The Japanese mogul team have a training camp here at the moment. It was cool to see them setting up their course and trying to follow their tracks when they skied 'our' moguls.
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Set of vids showing how the heel pull got into mogul competition
- Thread starter jack97
- Start date
Absorption in bumps is basically like pre jumping rollers, but done in an obviously much faster cadence, while pulling the heels up to match the angle of the ski to the terrain of the bump is a much more active, specific move. The acquisition of the skillset to pull you heels up in bumps will take much longer to acquire.
I think that's where it's at. I believe the core of bump technique is the short radius turn, and everything else is to facilitate the turn. Bump specific technique varies with the bumps, so over dependence on these techs in irregular bumps leads to irregular skiing. Sometimes the bump is missing. Sometimes the bumps are too far apart, and you need to throw in an extra turn. Sometimes, you need to turn on the tops, not the backside. Sometimes the bumps are so strange looking that you could hardly even begin to define a target. There are many other examples I won't bother to list. If you are predominantly relying on the bump formation to control your speed, then your skiing will be one way while the bumps behave, and completely different when they are irregular. This breaks up the rhythm and beauty of fall line skiing. When you can rely on every bump being the same, I can understand a shift in emphasis as you try to push speed to the limit. Though, the only technique that works in every situation is the short radius turn. The heal pull back is really just to make more space for the turn.
With all that being said, not just any type of turn will do for fall line skiing. You have to be able to take a ski with a 24m turning radius, and turn it on a dime. It's not done with all rotary as many people mistakenly believe. Once the ski is up on it's edge there isn't any rotary input. Every aspect of the technique is needed: stable upper body pointing down the fall line, forward pressure, proper canting, pinching the grape, knee angulation, and weight shifting. Each has an essential role to get so much performance from the ski. Not to stoke any flames, but that's my opinion, and I'm standing by it.
