Max_501 wrote:I aggressively pull my feet back at transition. And in conditions like bumps, steeps, SL gates, and crud the movement is quite strong. As the turn progresses I hold the outside foot back while continuing to pull back the inside foot.
Just would like to comment on an old post. Holding the outside foot back and pulling the inside foot as the turn progresses was a big game changer for me the other day. I was the at the Snow Centre and the conditions were horrible, hard cruddy snow + some bumps (man made snow). I could never skii this before. I would usually leave along with 97% of skiers when it got difficult or just complained about the snow conditions. However, yesterday I was skiing these condition with some ease and it was fun
Two things were I thought were interesting. I could feel my hamstring were a bit sore due to both feet pulling back and my heels just a little sore (this dissipated withing 10 minutes of me taking off my boots) . That was my external cue, if I could not feel the pressure of my heels against the boot I was not pulling back strongly enough (On both feet).
Strangely holding the stance foot and free foot back suddenly did wonders for all the other movements, CA,CB tipping. Plus I was achieving the float and felt rebound from one turn to the next (with a TFR).
I went back home and did some dry land exercises, i was now using different muscle activations to achieve the moments. It felt like I discovered a big secret.
Holding just the free foot back did not cut it for me.
Questions (Are the statements below accurate?)
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1. Holding the free foot back - that meant I was achieving the arch lift and tilt + helped my counter acting?
2. Holding the stance foot back - did good for fore/aft balance? I felt the tips engage sooner, there was more angles without too much angulation (Not a PMTS term I know)
3. Concentrating on holding the stance foot back - this gave me counter balance as I you can not do this whilst leaning into the turn, you have to be over the stance foot is this was to happen? + for some reason this seemed to help my counteracting. (Been doing some hip/pelvis flexibility exercises)
PS: I have done some DIY work on my alignment. I know Harald does not recommend this but I had to. I purchased canted heel and toes for the Solomon XMAX 100. The canting was not enough so I added + played around with adding credit strips, one strip at a time then skiing on all conditions (except steeps + pure powder as I am in the indoor snow center). In the end I found I need 2 strips of credit card on my left leg and three on my right leg. Although this may not be the perfect setup it's better than what I had before. As for the foot bed, I have an off the shelf super feet black (best possible choice for being in London as it's a low profile and low volume footbed?)
It felt something like
Bolter suggested the following dry land exercise,
"Stand with your heels and butt against a wall. Establish a stance and free foot by lifting one foot off the floor. While pressing the free foot's heel against the wall behind you, keep contact and pressure while sliding the heel up the wall. This approximates the movements required to keep the heel/foot under the hip while closing the hip, knee and ankle joint. Does that help or is it "off the wall?"
You should also progressively/actively close the ankle joint more and more as you bring the foot up the wall and closer to your hip. "
Jeet