by h.harb » Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:50 pm
My first experiences in skiing were with soft low leather boots. If you, in those days, didn't have strong feet and ankles you would never become a skier. When I got my, circa 1968, LeTrapper Elite Pro race leather boots with fiberglass reinforced sides, my skiing really came alive. In one year I went from a good local A racer in Canada, to top finishes at the Junior nationals and an invite to my first world cup. By the end of that year I had a FIS point profile. I attribute that mostly to the change in boots. The next summer my coach gave me his Lange Comps. That boot gave me another boost. You had to ski with your ankles even with those designs. If you were a knee driver you stayed at the local levels of racing. The next year, I was still on Lange boots, and had top 5 NorAm finishes. I switched to Nordica the next season, it took me awhile to get used to those boots, but they did finally came around.
My first real, what we would consider, high, rigid boot, was a Dolomite World Cup race boot. Before those I always looked for a lower boot, like the Koflak (now Atomic) and Alpina boots. They were very stiff, but low. Ankle movement was diminished, but I always sensed how the ankle should work in the stiff boots relative to the old leather jobs. Now with modern boots, you can start with ankle tipping and add the power from upper cuff leverage, after the CG starts to move in. I never stop using the ankle to add angle or edge control grip. If you use your shin and upper cuff for this, you won't get the confidence to tip further. The ankle and foot give you immediate feedback as to edge hold and ski angle. The knee is crap. That's why these guys that talk about steering are a lost cause. You can never achieve a high level of skiing with leg steering and femur rotation. They try to use the connection between skivot to pivot slip for there explanation, that the world cup uses their technique, but we already know that there is no connection. Those are not real skiing, WC or valid skiing techniques, they are coup outs.
So when we talk about tipping, (the most important Essential) we always refer to it as foot and ankle tipping, starting at the bottom of the kinetic chain. And that is why we make footbeds and alignment changes the way we do; because we want to help skiers learn to ski with their ankles and feet. Diana could never have learned this if I hadn't introduced her to the set up with the right footbeds, boots and alignment. She was a very quick study and understood the concepts and immediately began to modify her own set up, for her performance. That is the best way to do it, as no one can duplicate your movement needs especially the ones inside a ski boot, like the owner of the feet in those boots. But you have to know what to look for. Diana obviously does. After learning all about why and how the feet work and learning how to design and manufacture footbeds, she very quickly became an expert at it. I don't think she would ever have become such a great skier without applying these principles to her own setup. She diagnosed exactly how her feet worked and what they needed. She has very weak, hyper mobil, feet and ankles . My old coaching buddy Herman Gollner one said, "You can't ski with feet like that", until Diana began to beat the girls he was coaching. Now he is the ultimate believer in our footbeds and alignment. One of his girls that Diana did the set up for, this year, won the Junior Nationals in GS and won the overall. Look for those Harb stickers on her boots.