by JohnMoore » Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:27 am
Thanks, guys. Actually, I have been doing many of the drills, at least as much as I can while doing free skiing - I was skiing with my partner, and as I ski rather faster than her I was typically getting a bit ahead and then doing various drills until she caught up. This, obviously, only works for certain kinds of drill, and where I lose out is in things like the TFR, which I know I really need to get the hang of. (Interestingly, the best TFR practice I got, and where I got closest to getting it sorted, was when a thick fog descended on the mountain, meaning we couldn't see more than 30-40 feet ahead, so I took the opportunity to do TFR drills half way down the mountain).
My problem is that I'm finding that I can get a drill working, on easy terrain, while that is all I am focussing on, but that on more difficult terrain (like with the heavy, clumpy snow as in the videos), I can only get a subset of the things right. I'm wondering whether there are some specific drills I should be focussing on more than others (although I don't dispute the fact that I need to practice all of them as much as I can)? I didn't have the books with me this trip, just the ACBAES 2 video, so I was going from memory most of the time. But these are the things I was working on, and feeling I was largely getting right (in as much as I could tell from external cues - as I have found, video can often tell a different story).
1. Super Phantoms: I was practising balancing on the uphill little toe edge on traverses, and then incorporating this into my turns. Worked nicely on the wider, gentler slopes, especially earlier in the week when the snow was firmer, but obviously lost on the trickier stuff.
2. Javelins: On the less challenging slopes I would often make turns holding the tip of the free ski over the stance ski. I didn't feel there was any problem with this, in either direction.
3. Banana Turns (?): There was a gentle and very long ski road down to the base which I skied at the end of every day. This was a perfect opportunity to try out what I think are banana turns, namely riding on one ski making turns both to left and right on the same ski. This is quite tricky, but I managed it on this gentle terrain. Couldn't manage it so well on steeper terrain, though, particularly turns to the little toe side (HH's demo of this in the video still astounds me).
4. Counteracting: I was able to make turns on the gentle terrain mentioned above by simply 'facing the base', as HH does in the video (it amazes me how effective this is). Not so easy to combine this with other things when the going gets tough, though (although, as I mentioned earlier, when I was trying to take the most direct line down a mogul run, I got the counteracting sorted better than at any other time).
5. Counterbalancing: There are some people who can have a movement pattern described to them and who can then immediately reproduce it. I am not one of those people. Often I feel as if my brain-body command chain operates on a Chinese whispers basis. You'd think feeling the side crunch would be easy enough, but I did not find it so. From time to time I got it and could immediately feel the difference it made. But I seem to have found a way of doing the boot touch exercise which doesn't involve a side crunch, goodness knows how, because when I specifically concentrated on feeling the crunch, rather than touching the boot, and got it right, it made a big difference. One thing I concentrated on a lot was trying to pull my free foot up alongside the stance leg. But, somewhat stupidly, I often found myself doing this OR the side crunch. When I combined the two - wow, what a difference that makes!
6. Short leg, long leg: I did this drill from the Essentials quite a few times and found it very interesting. Certainly need to do it a lot more.
7. Free foot pullback: This is something I have concentrated on a lot in the last 2 trips, which has really helped. I think it's one of those things which is coming close to being automatic now, but I still concentrate on it whenever I can. Certainly it's made it possible for me to handle the bumps far better than I ever could before.
8. Tipping: The first, the simplest, and still the best. Whenever I focus on tipping and try to tip more, things improve. Obviously, though, one of the first things to disappear on the more challenging terrain. I get the feeling this is something which will be much more effective for me with the right boots, footbeds, alignment, etc.
9. Free foot management: This is, to me, my weakest area. I have never done the sponge exercise and I think I really have to. The videos show my free foot a long way from where it should be, so I really need to focus on bringing it in close and holding it there. I think I was causing more problems for myself than I should have been by concentrating on keeping my feet, specifically, closer together, because when I concentrated instead on keeping my lower legs closer together, allowing my free foot boot to slide up and down alongside the stance boot, I found it much easier, and much more dynamic.
10. Two-footed release: I mentioned this above. I think if I spent a couple of hours on a gentle slope doing nothing but this drill, I would either go mad or make a worthwhile breakthrough.
Anyway, if there is anything more specific I should concentrate on, I'd be keen to hear!