Hello Sports Fans,
Here's the situation as I see it:
I am a ski racer who has dedicated
23 years of my life to the this sport.
Gary Dranow was ski racing when
I was still in diapers. So needless
to say, we both have a long-time
love affair with ski racing.
I have studied this "art" from a great
many masters; my uncle
was an alternate on the U.S. Ski Team
with Billy Kidd; his son (my cousin)
was one of the top ski racers in Michigan.
My high-school coach was a former ski
racer and PSIA Level III; his son and daughter
were both "rabbits" at nearly every USSA race.
I have talked shop with all kinds of coaches
and ski racers over the last 23 years. Austrian,
French, Italian, Yugoslavian, Swiss, German,
Canadian, Australian, New Zealand,
and U.S. personalities of every description.
When Americas Opening Worldcup races
were held at Park City Mountain, I received
on-course accreditation, and gladly spent
the whole weekend taking photos and notes.
Suffice it to say that three years ago, I was
an accomplished racer and still a ski racing
nutcase .
Then I started practicing Tai Chi because I had
a theory that "it could help ski racing." The more
I learned and practiced, the more I saw how
the two were similar. Then out of the blue,
US Ski Team trainer Sasha Rearick asked me
if I would teach the Men's Team Tai Chi.
So I got to hang out with those guys and talk
shop for a whole summer. Schlopy, Ligety, Friedman,
all the Park City summer guys.
This fueled my already fanatical drive for ski
racing even more. The team gave me a racesuit
as a token of their appreciation, so I said I would
get back into ski racing myself.
I ran into Gary Dranow on an early-season day
at Brighton (early November 2004). We had skied
together a little at the Nastar Nationals the spring
before, and sort of got along. So instead of ripping
powder and hucking cliffs at Brighton like I had
intended that day (which is what I do), I skied
race turns with Gary and Liz. He told me some
things about racing and I told him some things
about Tai Chi. At the end of the day, we were
both skiing much better.
I went into an intensive mode of experimentation
on skis. I tried to simply make Tai Chi waist-turning
movements on my skis instead of angulating at the
hip. This changed everything from the "old school"
way of doing it-- but it worked! I had seen a picture
of Bode Miller ripping a GS turn with his weight on
the uphill ski; and that made sense to the Tai Chi
integration. The more I played with it, the better
my skis carved in unison. Day after day I skied
by myself at Deer Valley, working out the bugs
to best of MY BODY's LIMITATIONS (that's important,
please keep it in mind).
As it developed (this was December 2004 through
January 2005) I began calling it "Waist Steering."
I explained it to Dranow, who absolutely didn't
agree with it; but he would still listen because
I helped him so much with his posture on skis
(stance was what he called it; I think he more
often calls it posture these days). I gave him
new information; he'd dispute it, play with it
for a while, then come back and tell me I was
right. This happened about a hundred times
in three months.
You wouldn't even believe the number of e-mails
and cell phone minutes between us last winter.
And sometime in early February, Gary Dranow
said to me, "Waist Steering is the way!"
Suddenly, this completely broken, 50-year old
jalopy of a man started kicking everyone's butt
in Nastar and then in Masters racing. He was
brilliant in a 20-second tactical Nastar course,
and amazingly fast and stable in a 120-second
Masters course. The most amazing part of it
was the fact that he stopped falling. Every time
I had skied with Gary Dranow, he crashed like
no one you had ever seen. He just stopped falling.
I was skiing better than ever, and so was Gary.
Then, Gary came up with a learning progression
for recreational-racers. He showed it to me and
I thought, "that's silly, it's just too simple."
Gary told me the results from a few "test classes"
were astonishing. He had people run the Nastar
course in the morning; then he taught them a
few simple drills and put them back in the course.
Their times were so much better, it was like magic.
I decided I needed to see one of these things, so
I came out for Gary's 8th or 10th class. His messages
were pretty refined because he had been a coach
forever, and because he had taught the Waist Steering
drills several times. I'll never forget Donna France.
She skied in front of me on the first run; it was a
pretty flat slope, and she was sliding all over the place,
a little bent over and stiff. After three runs of Gary's
progression drills, we came to Silver Queen, which
is one of Park City's steepest groomers. Donna France
ripped carving turns on two skis, all the way down that
face. It was like she had drank a magic potion. I had
never seen anything like it.
We held a clinic just before Nastar Nationals. Unfortunately,
there was about three feet of powder on the mountain,
so teaching the progression as it should be taught was
impossible. We worked on tactics, and some technique,
and we ran a great course (set and coached by Warren
Wilkensen) all day long. How did our students do? There
were an inordinate number of medals in our group.
Snowbasin Clinic
So, Gary and I talked a lot and raced a lot. Gary's
accomplishments are well-known from the 04-05
season, both in Masters and Nastar. I won my
first race in March, and still hold the Nastar title of #1
Expert Male, 30-34 in the state of Utah.
Gary and I agreed that this technique
should be offered to everyone, so we built a website.
By happenstance, we shot a crappy video of the
progression, and put it for sale on the website.
As a well-known ski racing enthusiast said of the video,
"The quality is of course terrible. The content is brilliant.
How you figured that out is beyond me."
Why two guys spend their own money philanthropically
to enhance the sport of ski racing is easy to figure
out: We love the sport, and we enjoy teaching people
to go faster. There certainly shouldn't be anything
wrong with trying to break even.
Why other people get mad, rude, outraged or even
verbally challenging to two guys who are offering
all kinds of good information for free is a mystery.
It's like TV-- if you don't like it, turn the channel.
Waist Steering is new. You don't have to accept
it today. But as more and more skiers and coaches
are exposed to it, we sincerely believe this is
the direction ski racing is going to migrate. Gary
and I are no rookies at ski racing, and we didn't
come up with this over a case of beer and a pizza.
If a broken down old man like Gary Dranow can
stop falling and start creaming guys he's never
touched, what do you think a young, high-level
athlete can do with a technique like this?
The answer lies in the LIMITATIONS OF THE BODY.
I'm not talking about the strength of The Hulk,
or the flexibility of a yogi. But coordination of
the body, flexibility of the waist and hips,
physical expression of "the intention," and
projection of power from a balanced and stable
base. This, my friends, is practice of Tai Chi,
or the Supreme Ultimate. Practice, practice, practice.
When my teacher, Master Fu, says "repeat,"
I do it again many, many times.
