Progressing to CA and CB

[jbotti]

I am blown away by what increased Counteracting is doing for my skiing. Much of the way that I continue to work on this is through the NSPP (no swing pole plant) and the NET (no energy turn, brushed carved turns done at slow speeds on flat terrain), and in the midst of this I have really amped up my drill work, choosing ones that really support what I am working on.

I don't know if Harald will completely agree with this, but at least for me the natural progression of essentials has been tipping, flexing, fore aft balance and then CB and lastly CA. I think every PMTS student starts with tipping and you tip and tip some more until you feel like you can't tip anymore and then you are told to tip some more!! Once tipping was in place I was told to flex and to learn how to flex and tip in transitions. Once this is in place I had to learn how to pull back the feet in transition, and how to stay on top of the ski and the tips through the arc (another long and difficult lesson that Max and Harald I'm sure remember). CB is something that I had to learn and play with awhile back because you can't carve well or hold on hard man made snow or ice without it. But I had gotten a long ways without an insufficient level of CA and it was really limiting my off piste skiing.

This has also not been an easy fix. I am putting 70% of my focus everyday on making sure that my CA is in place all the time and I am skiing at least 50% of my days doing slow brushed carved turns or drills that are designed to improve CA. Since my few days with Harald last March, I have skied close to 30 days with this focus and I would say that my CA is in place and where it needs to be about 80% of the time.

I keep noticing places where I ski in conditions that might have tripped me up in the past where I flex and the skis snap into the next turn all from proper tipping, foot pullback and an appropriate level of CA. These turns in steeper choppy or bumped terrain feel effortless and I am still getting used to it as I am surprised when they happen because I am used to the way it used to be.

The bottom line is simple you can't be an excellent off piste skier without solid CA all over the mountain in all conditions and in all terrain.

I am also not sure if the progression is and or should be different for different skiers. Maybe Max and others can chime in. But if you can tip well, flex well and manage your fore aft balance and drive the front of the ski, amping up the CA work will make you into a different skier. Harald told me that he has to work for several days every year just to get back his NSPP. This stuff doesn't happen naturally and it requires huge work to get there and continued work every season to get it back and keep it where it needs to be.

Lastly, not to be a broken record, the drill work is where the big gains come from. Yes you can and will improve just skiing with a focus on your movements. But adding in an hour or two a day of drills will produce progress at an exponential rate.

In this limited snow year (hopefully about to change) there really is nothing better to do while skiing than re-dedicating to a thorough program of drills. Hey, it's not like your missing some Epic powder days, because other than few spots in the US, they haven't
happened. I see my friends on my home mountain all the time going in after 2 hours n the morning saying they are bored by skiing groomers. I had my best day of progress ever on a day with really difficult snow (soft granular on top of man made hard pack) and by the end of the day I was cranking fast brushed carved turns on steeps over man made snow and I was getting no chatter. This was after a full day of drill work.

Do the drills!!

[milesb]

Sounds great, let's see video!

[jbotti]

I am back skiing on MLK weekend and I will have a friend that will shoot some video. I will post it then. But you don't need to see my video to re dedicate to doing drills!!

[jepoupatout]

Hi John, last year you mentioned that this exercise helped you a lot to unlock your hip, could you take a video also next weekend of that drill?
Thanks
Jepoupatout

Re: MA front view and back view Jepoupatout
by jbotti » Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:52 pm

I have just been through the unlocking the hips process. Start by standing static and the tip the skis on edge. While the skis are one edge (static, not moving) , push your inside arm forward creating upper body CA. Now while you are doing this make sure the hips also move with the upper body. Go back from no CA to adding CA and eachh time make the hips move. Take notice of what this feels like. Now to feel the hips creating CA in motion, start by doing slow two footed relesases but use almost or no tipping. The goal here is to make the skis come around and the only force that will actually do this without tipping is hip CA. Do this on flat terrain and go for full hip CA on every edge change/turn. If you really move the hips fully into CA the skis will come around. This is purely an exercise to start to feel the muscles and the sensation that should be present when the hips are countering on turns. Skiing this way (huge hip counter with no tipping) is dangerous to your form! Once you have skied enough with no tipping using huge hip counter, go back to adding tipping in your two footed releases.

I spent the better part of 15 skis days doing not much other than TFR's, and NSPP turns at slow speeds making sure that my hips were countered on every turn. Once I felt I had this in place I went backto practicing edge locked carved turns, making sure that the hips were CA on every turn. This took a while for me to get the hang of, but because I knew what it should feel like I could easily tell when I was and wasn't doing it.

Hip CA is very powerful and once you get it and can feel it you will start to naturally use it (again it will take some real drill work). It has changed my skiing.

The key is doing the slow drill work and starting to feel just how far the hips can CA on every turn.Balance: Essential in skiing and in life!
jbotti

[skimore]

Ditto for me on the CA. I had the good fortune to be skiing powder in Canada over Christmas, the only place there seems to be snow this year. After a day of effortless fluff, the snow stopped (briefly) and with warmer temperatures the snow set up a bit. It was really deep and I was having a bit of trouble pushing through it. My ski buddy said, "hey, you're not counteracting". I added that in and immediately the turns just started to happen again!

[jbotti]

Jepoupatout, I will post some video of the NET and the NSPP and of some brushed carved turns using these movements.

[jepoupatout]

Great,
Good ski

[Ken]

This stuff doesn't happen naturally and it requires huge work to get there and continued work every season to get it back and keep it where it needs to be.

Isn't it interesting how hard we have to work to do less. The noswingpoleplant is an excellent example. The pole tap is done by a flick of the wrist--maybe just a twitch of the wrist. My progression of movements is the same as yours, but I counteract by pushing the inside hip forward as I'm pulling that foot back. My upper body follows the hip and I put my inside shoulder/arm/hand in the raised forward position. Works for me.

I remember a PSIA clinic leader insisting that a huge arm swing & pole plant was needed to start the body across the skis and into the turn. I just bit my tongue and kept quiet, 'cuz she was on the PSIA division staff and the ski school director's wife-to-be. Of course, that big arm swing just breaks loose any edge grip the skis might have and causes the ski tails to slide downhill just before they jump up and twist them around the other way.

[BigE]

Ken,

After reading that, I feel I have to wash out my eyes....

[HighAngles]

I've been reading and participating on these forums for a few years. It seems to me that CA/CB becomes the part of the essentials that everyone is eternally working on - kind of like a PMTS terminal rut. The tipping, flexing, and fore/aft all can be achieved and successfully integrated with some work so that they're pretty much second nature to your skiing (at least for me). I find that the first thing to go when I get lazy is having sufficient CA/CB in my skiing. Those movements take the most effort. Hopefully I'll get to the point where those elements will also become a mostly permanent part of my skiing.

[HeluvaSkier]

Hey - HighAngles, you never changed to the new avatar I sent you!!!

[HighAngles]

Hey - HighAngles, you never changed to the new avatar I sent you!!!

Yeah - there's not enough CA/CB in those shots - I was too lazy (just kidding).

[A.L.E]

I find that the first thing to go when I get lazy is having sufficient CA/CB in my skiing. Those movements take the most effort.

That might be why TTS instructors don't use much of either.

[BigE]

TTS instructors don't tip/flex or have the fore/aft thing sorted out... lacking cb/ca is no surprise.

[milesb]

I've been reading and participating on these forums for a few years. It seems to me that CA/CB becomes the part of the essentials that everyone is eternally working on - kind of like a PMTS terminal rut. The tipping, flexing, and fore/aft all can be achieved and successfully integrated with some work so that they're pretty much second nature to your skiing (at least for me). I find that the first thing to go when I get lazy is having sufficient CA/CB in my skiing. Those movements take the most effort. Hopefully I'll get to the point where those elements will also become a mostly permanent part of my skiing.

I suspect that unless you have strong core muscles (I don't), the upper body movements will always take alot of effort.