Max_501 wrote:Keep in mind that the key is to identify the SMIM. Much of the time that means getting back to basics and working on the Super Phantom with a focus on inside foot management.
Max,
Early last season I learned that I needed to work on this. Jim spotted an overly wide stance and SkiFastDDS took video that showed incomplete inside foot management, even some stemming. While that was only my first or second day on skis last year and I was fighting a bad cold, I was still shocked at how bad I looked. I'd worked for 30+ years to ski without stemming. To learn that I still reverted to that at times (without even being aware) was sobering.
PMTS is clearly the answer and last season I made real progress. After many hours practicing LTE balancing, I spent the last couple ski days linking hundreds of Super Phantoms. In lieu of video (which I don't have) here's how that went:
- the trail was a 2100vf groomed blue, light skier traffic made it safe to link controlled, short/medium turns top-to-bottom without getting run over
- the base was refrozen corduroy, very solid (no tracks) but edgeable if you know how to ski with quiet feet
- 8-10" of new snow was blowing around like crazy, many patches were bare, others had windpack to boot-deep powder - fore/aft foot management was critical as the skis were constantly slowing down, speeding up, slowing down...
- skis were i.SS Speeds, brand new with just a few days on them
- I committed to practice Super Phantoms with 100% outside ski weighting and with higher than my normal edge angles. My inspiration was a post of HH where he compared his angulation (with massive vertical foot separation) to another PMTS skier (who used less and attained lower angles).
- Releases began by flexing the old stance leg (using the ski rebound), followed by a slight, continued flex of both legs during transition (exaggerating to learn) - I'm 99% certain I wasn't extending even a mm
- I kept my stance narrow and my free foot back by sliding the BTE of the free ski up the inside of the stance boot/leg... eventually all the way to the knee - ski/leg contact was constant, so I'm 100% sure my stance was as narrow as possible (exaggerating to learn)
- transfer onto the new stance ski was directly onto the LTE, followed by a short, straight gliding traverse in which the stance foot/leg remained relaxed - no pivoting or tipping of the stance foot, just enough foot tension to make sure I stayed on the LTE (this was easy once I developed the balance, and because I was on ice it was very easy to feel the LTE gliding straight forward with no skidding, pivoting or any other movement)
- free foot tipping began as soon as the ski left the snow, and continued as the free ski scraped up the stance leg
- the stance ski, after being lightly held on its LTE for a moment (O-frame?), was allowed to tip in reaction - I could feel the ski roll g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y from LTE to flat to BTE with zero muscular effort in the stance foot or leg - being on ice, the sensitivity to very tiny changes in edge angle was exquisite
- all this happened with zero turning, pivoting or skidding of the stance ski, while it was aimed across the fall line - I'm as confident as I can be without video that my stance ski was edged and carving upside-down in the High C
- the belly of the turn was made with the free ski edge brushing the stance knee, in the air and tipping like mad (for me)
- at no point did my stance ski edge fail to slice directly forward, it was like being locked on a monorail making pure arcs
- the bottom third of the turn eventually brought the snow up to meet my lifted free ski LTE
- the second my free ski touched the snow, I actively retracted the stance leg and let the ski rebound help move me into the next turn.
Fore/aft balance was adjusted for powder vs. ice by anticipatory sliding of the stance foot forward or back, after just a few turns this became instinctive and I was never thrown onto the front or back of my boot. I think I've got that.
Lateral balance was adjusted by... um... I have no idea! I do know I was never out of balance. Whatever I was doing kept my ski slicing clean, round, repeatable arcs with virtually no effort despite variable and challenging snow conditions. As I was 100% on the outside ski throughout each turn, with the inside ski moving as described, I think my inside foot management was good for this exercise. But I was focused so intently on my feet that I literally have no idea what was happening higher up. I may have been leaning, or hip dumping, or even using fantastic CA/CB - who knows?
Based on the above (if you're still awake!) can you suggest a drill, exercise or SMIM?
If you can't tell without video then just say so. I'm sure the coaches at camp will start me off right.