3 Ski Demo and Technique Description

[East Coast Scott]

If you say something like, "I prefer to see a faster rhythm, and I believe a faster rhythm will do x, y, and z for your skiing." then that's a critique which is fine.

If you say something like, "Your skiing is stuck on a plateau, which I'm not stuck on." That's not cool, unless the boundaries of teacher and student are well established. There's not a whole lot of useful information there except to assert to the world that I'm a better skier. I don't think it should hurt anyone's feelings, but then the conversation becomes about who's a better skier which is generally unproductive, and the noise of ego drowns out useful conversation. Smart people not driven by conflict will go to find conversations someplace else. I'm not too smart and love conflict, so I'll be happy to stay and argue about how Blake's command of the ski goes beyond Razie's comprehension. If Razie did more than just one type of turn down an easy slope he would understand the full depth of Blake's superiority, and he wouldn't feel the need to tell the world that he's a better skier, because he would know he isn't.

Imagine for a minute that the most respected member of the forum posted video, and I tell them that they are on a plateau beneath me. How would people react? How would you react? I would get slammed until I ran away with my tail between my legs or got banned. So, your perspective of appropriate is entirely based on your perspective of hierarchy. That's maybe ok, when everyone sees the same hierarchy, but when people see different hierarchy it just creates conflict. So, keep the ego out of it. Keep the talk about MA. It shouldn't be hard to do, but it's not going to happen, so instead let's argue about who's better.

I understand what you are saying, I just didn't read his critique that way. Skiing is a very technical sport but also a very subjective one. I guess it just depends on the metrics we use to critique someone's skiing. If I ski through all the poles the fastest but someone else skis them with better technique who did it the best? It would depend on the metrics we used to judge, speed or style? I think the argument then becomes if the faster skier had better style and technique, would he be even faster? I guess as long as we are all respectful it's all good.

 

[Sanity]

I understand what you are saying, I just didn't read his critique that way. Skiing is a very technical sport but also a very subjective one. I guess it just depends on the metrics we use to critique someone's skiing. If I ski through all the poles the fastest but someone else skis them with better technique who did it the best? It would depend on the metrics we used to judge, speed or style? I think the argument then becomes if the faster skier had better style and technique, would he be even faster? I guess as long as we are all respectful it's all good.

In regards to your ability to interpret critiques, It's more a question of whether you are comfortable on this fairly high plateau or where do you think you want to go from here.

You go a lot by feel rather than prescription and that's controversial but a good feel is good to have at some point.

Just keep reading posts, and you'll figure out some of their value.......


Still nothing? Interesting...

 

[East Coast Scott]

In regards to your ability to interpret critiques, It's more a question of whether you are comfortable on this fairly high plateau or where do you think you want to go from here.

You go a lot by feel rather than prescription and that's controversial but a good feel is good to have at some point.

Just keep reading posts, and you'll figure out some of their value.......


Still nothing? Interesting...

I get a lot just by reading other peoples posts. Just watching YouTube videos took me from a beginner to Expert level, lol.

Edit: By the way, I'm not arguing with you. I just think your feelings were hurt more than Blakes. I'm only here to learn

 

[Sanity]

I get a lot just by reading other peoples posts. Just watching YouTube videos took me from a beginner to Expert level, lol.

Edit: By the way, I'm not arguing with you. I just think your feelings were hurt more than Blakes. I'm only here to learn

 

[Rdputnam515]

Iliad nice skiing. the new ski shapes really change the game when it comes to getting away with small sins. I’m sure you would agree, old school skis on ice with the technique in film one would lead to some serious sore hips after washouts lol.

as mentioned even on new skis ice can still be cruel when you start moving your shoulders across the fall line and behind your feet. i Also agree for a really good skier like yourself it is not an issue, you know what you are doing . However, less skilled observers might imitate the technique an have lots of issues.

great job skiing and producing these flicks

 

[Roundturns]

If you want to talk about technique, you can. That's part of what this video is for. If you want to make suggestions for my technique if you think there is something that I haven't tried, that is fine. Please watch the whole video before commenting and I might be more likely to listen to a suggestion from someone who also posts a video of nice skiing.

In a word, superb. dancing through the bumps looks so good.

 

[the iliad]

lol

Granted, I'd like to hear more than vitamins and meditation poses.

I will make an instructional video before long that builds on these videos that I've already made.

I thoroughly enjoyed those zipper lines and did not comment on his mogul skiing at all, like you said that is his strong side and I would totally enjoy seeing more of that, as well as his energetic carving, as well as his fresh perspective.

Watch this one...
Let's do an opinion poll... which jacket has the best skiing based on this video? My black jacket? My blue jacket? Or my green jacket?

 

[the iliad]

lol ...dude, I don't know

 

[geepers]

I will make an instructional video before long that builds on these videos that I've already made.

No real pref for jacket re skiing quality. But I'll vote in favor of this ^.

 

[the iliad]

4ster

Overall your versatility & ability to adapt your style to all conditions & terrain is admirable.
I really like the Sickle Couloir skiing, to my eye it is the most pleasing for me to view & is actually my favorite kind of skiing
It is refreshing to see real skiers skiing & linking turns on mostly lift served terrain, Thanks!

 

[the iliad]

Me:

Let's do an opinion poll... which jacket has the best skiing based on this video? My black jacket? My blue jacket? Or my green jacket?

Different outfits were different years. The black outfit shots were 2012. I would have been 31. The blue jacket was from 2014 to 2020. The green jacket was when I was 39 and 40; that's now.

 

[Chris V.]

Let's do an opinion poll... which jacket has the best skiing based on this video? My black jacket? My blue jacket? Or my green jacket?

I don't know, but I was going to vote that the guy in the blue jacket was having the most fun. Then you wrote that that was a few years ago. You seem like the kind of guy that has more fun every year older he gets.

 

[LiquidFeet]

@the iliad, glad to see you back and posting videos.

 

[James]

Blue jacket. Prob terrain and snow based.
But black was very impressive in the bumps.

 

[razie]

View attachment 169845


lol ...dude, I don't know

...What are we looking at? The turns, the squatting or the - some may call it toppling?

 

[the iliad]

...What are we looking at? The turns, the squatting or the - some may call it toppling?

Just generally... I'm not sure that's what I want to look like when I'm carving. I actually like the look of some of the carving shots that I have in my videos somewhere.

 

[razie]

Yeah... performance requires certain movements and certain looks, but can be detuned easily for a more relaxed look. The reverse is normally the hard part .

In certain places of the turn you also look fairly close, trying to get performance

In that video, the fun was touching the knees to the snow. Not something I'd try to do either

Interesting question: to aim for style or performance. I think it's a mix of both, at least for me, but the performance is definitely the heavily favored outcome. Not style or look, that others perceive, but the performance, which is what I feel.

But I also like how I look here for instance, going for max bending of an i.SL (when not avoiding the camera and discarding setup artifacts and poor technique, glaring in places):


... although with a somewhat different approach you could change the look in transition for instance, if you wanted and still get more performance - just saw this recently, nice relaxed skiing but with some performance:


Or the same skier from the video you didn't like the look of, going for same sort of detuned, relaxed turns:


But generally, a certain level of performance requires certain inputs and similar looks, with differences for body variations, some personal style flavor and compensations for strength and technique. That's why I like slalom as the measuring stick - you just can't do a "proper" carved SL turn shape unless you do certain things right.

It's very much like the zipper line in bumps (technically too, in fact). Good zipper liners tend to look similar. You can't really do a zipper line like you do and not "look" a certain way, so which was the goal there? The performance, the outcome or the look?

cheers

p.s. I remembered this comparison of techniques across varied levels and types of SL skiers, strikingly having a similar look/:


You can see the same type of transition, if we're looking at one place in the turns, accounting for some personal variation, for sure. Except the last one. That one's a duck.

 

[razie]

Sorry, I guess I got carried away and threw a bunch of stuff at you there, you don't have to ski SL obviously or like any of those, specifically. In fact, I'm sure you'd look different in many ways, we all do.

I think my point is that if you wanted to improve the performance of the piste carving, in terms of ski bend and turn shape etc, you can't avoid certain looks, I guess. That specific example we started with was not a goal as far as specific style or a look to copy, certainly, was just an example I had handy. Often we see different things too, I have a bad habit to just see technique and setup, when I look at a skier and usually style variations just get in the way...

The "performance" - I don't see it as an abstract concept, we don't get lots of nice soft and cuddly snow and so we tend to ski a lot of ice and hard snow here and steep ice has a way of requiring a certain performance, very race-like... it is a very real and quantifiable concept here if you don't want to just skid about.

Very much like the zipper line if you want to ski moguls - there aren't many ways to go at it fast and with that turn shape&line like you do... one could certainly skip every n turns or hard hit and jam every mogul face etc - but it would not be the same performance outcome... in fact, thinking about it, that's probably the best way to explain the difference.

 

[the iliad]

This looks good. She looks like she could use a mogul lesson. I have one for her

 

[the iliad]

I think my point is that if you wanted to improve the performance of the piste carving, in terms of ski bend and turn shape etc, you can't avoid certain looks, I guess. That specific example we started with was not a goal as far as specific style or a look to copy, certainly, was just an example I had handy. Often we see different things too, I have a bad habit to just see technique and setup, when I look at a skier and usually style variations just get in the way...

mmmm... yeah... I agree with a lot of what you're saying