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Mogul drills & learnings from 2021 camp

recbumper

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Here are some drills & learnings from the 2021 PSI mogul camp (held at Mt Hood this year).

Terrain. Camp was on the Palmer Glacier at Mt. Hood. There were nice huge, broad areas of flats to ski both above & below the mogul course. We had 5 or 6 lines of seeded moguls on the far right side of the glacier (far skier's left).

The moguls were spaced at 3.75m which is wicked tight! (we do 4m spacing for recreational bump skiing during the season, and we have found that for rec skiers 4m is nice but even 3.8m is too tight to handle). Pitch was moderate & snow was soft, and by the end of day 1 we were getting used to the spacing. 3.75m seemed to be no problem at all for the competitor kids who were most of the camp - maybe that spacing was chosen to keep some challenge for them on the moderate pitch. Course was ~45 turns long (22 left, 22 right). Then a separate air kicker a bit below.

Cool peeps. PSI coaches were Glenn Eddy, Kris Pepe, Spencer Belsky. The US Ski Team practiced on our lanes for several days - fun to watch the show :) Hannah Soar, Nick Page, Casey & Jesse Andringa, Jaelin Kauf & lots of others. Later on Mikael Kingsbury was training nearby.

Drill List
Day 1
Flats Drills
⁃ 7-second Modern Javelin Turn
⁃ 3 sec inside-ski lift on flats
⁃ 1 sec inside-ski lift on flats
⁃ 3 sec lift to 1 sec lift to short-swing mogul turns (no lift) on flats
⁃ Hand Countering
Mogul Drills
⁃ Ski moguls with inside-ski lift
⁃ Ski moguls with Hand Counter
⁃ Ski moguls with all learnings
Day 2
⁃ Portrait Drill for Vision Up
⁃ Practice individual focuses ("foci" ;) ?)
Day 3
⁃ Reception-Of-Force Drill (Slinky Drill) for absorption & quickness
⁃ Practice individual focus on flats
⁃ Practice focus in bumps
Days 4+
⁃ Flats warmup
⁃ Moguls
⁃ Individual coaching

Day 1
Drill 1. 7-second Modern Javelin Turn. Goal: slow, thorough practice of Early total commitment to new downhill ski (Spencer says: in actual bumps weight distribution ends up 60-40 or 70-30 or whatever, but practice with exaggeration to get clean fundamental skill). Traverse across the hill in a long-radius 7+ second turn. As you traverse, stand completely onto uphill ski (new downhill ski). Travel a distance standing fully on uphill ski. Lift heel of inside ski, leaving tip of inside ski on snow. Leaving tip on snow makes this a Modern Javelin (oldstyle Javelin drill lifted whole inside ski, which tended to throw you into backseat. Tip down keeps weight forward and is better drill for modern turn).

While traversing with weight fully on uphill ski (new downhill ski) lift heel and count 1. Then initiate turn (knee roll inward). Don't just lift heel and simultaneously start turn. The point of the 1-count pause between the heel lift and the turn is to put full commitment on new ski & give you time to feel your balance on new downhill ski and full commitment to boot front which drives turn.

Drive thru turn on boot tongue. This is the top half of the turn before the fall line & before the apex. Inside foot is still lifted. Stand on the ski & stay on it. Get lots of edge purchase above the fall line. Go thru apex. After apex, feel the turn complete but don't stay on it too long. Get ready, get back in balance & do the drill on the other side.

What this feels like when it works. You get full, clean balance on the uphill leg, with no wobbling. You feel full strong continuous shin pressure on the bootfront. You roll the knee and feel that tip & edge start to bite. And here's the best part -- after you roll the knee and get the bite and keep standing on the ski...OMG suuuuuchhhh a smooooooth ride and the ski comes right back underneath&behind you and stays smoooooth & edged the whole way. You are riiiiiiiding, not hacking. (Note - zero horizontal rotation, zero windshield-wipering) The only thing is you can't get married to that feeling on the one ski, you basically gotta immediately shift off and do the same thing the other way. But boy is it a sweet carve :) Just don't stay on it..

What I wuz doing wrong. So I've been doing that drill for years but ya just never know do ya? At Mt. Hood with the huge broad flats for space and with the coaches telling us to take the time to do it slow, do it thoroughly and Learn It & Feel It, there was lots to improve & progress on. My left leg is weaker cause I broke it awhile back, and since it's weaker & gentler it actually makes a cleaner turn. So my 7-sec Modern Javelins on the left have been soft & clean for several years. My right leg is stronger cause it was primary for too long. So da right leg would never let me do this drill smoothly on da right. It would just Alwayzz Push Out. So my 7-sec Modern Javelins would just never work correctly on the right side --> so I Mentally Figured for years that I had some basic flaw in technique and this drill would never work for me, so I kinda did it half-heartedly. Mistake -- shoulda kept working on it.

At camp there was plenty of slope width and drill time to just work this.
I started making what felt like a Superwide Right Weight Shift. It felt sooo Stiff&Awful, like I was moving way too far of a distance right. But of course it worked, and was exactly what I needed to do. What felt Superwide was actually no further in real distance than my left shift, just barely enough to truly get me over the right ski for the first time ever. And guess what? Now the right ski tip edges nicely and the right ski carves & comes back up underneath same as the left one. Point here is that the right-leg nervous system was telling me it wanted to be Stiff and that it wasnt gonna let me shift over. And da nerves were just plain wrong about the distance & motion -- and needed to be retrained by this drill.

Drill 2. 3 sec inside-ski lift on flats. Same as above but shorter time. Shift to uphill ski, lift inside heel, count 1, initiate turn. Produces medium-radius turn. Teaches to do the same correct Early, Fully Committed Turn but quite a bit quicker.

Drill 3. 1 sec inside-ski lift on flats. Same as above - now getting really quick. Pick up da tempo babies! And keep da Turn Quality. Too hard? Keep workin'

Drill 4. 3 sec lift to 1 sec lift to short-swing mogul turns (no lift) on flats. OK take it all the way into the actual mogul turn.
A thing here is that if when you tighten it down into the actual Mogul Turn - if it doesn't Feel the Same as the drill, you're prob mentally changing gears and letting flaws creep into da Turn. Keep drillin' day after day & month after month...

>>> <<<
Historical Interlude at Charlie's Mountain View Bar - Hart Javelin skis & original Look Pivot bindings! :)

Javelin Skis.jpg

How cool is this! At Charlie's on the wall in the back corner there's a pair of Hart Javelins with the original Look Pivot bindings. Anybody know what year these are from? Maybe 1961 or thereabouts?

The Javelin turn drill is named after this ski :) And the Look Pivots look exactly like our current mogul bindings, just like made out of plain metal and much smaller early size.
>>> <<<

Day 1
Drill 5. Hand Countering. Goal: clean up everybody's hand position and get square to fall line.
This drill was fun & light-feeling. You pick your hands up nice & high and push them straight forward, with hands quite close to each other. If you want you can even exaggerate by having your hands touch each other out front (In actual skiing they will naturally separate but trying to keep them together in the drill establishes a good starting point).

Ski nice turns on the flats. Maybe medium-ish or short radius. Don't worry about lifting the inside ski, just ski good-quality turns.

When you shift onto each ski, push the opposite hand downhill throughout the turn. Shift onto left ski, push right hand. Shift onto right ski, push left hand.

What this does is to drive your off-side (hand, shoulder, hip) forward into a counter of the turn, which helps keep you squared up.

What I wuz doing wrong. Before camp, my basic hand position was nicely high (good), but more than shoulder width (too wide), and was passively just hanging there instead of driving fwd (bad). Now the hand position has become narrower (looks nice & clean), and actively pushes forward at all times (both sides), and actively pushes even stronger forward on the off-side on each turn (good! drives off-hip fwd to square up).

Additional Unexpected Learning. Another fun thing about this hand-countering drill is that it gives you the cue to really understand that you gotta do all the turning with your legs & knees. You want the hands to be up and clean and pushing forward, and not lashing or flailing around on each turn. So with your hands up -- it forces you (and creates the opportunity to realize) to execute your turns with the weightshift & legs only. So the hands create a clear mental cue to make your turns with your legs. How about that for counterintuitive like everything else in this fun sport? :)

Drill 6. Ski moguls with inside-ski lift. Same as Drill 3 above, but in moguls. Carries your nice good turn into actual bumps. Feel how clean & nice your turns are now?

Drill 7. Ski moguls with Hand Counter. Same as Drill 5 above, but in moguls. Feel how nice & clean your hands are now?

Mogul Skiing!! :) :)
Ski moguls with all learnings. What it's all about!
Includes video shooting.

The time breakdown for Day 1 was about 1.5 hrs on the Javelins, 1 hr on hand-counter, 0.5 hr drills in moguls, 1.5 hrs skiing moguls. Plus video review in evenings :)

Day 2
Drill 2.1 - Portrait Drill for Vision Up. Interesting use of this drill this year. For beginners this drill is often used to teach basic squaring. Beginner peeps hold their poles vertically, pick an aiming landmark, and the idea is to ski down and not let the landmark wander out of frame Horizontally.

This time at camp, da campers already had pretty decent squaring so the question was not to keep the portrait straight horizontally - but rather to keep da Chest Up - Eyes Up so as not to lose sight of the landmark Vertically!! :)

To use this drill, figure out if you're one of those peeps who drop their eyes down at the ground and do this drill to remind you to Look Up Not Down :)


Day 3
Drill 3.1 - Reception-Of-Force Drill (Slinky Drill). Goal: A flats method to feel absorption & quickness.
Pick a nice section of flats, steep enough to get up some momentum and with snow not so soft that you can't make turns. Stand and sideslip straight down the fall line. Feel the force build up on your downhill ski. When you feel enough force pressure, drop quickly down into absorption position, simultaneously pulling the downhill ski upward toward you ("reception of force"), and shift weight to make a turn thru the fall line. Use the pull you are making to redirect the incoming pressure from the old downhill ski into the new downhill ski. When the ski comes around (which it will do quickly, you should feel the pressure force helping you to make the turn quickly & smoothly. Once the turn is complete, stand back up out of your absorption. Now continue sideslipping straight down the fall line, and you should feel the pressure building up in the new downhill ski. Keep doing this absorption/reception of force on one side, then the other.

Learning - Once you get the hang of this drill you can definitely feel how pulling in the pressure on the old ski can be redirected to help quicken the shift onto the new ski. You can also tell from the feel of the snow & edges whether you are making a fully complete weightshift onto each new ski. If your skis are hacking & getting tied up, you're not fully shifted and not forward enough.

What peeps were doing wrong. After absorbing the pressure of the first turn and getting onto the new ski, some campers were forgetting to stand back up. That got them into the Opposite Rhythm of how the drill is supposed to be executed. I had the rhythm part down OK, but I was absorbing by dropping chest forward. Actually the absorption in this drill is done with a fairly complete backward squat. So the absorption motion is not exactly equivalent to real absorption in bumps -- it ends up being more backseat than in real absorption.
 
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recbumper

Getting off the lift
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Skiing progression over several days

Lots of fun but pushing right heel a lot
1 v1.gif


Pushing less, getting more symmetrical
2 v1.gif


Getting more direct & consistent. Hands smoother cause turns are more stable
3 v1.gif
 
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recbumper

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"U-shaped movement of feet & skis behind you"

Talked with Glenn Eddy today doing some post-camp debriefing notes.

At camp we had been talking a bit about how when you get going into a string of well-executed mogul turns, it feels like your feet & skis are moving in a U-shape behind you. This U-shaped path of the feet is actually quite visible in the video gifs above ^^^ if you look at da feet and think about it right

That'll be a fun feeling to chase as the season gets back underway.

I have occasionally felt that type of mode before but now gonna drill & drill it to find it & make it consistent. Glenn said doing a lot of the Slinky drill (see above) can help feel & build this.

And then gonna see if I can make that U-shaped feeling work on steeper pitches and various snow conditions.
 

Marker

Making fresh tracks
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Skiing progression over several days

Lots of fun but pushing right heel a lot
View attachment 139290

Pushing less, getting more symmetrical
View attachment 139288

Getting more direct & consistent. Hands smoother cause turns are more stable
View attachment 139289
+1 on the Killington t-shirt.

I have been trying (badly) to do your 7 sec javelin drill on Snowshed. One leg is much weaker at this drill, but I think it's due to an imbalance in my cranky lower back. Last season was better than the year before. I'll need to revisit this thread and try this and your other drills again next season.
 
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recbumper

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Yep, when I try to do these drills it never ceases to amaze me how wobbly & cranky my balance on single legs is. You like understand it very easily in your mind, but when you start trying to actually do it, every little flaw immediately pops up (like the back issues, ankle/leg issues, psych tension issues etc etc) and it's so much harder & trickier than you thought.

The 2 things I have found that gradually make a difference on the 7-sec turns are
(1) practice it lots & lots & lots so the body gets used to 1-foot balance and
(2) really commit your whole weight onto the bootfront/boottongue all the time and feel how the boot truly supports you - gently & gradually teaching the muscle memory to trust the boot, trust the shin pressure

It's that trust of the shin pressure that this drill is really good at teaching, along with getting allll your edgebite on the early top of the turn, so that you can get off the turn shortly after the apex and start the next one...

When your body does get the commitment, the ski goes into each turn just like butter.

Another funky thing I realized this summer is that the Big Snow indoor place down in NJ is actually perfectly good for going & doing lots of the fundamental drills like the Javelins & Slinkys & stuff. I did a couple of 2 and 4hour sessions there doing lotsa these drills - gets the Jones out too arggghhh hahaha
 
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recbumper

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Pomfret, VT
Here are some transcripts from some of the coaching sessions while watching & commenting on video --

Foundation
"I just want to say hello to future [mogul skiers] when they listen to this:"
"The foundation of our skiing comes from shifting the weight early at the top of the turn, and from countering, and from body position.”

Desire
“You can’t, you can’t make someone want it. You guys are here because you’re choosing to be here.”
 
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recbumper

Getting off the lift
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How Do You Figure It Out?

“Like, I talked about this so much with my coaches. It’s like, how do you figure it out? How do you make a kid figure it out at a young age? How to work hard and how to devote yourself to it and really like, try and go for it?

"[At KMS] even though you’re having a good time skiing around, they’re developing you. Like they’re making sure you’re shifting weight, and getting on your downhill ski. They’re teaching you the foundation of the turn right from the get-go. And it’s disguised as fun :) I didn’t have that. [before] I had the privilege of skiing behind my dad, which was like better than all of that, to be fair When I went to KMS…I was surrounded by that year-round lifestyle for the first time…"

“I’m here cause I like coaching, but I’m really here cause I like mogul skiing. I like being around people like you guys who are into it. And it makes it so easy for me to talk about this stuff. Every day is fun watching you guys come down and get a little better every run."

'When you go skiing for pleasure, what do you do?'
“I mogul ski.” … That’s my answer, yeah…
 

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