Takeaways from the PSIA National Academy, 2022

[mike_m]

Hello, all,

Just got back from Big Sky and the National Academy. Always a terrific experience. Participants ski with a primary coach every morning for five days, then have a choice of afternoon electives (steeps, bumps, high-performance carves, mileage and reflection, conquering fear, etc.). My primary coach was Josh Fogg, training manager at Aspen. I've skied with Josh numerous times in the past and always find he introduces, or reinforces, focuses I find effective in helping to allow efficient, dynamic, all-terrain skiing. Every coach wants to take you to the same destination, but some have keys that fit your lock better than others. I find that Josh always has a good set of keys for me!

In any case, here is a list of some of the my key takeaways from this academy. Comments and questions always welcome!

Best!
Mike

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Think patient, soft, slidy. When you are skiing, less focus on technique; the purpose of skiing is to go somewhere!

(But, of course, here are some technical focuses!):

Hold the same alignment at the end of the turn into the beginning of the next (no upper-body "pop" or twisting of the skis).

Ski "apex to apex." End each turn looking at, and aiming the bottoms of your skis for, a specific target on an imaginary bobsled banking. Strive to feel the same pressure back from the hill throughout the turn, even at the deflection point at the apex. Make the deflection smooth. Edge angle only as much as needed to grip; no need to impose more.

Let the skis go downhill longer! Aim for apexes further downhill. Manage your speed at the beginning of the turn, instead of the end, by letting the skis drift out and away more at the start. Skiing is not braking. Instead, it is maintaining the speed you choose, going where you want to go.

Pretend you’re not attached to the ski with bindings, but have to stay balanced on rubber mats on top of the skis.

Use a solid pole plant near the heel to lighten both feet, let your pants zipper move uphill, step uphill to the uphill edge of the new outside foot and balance on it, then let it flatten smoothly. (A stem Christy using upper-femur rotation up near the hip socket is useful in steeps and crud bumps to set the new direction of the new outside ski before starting downhill.)

Use the pole plant to end the turn, but let the pole plant continue your momentum down the hill, not interrupt it. Keep both pole tips low to the snow (or even in the snow) and pushing forward.

After the transition, with light skis starting to roll over, redirect the new outside ski tip to align it to the desired new diagonal trajectory then let it slide away, start to roll over, and start downhill by itself. Hold the pole-plant tip in the snow until your CM and the tips start downhill.

Starting downhill, steer the skis with both feet and femurs, then hold the line through to the end of the turn once established, shaping the end of the turn and holding the line with both tails (inside sliding back with arch continuously lifting; outside slicing ahead).

Lifting the toes and the front of the foot (dorsiflexing) eliminates the support of the balls of the feet and automatically tips you forward.

Short turns: Move to pole touch early. Quick feet stepping to new foot.

Trees: Look diagonally to the next turn, not straight downhill (gives you more time to pick an effective line).

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Who did you ski with in the afternoons?

 

[BS Slarver]

@mike_m wish you had looked me up when you were out, we could have made a few laps.
Although I didn’t attend the event there were fantastic conditions for everyone here in April.

Stoked that PSIA has signed on for 2 more years, nice to have you here.

 

[mike_m]

Hi, Eric!

l skied with the twins from Jackson, Bart and George Flynn. New to the team this year. They were very impressive and have a great future. Also went out with Jay Evans, truly a legend in the organisation.

Hi, BS!

Didn’t know you were there. Maybe next year! Yep, conditions were outstanding for that time of year. I was expecting heavy afternoon slush and we got eight inches of fresh!

 

[4ster]

Ski "apex to apex." End each turn looking at, and aiming the bottoms of your skis for, a specific target on an imaginary bobsled banking. Strive to feel the same pressure back from the hill throughout the turn, even at the deflection point at the apex. Make the deflection smooth. Edge angle only as much as needed to grip; no need to impose more.

^This, ”targeting & aiming” have been a big focus for me in recent years.
Good stuff, thanks!

 

[Tony S]

Ski "apex to apex." End each turn looking at, and aiming the bottoms of your skis for, a specific target on an imaginary bobsled banking.

The first part feels right to me. It would be great to have an illustration of the second part showing the "aiming of the bottoms of your skis" idea.

Let the skis go downhill longer! Aim for apexes further downhill.

I could definitely do more of this in the right circumstance.

Anyway, all thought provoking, in a good way. Thanks.

 

[James]

Did it include the tram or was that extra?
Sad to even have to ask.

Keep both pole tips low to the snow (or even in the snow) and pushing forward.

The first part feels right to me. It would be great to have an illustration of the second part showing the "aiming of the bottoms of your skis" idea.

I interpret it as you’re aiming for the bobsled track and putting the bottoms there. Mike?

 

[mike_m]

Correct. If you imagine the path the bottoms of the skis take from the moment they begin to roll over and extend away (before they start downhill), as riding against an imaginary vertical, curved bobsled track (some folks think of the skis touching every number around an imaginary clock face), the deflection point of maximum pressure back from the hill is usually around "4 o'clock," well before the tips cross the fall line. That deflection against the bottom of the outside ski (which you will feel behind the binding and toward the tail of the ski if you have skied into effective counterbalance) redirects the skis, shapes the end of the turn, and allows the pressure back from the hill to begin decreasing from that point on, eliminating chatter as you cross the fall line on boilerplate and sets you up early for an efficient transition.

That deflection point down the hill around "4 o'clock" is the target you look, at and aim for, early, as the prior turn is ending. Make sense?

By the way, we played an interesting game incorporating target apexes. We picked an end point around 100 yards downhill. You count the number of apexes you must deflect off. If your goal is 10 apexes, longer turns result. If you hit 20 apexes, you automatically make short-radius turns. An interesting result is that your mind and body automatically know what to do in the section of the turn between apexes. It eliminates a lot of extraneous focuses on "What do I need to do now?!" in the intervening time!

 

[LiquidFeet]

@mike_m, I am presuming that to get maximum pressure before the fall line, you must begin to release before the fall line. You say that placing the maximum pressure above the fall line gives you a more "efficient transition." Not sure what "efficient" means in this context. Could you explain more fully?

And I'm guessing that doing what you need to do to make sure the maximum pressure is above the fall line means you give up the rebound you might have gotten from a later release below the fall line, where momentum and gravity line up and combine Have I got that right - the skier is minimizing rebound? You did say something above about trying to get the pressure equalized throughout all phases of the turn.

I'm surprised at the desire to place maximum pressure so high.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Pretend you’re not attached to the ski with bindings, but have to stay balanced on rubber mats on top of the skis.

I've been using that one for a few seasons. Thinking of skate board grip tape on tops of the skis or the rubber mats. Imagine what that would feel like. You could not lift the edge of the ski, but you could press down on the other side. I think it makes you feel how you have to actually use your foot inside the boot to do tipping. If you imagine just moving your knees to the side you'd probably fall off the ski.

 

[Tony S]

LF I suspect you and Mike are thinking of two different things when using the phrase "crossing the fall line." Need to draw it out. Tried to use words. Deleted them all due to failure.

 

[LiquidFeet]

LF I suspect you and Mike are thinking of two different things when using the phrase "crossing the fall line." Need to draw it out. Tried to use words. Deleted them all due to failure.

I only know one way to interpret that phrase. There is a point in every turn when the skis are pointing directly down the fall line. When they pass the fall line to point in the new direction, they will have just crossed it.

Before they cross the fall line, the skis are traveling out and away from the skier. They are moving across the hill in the top of the turn, progressively tipping onto downhill edges, thus turning towards pointing downhill. At the top of the turn, the skis will not have crossed the fall line yet.

I'm thinking somewhere at the top of the turn is where @mike_m was being told to make the maximum pressure happen. This is not something I've heard instructors tell skiers to do. Max pressure usually happens just after the skis cross the fall line, in the bottom half of the turn. At the apex.

@Tony S, what other way is there to understand "crossing the fall line"?

 

[Erik Timmerman]

What other way is there to read "crossing the fall line"?

Perpindicular to the fall line?

 

[Tony S]

I only know one way to interpret that phrase. There is a point in every turn when the skis are pointing directly down the fall line. When they pass the fall line, and point in the new direction, they will be below the fall line. They will have just crossed it.

Before they cross the fall line, the skis are traveling out and away from the skier. They are moving across the hill in the top of the turn, progressively getting closer to pointing downhill.

What other way is there to read "crossing the fall line"?

Perpindicular to the fall line?

Right. If you are thinking of a turn as starting at one apex and ending at the next, you could arguably think of crossing the fall line during transition.

 

[James]

All those vertical lines would be fall lines. Though “crossing” is generally referred to from c to d in that diagram. Blue arrow added, points to crossing. Orange points to near “entering” the fall line.
(If there was a line up from the turning pole of the gate, that would be “rise line”)

Diagram from-

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230863764_Course_setting_and_selected_biomechanical_variables_related_to_injury_risk_in_alpine_ski_racing_An_explorative_case_study

 

[Tony S]

Right. If you are thinking of a turn as starting at one apex and ending at the next, you could arguably think of crossing the fall line during transition.

View attachment 167864
All those vertical lines would be fall lines. Though “crossing” is generally referred to from c to d in that diagram.

Yup. Thanks for the pic I failed to produce.

We'll see if Mike was, as I suspect, thinking of crossing point "a."

 

[LiquidFeet]

Oh.

 

[James]

If you are thinking of a turn as starting at one apex and ending at the next, you could arguably think of crossing the fall line during transition.

You’re right, but generally, “crossing the fall line” refers to the first point, not the whole section. So where the blue arrow is.
I guess we call what you’re saying “going across the hill”.
Thoughts? I’m getting a headache.

The orange arrow is near where you “enter” the fall line. So some smaller section between orange and blue you’re “in” the fall line.
I suppose we could debate the points.

 

[tomahawkins]

Ski "apex to apex." End each turn looking at, and aiming the bottoms of your skis for, a specific target on an imaginary bobsled banking. Strive to feel the same pressure back from the hill throughout the turn, even at the deflection point at the apex. Make the deflection smooth. Edge angle only as much as needed to grip; no need to impose more.

The first part feels right to me. It would be great to have an illustration of the second part showing the "aiming of the bottoms of your skis" idea.

Kart racing has improved my skiing this season. In karting, the apex is the visual reference for every corner. Before you enter the braking zone, you start searching for your magic colored square on the inside kerb, visually lock on to it, then guide the kart to close in on this point. From the drivers' frame of reference, the apex is a fixed point in space with everything else rotating about it.

In skiing I find myself using the same visual queues and control, but instead of closing in on the apex, my target is the end-of-turn (aka. crossing the fall line). As soon as I complete one turn, I'm looking for, and closing in on the next. Obviously racers targets gates (the true apex), but for rec skiing targeting end-of-turns works better more me, especially in bumps. Disclaimer: I'm no instructor so YMMV.

 

[mike_m]

I love how images can be interpreted in different ways! I tend to believe that half of lessons that fail are caused by misunderstandings between the coach and the student in terms of what is being described and asked for.

Let me try to clarify my image:

If we are standing at the top of a run looking straight down and imagine a giant clock face in the snow in front of us, we are standing at 12 o’clock and straight down the hill is 6 o’clock.

Most skiers do not understand the concept of managing pressure, so when they ski around the "clock" and eventually ski across the fall line (i.e., perpendicular to it) at 6 o’clock, they feel the most pressure back from the hill at that point and most folks press down against it, usually resulting in chatter and/or ineffective skidding.

Allowing the maximum pressure to move up to 4 o’clock and 8 o’clock and change to a deflection against the bottom of the outside ski eliminates this and allows the skis to redirect out of the turn early and be light when crossing the fall line into the next transition.

Make sense?