I have bumps in my head...

[Prosper]

@Fuller what @LiquidFeet is talking about is like doing a one sided pivot slip without doing the pivot in the bumps. On a groomer work on doing pivot slips and it’ll come much easier in the bumps. Start with just the slipping part and when you can easily slip in a straight line facing each direction (the easy part) work on the pivot (the hard part). Pivot slips work on fore-aft balance, rotary movements and edge control which are almost all the skills needed to make a good turn in the bumps.

Pivot Slips – PSIA-AASI-C

psia-c.org

 

[Ogg]

I find doing lot's of the shortest radius turns I can on the edge of a groomer gets my rhythm and speed up to for skiing bumps. It sounds like your biggest issue is overthinking it. Next time your in the bumps forget the standard line in the troughs and try skiing up on the sides or even the tops of them, it can less daunting that way.

 

[SSSdave]

The one thing you and many other experienced skiers that don't ski bumps well have in common is your brain has not developed the brain control to muscle action structures to do so. For example there are many pro skiers racers that never learned to ski bumps well because they spent their ski lives focused on racing with very little time ever in mogul fields. Ever notice how the more you play a simple video game like Pac-Man that after a few months of occasional play, one gets amazingly better as though one is on auto-pilot? One can say the same thing about driving vehicles on urban freeways. An experienced person 30 years old that has been driving at 70 mph to their workplace for ten years can do so with only minor attention while day dreaming. That same person when they got their driver's license at age 18 had to focus on what they were doing much more carefully until whatever became second nature. Consider how awkward using a stick shift can be in traffic at age 18 while a few years later one doesn't think about what one's hand with arm is doing at all as it is all nearly in the subconscious while rather one is instead looking at which lane one is moving into. This is all about the relatively recently understood science of neuroplasticity that sports training experts are now intensely aware of.

Neuroplasticity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

With any type of complex athletic skills, repetition of correct neuromuscular actions is necessary before skill is acquired. And neuroplasticity is key to how the brain accomplishes that. Decades ago science thought top athletes had unique innate abilities they just needed to bring out while today science understands most humans have the ability to develop skills if they develop neural structures to do so. No amount of money or expert instruction alone can bring a person to that point without effort of actual physical training with repetition over time. With skiing bumps an absolutely key part of that structure is in this occipital lobe visual brain that integrates what one sees with the decision and muscle control brain. There simply is very little time to perform the physical movements in the highly variable terrain of mogul fields if one has to think fully about making each turn. In my brain that is hugely developed. It's not just the visual but also the proprioceptive brain as I can almost ski by inner world feel alone built into my neuromuscular structure. Likewise as a decades old backpacker often hiking awkward trail less crosscountry, I move through such terrain efficiently as my eye's visual input is constantly feeding my control brain as to where to step and move towards next that then without focused thinking provides input to my body's muscles to do so.

 

[MarkP]

... I look at a bump run and it's like reading a foreign language where you might understand a word or phrase but the real meaning is lost.

Perhaps a reading of the bumps ON your head will help understand the bumps IN your head?

Phrenology:
Phrenology is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.

 

[Jerez]

You are getting great advice here. @LiquidFeet outlined something really important and a terrific progression, even for an accomplished groomer skier.

I'm far from the best bump skier on the mountain, but I do feel pretty confident in most any of the nastiest bumps I encounter because I know I can always ski it SLOWLY. And I do practice that. (And, as LiquidFeet's post demonstrates, this doesn't mean a lot of traversing.) When my DH had back surgery and he HAD to ski bumps slowly and gently, he became a much, much better bump skier. Even if I am on a relatively easy "bimp" run and intend to ski them in a faster flow, I always start the first two or three realllly slow. It sets me up for the rest of the run.

You know there is something to that. Right now I have difficulty even imagining myself doing it perfectly. I look at a bump run and it's like reading a foreign language where you might understand a word or phrase but the meaning is lost. I need to ski in "flow" to do well and my flow stops in about 2 turns on a bump run.

A few years ago when I got serious about skiing I obsessed so much about it and watched so many videos over the summer I would lie in bed sometimes and imagine a perfect carved turn and how it would feel. When I skied the next winter I was almost there with the movements.

Visualization is good but I suspect that may not be what @crgildart had in mind. (He can correct me if I'm wrong.) Ski the second and then (with practice) third bump ahead in your mind and your feet will follow. However, this is something to focus on after you can ski SLOW. (IMmostHO)

Once you've mastered slow and you speed up, you may (likely) find difficulty with reaction time. The only way to "magically" slow time down in the bumps is to look ahead/plan ahead/ski ahead in your mind. (This really works; trust me!)

Another way this is often said is, "don't ski the bump you're on." or "Don't look down, look down the hill." Have you ever followed someone in the bumps and thought, "Gee, they are so good at choosing a great line, it makes it easier for me to ski when I follow them?" That's not necessarily because their line choice is so much better than yours is, it's because following someone forces you to look ahead and not at the current bump. Mind you, this is not easy; it is a mind game, one of those struggles against instinct that come up so often in skiing. You have to work on it and fight against temptation.

And you can practice this off season. Mountain biking as has been suggested, but also hiking and walking, say down steps. Look ahead on a trail and you will find that your feet don't actually stumble on every feature in the path. Let your left brain make the game plan and then let your right brain ski it. Like it does naturally when driving a car. (also noted above.)

 

[Viking9]

Fuller the last thing we need is some old geezer or some old bag showing us how they can ski the bumps slowly.
If you can’t bring it then......STAY OUT OF THE BUMPS LEBOWSKI !!!

 

[HardDaysNight]

@Fuller, you can do this. The bumps are calling you. I'll pretend I'm your instructor.

Do all your practice on the same bump run, the easiest one. Not the anthill, do this on old "seasoned" bumps. Assign yourself two runs on that trail for every single day. Two runs, no matter how icy. Ice bumps are good teachers. You can learn to do this on ice bumps if that's all you've got.

Your goal is to ski SLOW. I mean that. SLOW. The slower you can go, the more consistently you can stay slow, the more skilled you will become at controlling your skis and their travel. Going slow will eliminate the runaway traverses. Going slow will give you time to pay attention to what your feet and skis are doing so you can control your turns. Going slow will stop those Oh S#*t!! moments from happening. Going slow will allow you to build precision balance and control of your skis on that lumpy surface.

How to go slow becomes the question, should you choose to accept this challenge.

The answer: Side-slip down one bump at a time. Only one. Only side-slip.

Stand on top of bump #1, side-slip down it. Point skis to your left, keeping pelvis and torso and both arms pointing downhill. Scrape to a stop with skis still pointing to the left. You'll be on top of bump #2. Did you travel left or right?

Try again, your goal being to not travel left or right. Lock your eyes on the spot where you want to stop, straight downhill of you, on the top of the next bump. Side-slip, scraping to a stop, hopefully ending on that spot you're targeting with your eyes, with skis still pointing to the left. Did you travel left or right? Try again to the next bump.

Keep skis pointing to the left and work on side-slipping one bump at a time, stopping on the next bump where your eyes are locked. You're working on not traveling left or right, going slow, stopping on target.

Important note: Plant your pole firmly, then punch/reach that hand and arm forward and downhill after the plant. This will help with keeping the torso pointing downhill. Going slow will allow you to pay attention to this important element. Going slow will help you pay attention to each important element. Here's the list:

1. Side-slip slowly with torso pointed downhill.
2. Stop on the targeted spot with eyes locked there.
3. Plant pole and reach that arm forward afterwards, to keep torso pointed downhill.
4. Eliminate left-right travel.

At some point turn the skis to point to the right and continue with this, stopping after each bump. Do this slow exercise till you get to the bottom.

Do this exercise on the same run two times each day, preferably twice in a row, working on eliminating left-right travel, working on stopping after each bump at the spot your eyes are locked onto, working on keeping pelvis and torso pointing downhill.

Once you sense you are improving, change the direction the skis are pointing a little more often. This should take a week or two of daily practice. Report back. Once you can do this exercise pretty well, you'll be ready to link SLOW pivot-slips down this run. There's a lot more to bump skiing, but going SLOW while staying on your intended line is step one and should not be skipped. This slow exercise is the best way to stop the runaway traverses and eliminate gaining speed as you head downhill. Once you can go slow, you will no longer need that Exorcist.

What a great post! And how awesome that you took the time to do it. It’s really all there, people.

 

[WadeHoliday]

Great advice here, LF provided a great progression and thoughts.
SSSdave and Viking9, less so in my opinion for what I"m reading about you.
putting you mind 30ft ahead before you have a good line in mind and movements is trouble, skiing slowly one finish and pole plant at a time can be fun and sustainable.
The person that said each bump run can be a different challenge is dead on as well(sibhusky I think), skiing a moderate pitch bump run right down the middle and staying in the zipperline is different challenge than skiing bumps the size of cars on the west face of KT (huge bumps on KT are much easier!)
If you can put your skis exactly where you want them, drift when you want, hold when you want, and transition your edges effectively in between on ungroomed snow, you can learn to enjoy bumps in my opinion, and learn to love them as the puzzles are always changing and keep us coming back!
Cheers!
W

 

[LiquidFeet]

Fuller the last thing we need is some old geezer or some old bag showing us how they can ski the bumps slowly.
If you can’t bring it then......STAY OUT OF THE BUMPS LEBOWSKI !!!

Who you calling an old bag?

 

[WadeHoliday]

he's calling me an old geezer, LF,
I see this attitude in the bumps I ski occasionally, as I pass them resting after their 10-15 turns, sometimes I pass them 3 times on one run on my 1800ft non stop slow bump runs .
cheers!
w

 

[crgildart]

he's calling me an old geezer, LF,
I see this attitude in the bumps I ski occasionally, as I pass them resting after their 10-15 turns, sometimes I pass them 3 times on one run on my 1800ft non stop slow bump runs .
cheers!
w

Guilty now these days when I'm done after 3-4 hours. But, they are damned good looking turns before I stop.

 

[Johnny V.]

I'll make sure to clog up the bump runs................remember, I'm the downhill skier!

I find I have to mentally do a gear change in bumps-feet closer together, aggressive pole plants and pivots/slips. Much different than ripping carves on a groomer.

 

[Fuller]

@Fuller, you can do this. The bumps are calling you. I'll pretend I'm your instructor.

Do all your practice on the same bump run, the easiest one. Not the anthill, do this on old "seasoned" bumps. Assign yourself two runs on that trail for every single day. Two runs, no matter how icy. Ice bumps are good teachers. You can learn to do this on ice bumps if that's all you've got.

Your goal is to ski SLOW. I mean that. SLOW. The slower you can go, the more consistently you can stay slow, the more skilled you will become at controlling your skis and their travel. Going slow will eliminate the runaway traverses. Going slow will give you time to pay attention to what your feet and skis are doing so you can control your turns. Going slow will stop those Oh S#*t!! moments from happening. Going slow will allow you to build precision balance and control of your skis on that lumpy surface.

How to go slow becomes the question, should you choose to accept this challenge.

The answer:
Side-slip down one bump at a time. Only one. Only side-slip.

Stand on top of bump #1, side-slip down it. Point skis to your left, keeping pelvis and torso and both arms pointing downhill. Scrape to a stop with skis still pointing to the left. You'll be on top of bump #2. Did you travel left or right?

Try again, your goal being to not travel left or right. Lock your eyes on the spot where you want to stop, straight downhill of you, on the top of the next bump. Side-slip, scraping to a stop, hopefully ending on that spot you're targeting with your eyes, with skis still pointing to the left. Did you travel left or right? Try again to the next bump.

Keep skis pointing to the left and work on side-slipping one bump at a time, stopping on the next bump where your eyes are locked. You're working on not traveling left or right, going slow, stopping on target.

Important note: Plant your pole firmly, then keep both hands and arms forward and downhill after the plant. This will help with keeping the torso pointing downhill. Going slow will allow you to pay attention to this important element. Going slow will help you pay attention to each important element. Here's the list:

1. Side-slip slowly, skis pointed to the side, torso pointed downhill.
2. Stop on the targeted spot with eyes locked there.
3. Plant pole and keep both arms forward afterwards, to keep torso pointed downhill.
4. Eliminate left-right travel.

At some point during the run, turn the skis to point to the right and continue sideslipping with skis pointing right, stopping after each bump. Do this slow exercise till you get to the bottom, with only one or two switches from left to right.

Do this exercise on the same run two times each day, preferably twice in a row, working on eliminating left-right travel, working on stopping after each bump at the spot your eyes are locked onto, working on keeping pelvis and torso pointing downhill.

Once you sense you are improving, change the direction the skis are pointing a little more often during a run. Sensing clear improvement should take a week or two of daily practice. Report back. Once you can do this exercise pretty well, you'll be ready for the next step - linking SLOW pivot-slips down this same run.

There's a lot more to bump skiing, but going SLOW while staying on your intended line is step one and should not be skipped. This slow exercise is the best way to stop the runaway traverses and eliminate gaining speed as you head downhill. Once you can go slow, you will no longer need that Exorcist.

OK, LiquidFeet to the rescue! Since you took the time to put it all together for me I will follow your instructions to the letter and report back.

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

I’m no expert and only recently learned to enjoy bumps. Pretty much repeating what said already but here my short version.

Two drills helped: pivot slips and hockey stops. Go down first bump and make a hockey stop. Pivot slip to/around another bump, go down, hockey stop. Repeat and try to find a rhythm by looking for your next turn. An instructor told me: “Vision is the key: look where you want to go, look at the next bump not the one you are on.”

And take a lesson or two with a focus on bumps.

 

[Viking9]

Guys it should be pretty obvious when a guy quotes the “ stay out of Malibu Lebowski “ that someone is having some fun,,,,,relax!!
As far as the old bag\geezer comment it’s because there’s a lot of us and I mean a lot of us on here that are way past 50.
Fuller if I was being serious I would say to find some small spaced out bumps and turn on the tops of the bumps and get comfortable with having only half of your ski in contact with the snow and embrace the FEELING.
The troughs are your friend, you will at some point have to use them to slow down and get out of a jam.

 

[SSSdave]

Fuller the last thing we need is some old geezer or some old bag showing us how they can ski the bumps slowly.
If you can’t bring it then......STAY OUT OF THE BUMPS LEBOWSKI !!!

Often ski rec bumps at moderate speeds between sections skiing confidently slowly in a tight vertical fall line dropping dropping because sans fresh, its the most exhilarating manic rebounding back and forth, to and fro, left and right, up and down, side to side, dynamic bouncing thing I viscerally enjoy as wild fun except... By next Thursday Tahoe will be multi feet of new cold mid winter powder that am lining up to be on the starting line somewhere bouncing softly through pines and firs on my S7's like a little happy bunny. After that ought to be a long period of weeks to regularly loop packed powder bumps on Little Dipper.

 

[crgildart]

@Fuller Mad respect for going out of your comfort zone and making a serious effort to learn new tricks. Maybe rather than thinking of it as the holistic bump run, spend some more time just skiing one bump all kinds of different ways. Hit one off the side.. hit one over the top turning down the back side... maybe do that a lot.. It's the best tool to have when you get behind in the rhythm/line. Once you can get around or over just about any obstacle you can then make the run of independent obstacles THE obstacle.. That's when you can look ahead while your feet handle what's under you at that moment..

 

[Fuller]

@Fuller Mad respect for going out of your comfort zone and making a serious effort to learn new tricks. Maybe rather than thinking of it as the holistic bump run, spend some more time just skiing one bump all kinds of different ways. Hit one off the side.. hit one over the top turning down the back side... maybe do that a lot.. It's the best tool to have when you get behind in the rhythm/line. Once you can get around or over just about any obstacle you can then make the run of independent obstacles THE obstacle.. That's when you can look ahead while your feet handle what's under you at that moment..

I'm actually pretty good at all the individual skills and I've been doing a ton of pivot slips and all the variants. I like to buff up my slipping and sliding skills and then start working a harder edge set into the mix. This thread has been useful to show me a good plan for an "on ramp" to combine and apply what I already know. The bumps are still trashed here but I spent a morning looking for any little bump on the edge of a groomer that I could land on, pivot and slide down the back. There's a lot of them when you start looking, it won't take me long to get to the 10,000 repetitions.

 

[wyowindrunner]

A flat ski is important for controlling your speed.

Had an instructor years back- the flat ski he called smearing- in the bottoms, off the sides- it works.

 

[jimtransition]

It all starts with clean reliable technique. If you can ski well on the groomers all you need is a good line and you can make that technique work in the bumps. The problem is that the groomers will let you get away with anything. Technique wise, you must let your skis turn more than your body does. You will also need to let your legs flex and extend more than you probably do on the groomers.

This. If you practice good edgy short turns, you'll find your ability to ski bumps will improve too. Good bump skiing is edge and pressure control, very little rotary and sliding.