depending on the specific sport, different body stances
are used to gain a mechanical advantage. In Modern Ski Racing,
athletes learn ?skeletal stacking? to cope with the monstrous forces
they will be influenced by. Modern ski racing also emphasizes
matched angles of the legs and de-emphasizes leaning (banking
can be beneficial, but there is a thin line separating the two) or
over-rotation of the upper body.
Control also spans the athletic spectrum. In ski racing, there is
physical control of one?s self; physical control of one's equipment;
and only recently tapped, mental control of one?s self (sports psychology).
Sensitivity is emphasized in many sports, but few as acutely as
alpine ski racing. The delicate implementation of skis requires
almost a sixth sense; racers often attempt to boost this capability
by erroneously tightening their ski boots. In fact, in Giant Slalom
the ability to articulate the ankle within the ski boot and ?feather?
on the pressure after the initiation is critical to affecting the optimal
line. This sensitivity and ability to subtly adjust one?s line in a GS
or Nastar course is what wins a race by 100th of second.
Power, or strength and its timed release are simply developed in
dryland training, and corrected through repetition on the racecourse.
The Modern Ski Racing turn relies on carving both the inside and
outside ski, but using enough weight on the inside uphill ski edge
just prior to the transition to enable the racer to keep his skis in
contact with the snow.
In recent years most coaches have concentrated on weighting the
outside ski almost to the exclusion of the inside ski. Moreover, the
inside ski was used as an adjunct to the outside ski simply to help
carve the turn and reduce the forces on the outside ski.
The problem with committing to the downhill ski is two fold: the
centrifugal force ?loads? the ski, radically reversing its camber;
this stored energy can be difficult to control; because the racer is
relying on this centrifugal radius for his balance, any fore/aft balance
bobble can result in ?launching? the racer forcefully in an undesirable
direction, which requires recovery. Also, committing to the downhill
ski requires a lot of edge angle; even the tiniest bit too much edge
angle causes the ski to skid or chatter (both are friction, and slow
you down).
With the advent of the MSRT it has become apparent that the best
racers in the world have evolved the technique past that awareness
of most club program coaches and possibly even themselves on an
intellectual level. What I mean is that they can?t really break down or
verbalize what they are doing - they are just doing it; they are just
feeling their way over the snow.
What they ARE doing is this; they are first getting their ski on edge very
early in the turn. They get their skis on edge by using the crossing muscles
of the abdomen and hip area to create a twist in the mid-section of the
body, the waist. Simply by contracting these crossing muscles and leaving
the opposing muscles relax along with articulation or rolling of the ankles
they can ?rock? their skis sufficiently and quickly on edge to start any turn
with either a carve or pivot (PET).
As the turn develops they increase their weight bias to their inside ski and
in particular the inside ski uphill edge. Right before they transition to the
new turn the weight bias increases rapidly to the uphill ski and once again
they use the cross muscles of the waist to rock the skis on edge BEFORE
applying pressure in the carving phase of the turn.
This use of the crossing abdominal muscles is what we refer to as
Waist Steering (coined by Tommy Kirchhoff) or the ?Twist? as used
by Gary Dranow.
The use of waist steering coupled with an inside ski weight bias depending
on the turn does not end, however, with the initiation of the turn.
Moving the weight bias to the inside ski at the carve phase and continuing
to use the Twist will keep the outside hip flowing through the turn. This will
allow the skier to use the outside ski with more or less pressure to regulate
the turn while the inside ski tracks along its carving edge. The outside ski
works much like the front wheels of the car while the inside ski creates
the power and traction moving from turn to turn.
Observe these pictures (Pics "in focus" coming tomorrow) of Bode and
Tatiana loading the inside ski prior to the release, using waist steering
while controlling the radii with the less weighted outside ski
In our view the Waist/Torso is the govenor of the body. In other words
as the waist goes so the shoulders, hips and extremeties follow. They
(the shoulders, hips and extremeties) do not lead.
To investigate this concept further play with this dry land exercise
presented by Tommy Kirchhoff.
To introduce these physical concepts, we?ll begin with Rooting
Exercise (Tai Chi?s Chuan?s version of human balance). Begin with
your feet just slightly wider apart than shoulder width. With your feet
flat on the floor, press outward with your feet as if you mean
to slide them laterally away from one other; twist your legs slightly
outward, mainly at the knee; your feet feel like they want to supinate
(roll to the outside), but keep downward pressure on each big toe.
You should feel like you have increased balance both laterally and
sagittally (fore/aft). Nowhere in Tai Chi does one pronate (roll a foot
to the inside), twist a knee to the inside, or angulate a knee or ankle
to the inside (the ligaments on the inside of the knee are very weak,
while the ligaments on the outside are much stronger).
Further explained by Tommy he relates to his training in Tai Chi Chaun;
Without getting into too much detail on the learning progression of
Tai Chi Chuan, suffice it to say that the optimal body posture is
specific to a hollow chest (shoulders forward), pelvic tilt (genitals
curled up with the tummy tucked) and the head held very straight
(the chin is held back, and an unforeseen force pulls upward and
lengthens the spine). When viewed from the side, the back appears
to be all flat (because it's stacked vertically).
Like the skeletal stacking Modern Ski Racing athletes use to bend
and carve a ski, Tai Chi Chuan emphasizes ?structure? instead of
strength. Thus, a very slight athlete can be just as powerful as a
muscular athlete if he uses his skeleton and muscle coordination
correctly. Modern Ski Racing Technique emphasizes skeletal stacking
over brute strength.
Kinesologically, the ?Serape Effect? is the greatest athletic energy the
human body is capable of. In essence, the Serape Effect is the turning
of the waist/trunk in a coordinated fashion that allows a baseball pitcher
to throw a 90mph fastball, or a tennis player to smash a 100 mph serve.
This waist movement is echoed in many athletic forms, but it is typically
only trained in its specific sport capacity. In Tai Chi Chuan, energy for
all movement comes from turning of the waist, and elasticity and resiliency
of the waist are paramount for physical action. Tai Chi?s waist training can
be applied to many other sports.
Also emphasized in Tai Chi Chuan is breath control. Most ski racers have
no concept of this at all. Waist turning and the Serape Effect are chiefly
due to the very strong contractions of the Iliopsoas muscles in the waist
(aided by other muscles of the trunk). The Iliopsoas muscle is actually
attached to the diaphragm. You read that correctly?the muscle used to
pull air into the lungs is attached to the muscle which chiefly creates
the awesome power known as the Serape Effect. Tai Chi Chuan is one
of the only ways to coordinate these two muscles.
In Tai Chi Chuan, it is very important not to use force directly against
force; instead, it is more important to yield to force and redirect it with
minimal effort. It is said, ?Use four ounces to overcome 1000 pounds.
? Think of an arrow flying quickly through the air; the tiniest tap on the
side of its shaft will send it careening off in a different direction. In relation
to ski racing, we want to carve the cleanest turn without
becoming co-constricted "fighting" forces directly.
The Tai Chi Chuan practitioner develops ?Ting Jing,? or ?Listening Energy.?
This takes a lot of repetition of the forms, but one develops such a
heightened physical sensitivity that it could only be compared the lateral
line nerve receptors on a fish.
Now observe this photo:
Bode demonstrating loading the inside ski with outside ski steering
Master Liang?s weight is on his left leg, and he is turning his waist to
the left to demonstrate the movement called ?Strike Solar Plexus.?
Most movements in Tai Chi Chuan assimilate this: when the weight is
on the left leg, the waist turns left and the form opens to the left side
(obviously, the opposite would be true if the weight were on the right leg).
This type of posture and movement takes the greatest advantage of the
natural balance you felt in the rooting exercise. No where in Tai Chi Chuan
does a practitioner rotate either leg (especially the knee) to the inside,
nor does he weight the extended leg. The legs are always pressuring
the outside of the knee and the outside of the foot with constant pressure
on the big toe.
In this photo, Master Liang?s right leg is extended, and only has about 30
percent of his weight; we call this the ?empty? leg because it can easily
step, kick, or pivot. If Master Liang were on alpine skis, he could be making
a left turn by weighting the uphill ski; his balance is excellent in this posture,
and the right leg can easily match the turn radius of the left leg simply with
a turn of the waist (the left leg is more like an outrigger than a balance
platform). Weighting of the downhill leg and ski in ?Modern Ski Racing?
relies on the edge angle and the centrifugal force; as many racers
know, sometimes the downhill ski edgelocks and does not reverse-camber.
Weighting the uphill ski through the apex of the turn is much more controllable;
however it requires specific movement of the pelvis. This movement is
very difficult for racers accustomed to banking, ?bonestacking,? or
angulating against the downhill ski.
When the uphill ski is weighted through the turn, the body weight can
drop almost straight down, providing a low center of gravity and
excellent balance. The pelvis must simultaneously rotate the direction
of the turn. This reduces the edge angle, but allows for more edge
pressure and ?steering.? It also enables the downhill ski to mimic the
angulation and turn radius of the uphill ski without centrifugal ?loading.?
(The downhill leg can remain bent, which is better for sensitivity and
shock absorption) The downhill leg becomes more like the drawing leg
of a geometry compass; it merely follows in accordance with the waist
rotation.
On steeps, I find that the uphill ski tracks beautifully across the fall line;
then the waist can turn slightly the other direction to roll the ski over. The
uphill ski becomes the ?outside ski? or downhill ski, and can pivot to slide
across the fall line. Slightly holding the waist turn to the outside de-angulates
the ski, and allows the uphill ski to advance, creating something like a
telemark turn (with one foot advanced, the length of ski edge sliding across
the fall line can be roughly 1.25 times the length of one ski). As the outside
ski begins to track straight down the fall line and accelerate, the waist can
rotate (with breath control) into the turn and the athlete can simultaneously
shift weight to the uphill ski to again carve across the fall line and cross
under. Any loading of the downhill ski can be comfortably controlled because
the athlete is not relying on it for his platform.
Notice the convergance of Poutianan's skis in this slalom turn. This is not
by accident and as you watch FIS WC races you will see this more and
more in both the men and women as they use the inside ski to track and
shin (or knee) the gate then transistion and "regulate" the line with the
outside ski.
One may laugh at this comparison, but it is realistic to ski racing. The uphill
ski can be effectively weighted to create a clean carving turn with parallel skis
and matched (yet reduced) edge angles. If you imagine a short radius turn
could not be accomplished this way, imagine that Master Liang turns his
waist more to the left, and that the right ski tip is directly downhill from the
left ski tip; this would put both skis downhill from his mass and center of
gravity, making him carve directly across the fall line. Hence, the turn can
be as short radius as you need it.
We leave you with this to ponder, play with and experiment to your
heart?s content. Let us know how it goes as all you mad scientists come
back from your labs.
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Modern Ski Racing
in General Chat
Posted · Edited by garydranow