Progressing to CA and CB

[acali]

JUST? That's a lot to swallow in a few days/months/years. There is a lifetime of material there [seriously]. I have all of those books sitting on my coffee table right now... and the DVDs on the floor in front of the TV. E, I know you came to the game late, but what have you been doing the last 5+ years? [I was studying.] I know you spent time trying to reconcile this with what you already knew, but did you not think to research PMTS while doing your reconciliation?

Maybe in another 5 years and another 1000 posts he'll post video of himself.

[HeluvaSkier]

Maybe in another 5 years and another 1000 posts he'll post video of himself.

Let me be clear, I'm not trying to give BigE a hard time. I don't care if he ever posts video of himself - as long as he is actually learning something, implementing it, and verifying it for himself. That should be enough for anyone. The understanding of the basic movements and implementing them in your skiing is key... and that just opens up the door.

[rwd]

I have been working on early CA at transition since the end of last season and have just started up again this season. What worked best for me was modifying the "target tipping" drill. I release, face the target, CA, then engage. When I get it right the turn seems to happen by itself after I CA, with a much tighter arc, even though I'm not aware of consciously tipping to a higher edge angle. However, I find that my torso wants to follow my eyes, so I find it harder to correctly CA if I keep looking down the slope during transition. I guess this will be part of learning to incorporate this move into all of my turns. Also, the steeper the slope, the more counterintuitive it seems to turn your upper body away from the slope at turn transition. However, that's obviously when you need it most.

[BigE]

I've had ABCBAES 1 and 2 for years. Same with the Essentials... several copies of them all in fact. In the interim, I've broken my leg, and put on about 65 pounds. Nothing is good enough to share. Also, remember I only stopped translating this stuff into my vocabulary this past summer. There was a rather large gulf between what I understood and what was actuall written down. That has closed up considerably.

I don't think that either the ABCBAES series or the essentials are 'teasers' to buy the rest. The instructor manual was never considered absolutely necessary and the DVD's would be needed only if you're going to actively and intensively pursue changing one's skiing. This past summer's realization and dedicating myself to "doing the pushups" indicate that I need a lot more information to do that.

[HighAngles]

Really worked hard on my CA yesterday while at Keystone. Today my hips are sore. I can't recall my hips ever being sore after skiing.

Anyhow I've come to the conclusion that early CA is probably the most unnatural feeling movement I've worked on so far in my PMTS training. Leading/driving with the inside hand/shoulder/hip feels so odd at times. However, there were a few times were that early CA caused my skis to hookup into the turn so hard and fast that I was practically thrown into a "heluva" fall.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing JB's video to see what his CA work is looking like. I need to get some updated video next time I'm out. I know my skiing is starting to look very different from last season - the combination of the totally passive stance leg (resulting in much stronger skeletal stacking), correct counterbalancing (I was reaching down the slope causing me to break at the waist instead of performing a side crunch), and the early active CA is completely transforming my skiing (again!). I know, it's a journey...

[BigE]

These movements are no less essential than the others. CB/CA allow other movements like flexing/extending and tipping to maximize their effect.

[HeluvaSkier]

Everyone is going to have their own Achilles heel at any given time. No one Essential is more important than the others as they all fit together. As you become a stronger skier, the Essentials will develop at different rates. I've said here before I think, I try to target my weakest Essential and train that at any given time.

[jbotti]

These movements are no less essential than the others.

Clearly this is true but for those that are tipping, flexing and managing their fore aft balance at a high level, it is CA and CB that becomes the gating factors to progressing to the next level. I know that I was never going to move to the next level without the work I have done on CA/CB.

Diana has at times described CA and CB as icing on the cake, The cake is tipping, shortly followed by flexing and Fore aft balance management (owning the front of the ski).

In my first season of skiing I took a lesson with an Austrian instructor at Vail (great guy and a wonderful skier). We spent the entire lesson on CA. Now I couldn't tip a ski at this point and IMO he was making a very big teaching mistake. Teaching CA to someone that doesn't tip and can't tip is a waste of time.

I thnk at different times in the development of a skier, each essential becomes the most important, because without that one you are going no further, but there also appears to be an order for most and it rarely starts with CA/CB.

Just saw you post Helluva. Yes we are on the same page.

[jepoupatout]

From my personnal experience, if you tip and has a weak CB and CA you will ski under your potential. You will tip a lot more by the end of the turn if you synchronise CB with Tipping early in the high C. Tipping alone doesn't work as well and i agree with Heluva all the essentials are important to become a better skier. The point is that you have to learn the Tipping part first and add the other essentials.

My first year i worked a lot on Tipping, the second year i've worked more globally all the others essentials and was struggling, this year i focussed more on CB and passed to another level. Finally i focussed on CA and WOW something big happened last weekend. The Tipping part as all the other essentails took place, Fore/Aft also became very essentials to develop strong angle .

The only way to become a complete skier is to masters all the essentails, no doubt.

[BigE]

As with all the other essentials TTS do not understand the idea of CB/CA. When a discussion of CB/CA occurs, I've heard everything from "stay square" to "it's a natural part of skiing" -- all obviously wrong.... there is nothing natural about it. Quite the contrary, what is natural is leaning in to take the forces like you're doing a squat in a power rack.

It takes dedicated effort to do CB/CA; you don't win the prize if you don't do the pushups. I can't wait to see the DVD's and the Instructors manual.

[jepoupatout]

To masters all the essentials is good , to synchronize all of them is the key to become an expert.

[CO_Steve]

Really worked hard on my CA yesterday while at Keystone.

Give us a shout when you're going to Keystone. Geoff, James, and I are out there drilling a lot of days.

Steve

[HighAngles]

Really worked hard on my CA yesterday while at Keystone.

Give us a shout when you're going to Keystone. Geoff, James, and I are out there drilling a lot of days.

Steve

My new job has relegated me to "weekend warrior" status. Unlike last season when I could ski mid-week, this season it's been rarely possible. I assumed that you also don't ski weekends like Geoff.

[CO_Steve]

I try to avoid Saturday but will get out early Sunday morning if conditions dictate.

[newskier]

As with all the other essentials TTS do not understand the idea of CB/CA. When a discussion of CB/CA occurs, I've heard everything from "stay square" to "it's a natural part of skiing" -- all obviously wrong.... there is nothing natural about it. Quite the contrary, what is natural is leaning in to take the forces like you're doing a squat in a power rack.

It takes dedicated effort to do CB/CA; you don't win the prize if you don't do the pushups. I can't wait to see the DVD's and the Instructors manual.

I have read TTS's decription of pelvic shift that is very similar to CA but I don't really know