Great explanation of a key difference between race carving and less aggressive recreational skiing. I learned to ski in the 70's when unweighting was used in the turn, but since have transitioned to parabolic skis. I ski recreational, but like to ski fast and keep improving more towards a race style. At times I deliberately keep my body low and stable, and let the legs just move back and forth underneath, but then I fall back on unweighting when I get tired which brings the body up more vertical again. Have never seen a video which specifically addresses this issue. Love all your videos. Thanks!
Hi and thanks for your nice comment. If you haven't watched the 3 Levels of Parallel Skiing please do. Im just the same as you. I carve low and when I get tired I come up higher and at some point I stop carving and ski parallel instead. Even if carving usually is less tiring hahahaa. I hear you with the transition request. I will see what I can do about it. I have lots of topics lined up but that one is very important for sure. Are you familiar with the ILE vs OLR/OLF?
Thank you for your work! Best video with explanation of how to carve! I found here all answers to my frustration of how to carve. (Advanced level) Thank you!
Heck, that position is ‘addictive’! I mean, the sensation. I ski for about 5-6 years, starting around my forties. This year, I put the technics into its full potentials. Well, all terrains seem skiable then, despite my extra care… and I understood why skiers could jump, etc. only after going low. I just ski for a week in a season though. But I like doing things to its optimised form/potentials. It’s like, my efforts are paid off. Cool :)
Great video. Active extension and retraction (push and pull) are valuable skills, especially for quick slalom turns. The trick is to have the push compliment edge angulation, not stifle it. A more relaxed initiation allows the knees and hips to drop inside and the edge angle to improve. There's an interplay between strength and relaxation that the best racers master. At one of Mikaela's recent GS races, the coach called out "Strong and relaxed" as she left the starting gate. She won.
Scrolling through old comments and found this jewel. I need to make a video on that topic, strong and relaxed. That is exactly what is happening. Have you seen my newest video on KNEES. The drill to crank the knees into the turn at the very end for a powerful release? That is STRONG AND RELAXED! Cheers, Tom
Killer! I'm not even a racer, i'm just interested in skiing as quickly and cleanly as possible. Your content is inspirational. Thankyou. -ian from VT, USA
This is a great video, I especially like the backflip drill (would love to be able to do that). But the first and foremost thing, considering that skiing is a very equipment dependent sport is to buy carving skis/boots. You can only carve so much on a ski that is designed to do the opposite, and seems like many skis today are made for a different style of skiing.
Yes, racing skis are the way to go. Full racing. Racing plates and bindings. Huge difference. Also racing tuning. DIY sharp edges. Im going to do a video on that. Also good boots. Note that good boots dont have those fancy bases. The base and luggs should be a solid part of the rest of the outside shell.
Thanks. Good observation. Yes, it is commonly called "swimming" and made popular by Kristoffersen. Skiing is all about momentum and timing. In all sports also the arms play an essential role. Cheers, Tom
@@Triggerboy62 my 2 week per season already are over :/ but when I'm back in the snow I can try learned stuff through observation over the year 🤙keep it up
Magnificent progress since he started focusing on down-unweighing for direction change! He's developing into a fine racer. His SMIM (single most important movement) now should be foot-pullback, focusing on getting the BoS under his hips in the high-C of the turn. That should fix any excessive aft-errors. One example that area of movement should be the focus is the one you mentioned on 3.30, where his fore-aft error at release is actually the consequence of being aft also in the edge engagement phase, but since the gradient here is shallower, it's less visible. But, the best indication that he needs stronger foot pullback occurs when the gradient increase, such as on 2.37 where the feet are ahead of his pelvis, where mechanical outside forces therefore pressure a stance ski ahead of his CoM due to the feet/hip misalignment. The consequence, a skidded turn (skis that don't slice the surface cleanly), is not due to lack of tipping, but to lack of dorsiflexion and hamstring contraction in the previous turn, so that he doesn't get the skis back underneath him. For the skis to slice cleanly, the feet need to be under or even slightly behind (when it's really steep, due to how quickly gravity pulls your feet after your skis) your CoM at edge engagement. Flexion of ankle and knees when the skis are light will give him a whole new experience of speed control on steep gradients. If you're disciplined with your inside foot pullback and counteraction during the turn, stance foot pullback is normally enough for the next. Good visual cues that the fore-aft balance is on point in the leveraged parts of the turn: 1) ski tip to snow, ski tail up during the high-C engagement. Requires feet under or behind hips to be skeletally aligned in the sagittal plane for the mechanical outside forces that will act upon the skier. Important: don't get ski tip to snow by plantarflexing the ankle. Dorsiflex ankle, and contract hamstrings to create knee flexion. Crucial for fore-balance in this part. 2) ski tip up at release. Means the stance ski has sliced through the surface and moved forward through the arch. Because of this it's very important to keep the inside hip moving forward through the turn to prevent stance femur rotation and the stance hip following the direction of the ski tips (so that the ski tails hold edge), and it's also very important to keep the inside foot pulled back through the turn so that the weight transfer happens with a stable, dorsiflexed inside ankle with weight distributed between the heel and fifth metatarsal (pinkie toe pad).
Thanks. Great content. Yes, it is important to keep your outside ski pulled back under your hips during the pressure phase. But I think its wrong to extend through the transition only because you want to avoid being caught in the back seat. This is what most coaches instruct you to do. Its of course very tiring so not even many ski racers manage to do it properly. Chris was only able to ski down the track 4 times due to fatigue.
I'm not advocating up-unweighing when I say he should work on keeping his feet under his CoM. When he pulls his feet back during release (bending the stance leg), we get a retraction, a retraction is not a recentering of feet under hips by up-unweighing, it's a re-centering move of feet under hips by down-unweighing /flexing-to-release. That's why I say foot-pullback: foot pullback is not extension, it's knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion, the very opposite way of getting fore-aft alignment. In other words, we're in agreement. :)
I think the confusion came from "keep the inside foot pulled back". Note I'm not saying you shouldn straighten the knee joint (knee extension), I'm not saying you should extend the hip to get forward in the high c. What does have to occur is that the parts furthest from the CoM, ie. the feet, has to be brought back under the hips in another way, and this is done by leveraging the joints of those parts (ankle, knee), flexing them. Does that clarify what I tried to say initially, or was there another part in my original comment that caused you to believe I advocated the dreadful up-unweighing? Please let me know, if that's the case, for future cases.
Yes, strong down-unweighing movements is very taxing on the psoas (hip flexors). The plyos you had him do is a great conditioning exercise for that purpose.
@@gu5907 thanks for your clarifications. Its so easy to get mixed up when trying to write in few words. Note, some even wrote books on the exact same topic we are discussing. A funny thing regarding up-unweighting and down-unweighting... it has nothing to do with flexion and extension. Its purely a matter of "how our CoM moves in the vertical plane". When the CoM is moving up and it stops there is a moment of inertia and that is what we call a moment of unweighting. And since the CoM was moving up before unweighting we call it up-unweighting. Down-unweighting again is when our CoM suddenly moves down and we get a moment of inertia when we feel unweighted. Since our CoM moved down to cause this effect of unweighting we call it down-unweighting. And it has noting to do with extension or flexion. Except that we usually extend up to move our CoM up and vice versa. My point is that even if we flex our legs our CoM can be moving up and that is not what is commonly thought as down-unweighting but instead up-unweighting. The classical example is bumps. The bump pushes us up and we use this upward movement of our CoM to down-unweight. So, duw is just the latter component of uuw. Or lets say that all uuw has a component of duw as we start to drop down. Thats why pure duw is not practical. uuw gives us a much longer float. Not 10 times but nearly. This is the reason I like to talk about "extending to up-unweight" when I talk about the classic open parallel parallel christie. And "retraction turns" for carving. ILE is the other carving alternative transition. There you dont flex your outside leg to release. There you extend your inside leg. That is what the guy is doing in the "extended position" in the video. Sorry for long posting.
I'm a racing skier and if I can advice you something it wood be that you must be high with your legs and your hip bone ,and then going down with extended legs exploiting the centrifugal force. if you flex your legs your carve won't be progressive and you won't do speed. An other advice is that your arms and your bust must be more static and you ave to move only the legs and the hip bone
another thing ,when I mean that you don't have to flex your legs I don't mean that you haven't to be low ,your body must go forward and absolutely not highward.The thing is that you haven't to carve with flexed legs and with your hip bone downward.
Thanks for all your great advice. Not sure if I agree with you regarding being fully extended and with your hips forwards at transition. Are you skiing FIS?
Like this ,its funny when you has being going these thing for many years and feeling a bit silly now its OK so sometimes your Gut instinct is sometimes right
I think the key is not to say "going low" instead of "let the legs push up and keep you upper body in position". Imagine a virtual bump. But anyway, this is the key to doing fastest strong twisting short turns.
I've applied all of these technique to freeheel skiing! The sweet thing is the ski gets to flex into the arc of the turn with no flat spot! Railroad tracks just like Chris!
Great to have a freeheel skier watching my videos. You guys are the true athletes. Bending down like that at every turn, wow. We just lean on the front of our boots hehehe. But evidently what works for alpine skiing also works for feeheel skiing, when it comes to carving at least. Thanks for watching, T
Would you do more videos explaining and teaching the flexion transition with the outside leg or extended leg retraction? I really started to understand the new ski racing turn in this video. I would like to see it over and over again. Also, are their more tips and drills to work on for this turn? It reminds me a lot of a mogul turn. Stay flex as you absorb the bump and extend into the trough of the mogul. It helps to actively pull you feet to your chest. I feel, This is much like what you said about pulling the extended or outside leg to your chest and extending into the next turn. I think a real difference is to start and stay in the low extended position. As always a great video.
Thanks for watching. Yes, I need to make some more videos on this topic. Did you see my "secret move in ski racing". Check them out. They are about the same topic but a bit older so you might not have seen them. Good analogy regarding bump skiing. And the trick is not to start tall and then flex but the other way around. Same with carving. Start low and extend out into the turn. Not the other way around. That is the most typical mistake.
Sure. Truly advanced skiers ski like this. It makes steep slopes easier to carve as you turn much tighter. And the cool aspect of it not to neglect. But foremost it is the feeling of being close to the snow and being able to carve solid turns. Cheers, T
This video (like all technical videos you make) is excellent. Btw I have one question : how can I improve my balance when I do a fast transition between two curves in slalom.? Most of time when I accelerate my speed I almost fall after 3 or 4 stakes .!
You must be carving the last part of your turn becsuse other vise you have nothing to jump from if you think about a trampoline for example. A clean release with lots of momentum will give you more time to recenter and your balance is improved.
hahaha...doing it right is very tiring but at the same time I find this an only way to really enjoy the speed and centripetal force :)) btw, great video as always!
@@Triggerboy62 it's just my second year studying physics and i have been in holidays for the last 3 months so i'm not quite an expert yet; however i don't think it matters. Every force has an origin, in the case of the centripetal force the origin is the contact between the ski and the snow, it's also called the normal force and it aims towards the center of the turn. In the case of the "centrifugal" force it has no origin, there is nothing that pulls you towards the outside of the turn, that's why it doesn't exist. The "centrifugal" force that you feel when you are skiing is the inertia, however the inertia is not a force, is just a tendency of continuing with the movement. I hope that everything i wrote was clear, English is not my native language. Greetings!
Depending on the situation but yes, there is definitely pressure on the inside ski. I suggest you go over to my HOW TO RID A-FRAME video and check out the drill I suggest. The faster you go and the more edge angles you have the more you pressure the outside ski but for regular carving its somewhere between 60/40 and 80/20. Main thing is that our inside ski is engaged and actively carving.
Hi, thanks for asking. I do work as an instructor at a local hill. Not at Levi. Just making many of my videos there in combination with coaching camps.
@@Triggerboy62 I like your approach to training, a set of exercises and video analysis. If there are any camps in which someone can take part, then I would fit in with pleasure. I am not far away - in St. Petersburg, and have been to Levi, Takho, Ruka.
When is Chris going to do some drills and trainingsessions on gs skis? I know sl for the fundamentals and to understand how your platform works, but Id love to see him really pushing through some long deep turns. Greetings from Germany!
Hi, thanks for watching and thanks for asking. We are not able to pull off GS training at the moment but have you seen Chris first ever GS session? th-cam.com/video/bhh2g-Ym9vo/w-d-xo.html
@@Triggerboy62 yeah I've seen that one, but his skill improved further. The performance on gs skis would be interesting, but I totally understand if it's not possible at the moment. Keep up the good work!
You are making very cool, contemporary ski racing technique videos. Thanks, we coaches need you help bringing our club coaches up to speed. Your running videos of training in Levi every year are awesome. Any chance you could mention the athlete's name? The best distinguish themselves right-a-way most runs. When they all have the same uniforms (and equipment), it sometimes gets confusing. Who are you guys?? Can I contact you directly? Thanks, Crawford Pierce, Ski Club Vail Coach, Vail, Colorado
You can contact me by email at tdk.skiracing@gmail.com. Thanks by the way for your good feedback. Good to hear as these videos are not easy to make. I know its hard to see who is who on the videos but I'm as puzzled as you. And I usually want to get the videos out asap so have no time trying to find out who the skiers are. Also, they usually change gear every season so it's hard to see at the Levi event who is who. Once they show it on TV its going to be easier for me. Reg Tom
I'm watching videos before beginning this season. I'm intermediate level skier. To me it almost ses like he's leaning backward. What is actual weight balance?
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. This is advanced carving technique and should not be used at the intermediate level. Chris gets away with his back seat position in the transition as he is "floating" through the edge change. He is unweighted. Like jumping on a trampoline. Check out my 3 levels of carving video and watch the first and second level drills and skiing. And check out my intermediate playlist on ski instruction. Cheers, Tom
Hi, thanks for your excellent videos, But I have problem with my upper body which remain facing fall-line (like skiing moguls) , which correction drills you suggest? Also in medium carv turn , should upper body be square to turn direction? Thanks a lot Jerry
Thanks for asking. Take a look at the 14 Essential Drills For Ski Racers video. There you will find the Super Man Drill variation 1 with a hand clap at 2:10 very useful because it forces you to SQUARE UP at transition but also to COUNTER early in the turn. Also the Reverse Super Man Drill at 5:20 will be helpful as it forces you to stop facing down hill all the time. Remember to also carve across the slope and not always close to the fall line. As Tina Mazes coach pointed out to me once, there are two types of turns, one goes close to the fall line and there you keep your upper body facing downhill and one that goes across the slope and there you need to follow up with your upper body in the direction of the turn. Face the wind. Hope this helps. th-cam.com/video/YdHnGNzr2uw/w-d-xo.html
Where your shoulder and hips should face depends on when a stance ski is tipped onto edge AND engages. That's why you hold counter in transition when the skis are light, even until the new uphill ski has changed edges. When the direction change of a tipped stance ski occurs, that's when you start counter stance hip rotation with the inside of your body.
Start to* counter stance hip rotation with... Also, if you don't continuously tip your skis, there's no real benefit of progressively countering. Countering is necessary to keep the femur aligned to the lateral forces WHEN the ski radius change. If you twist the skis on edge and then don't change angles after, you should only counter slightly at the start when the direction changed (since afterwards you're just traversing).
Thanks for watching and commenting. There are many definitions to Cross Under and Cross Over. Also Cross Through. I like the definition of having the skis "Cross Under your upper body" when your upper body remains stable. This is also the most common definition what I know. Cross Over would be exactly the same according to some definitions depending on what your perspective is but it has been commonly thoughts of as your body "crossing up and over your skis". That would include and extension of your inside leg and also a very strong up move of your upper body. Both transitions have their time and place. For these kind of SL turns in the video the technique is deffinetely Cross Under as your upper body is low and not moving much. As I point out in the video, for recreational skiers skiing extedned is ok. That would imply Cross Over. I do that as well. Depending on the situation. Hope I answered your question. Just ask if you want a more detailed explanation.
My two cents (offered most humbly): cross over really is the focus of a vast majority of skiing by the general public and cross under is quite a niche technique for mostly slolom racing. As I free-skied today on groomers, I carved the f’ing sh- out of my skis, leaving clean railroad tracks, and trust me, I was crossing over! Not under.
Also, a vast majority of GS, Super G and Downhill racing turns are Cross Over turns. Crossing under involves the action of pulling the skis under the body at turn transition. Crossing over is, forgive me, a less self-conscious form of turn initiation and relies on a more natural body positioning ....ahhhh, damn it, I can’t find the words. And it matters little. I’ll go out tomorrow with my son, we’ll have more fun than Angry Steve and eat gourmet Mac n cheese in a Yurt in the woods. But trust me: we will be crossing over 99 % of the time! And still carving the sh- out of our skis (we will be bending them like nobody’s business, too)
At age 68, these are the best ski videos I have seen. Tiring on the quads, but real carving is so much fun. The physics makes sense and is efficient ie. COM goes downhill in as straight a line as possible while providing the mass in a perfect line with the outside carving ski.
Nice skiing! I really enjoy your video's. Thanks to those I have been following Chris for a couple of years now. Great to see the improvements. To my taste, however, his upper body is too much bend forward, compared to Hirscher, Pinturault and Adrian Pertl (very talented young guy!) for instance. Therefore he is still somewhat more prone to end up in the backseat. He compensates for that with great retraction movements. But he should be able to retract faster (en thus change edges faster) had he been a little bit more upright with his body. Keep up the great work!
Yes, the ide is that he is never in a static balanced position. Instead he is always playing and positioning his center of mass over and against his base of support. Also using his arms. Good observation.
Hello. I know that this footage is quite old already and that Chris is improving all the time! I think it will be very interesting to compare Chris to Naoki Yuasa. You can search on youtube some incredible slow motion of him! He s got "organic" style very classic very relaxed very efficient.
There is no re-alignment along the ski during the turn. At the beginning of the turn you must load the nose of the ski. To do this, put the body forward and spread your arms to the sides. Next, you need to bring your hands in front of you, thereby moving the body back. And at the end of the turn of the arm from the front, the body from the back, the heels are loaded. To begin a new turn, again push your arms to the sides while the body is fed to the front.
Thanks for your comment. Whatever works for you is ok. However, if you watch skiracers on a track, most SL turns are cross under. And without that technique you cant ski on a racing track.
@@Triggerboy62 To cross over a skier thrusts their Center of Mass (CoM) diagonally forward over the front of their skis. This is usually done with extended legs. The upper body has an up/down movement with repeated turns. While this intuitively makes zero sense, dynamically the feet will always come around and catch you in a perfectly executed carve. Crossing under is when the skis cross under the skiers CoM in a legs retracted motion. The movement is generated from the spring in the skis from one direction to the next. This movement doesn't involve any up/down motion of the upper body, more of a steady position with the feet moving up and down.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Yes, picking the outside ski up in the air at the "release" is not something we aim to do. It just happens as the rate of flexing is hard to control when you have lots of things going on.
Hahahahaaa.... I love your comment. GOT. Hall of fame. Comments are the best thing on portals like YT and yours is just so funny. Because it is true. We are working on it. Thanks for pointing it out. And thanks for watching :)
I don't know what to say about this video . I don't like a single theory that you're talking about your upper body should stay calm and quiet your legs should swing underneath view as a pendulum through your hips to get more power and speed out of the turn you wanna drop your hip into the turn actually trying to throw your hip down the hill , when you really is at the apex your energy should propel you forward into the next turn if you did it right will be in the air mid term. There is exercises to do on the snow to help you learn this. Which apparently you do not know any of these exercises. Ski schools are not setup to make you a great skier. I trained with the us ski team and i was one of the best skiers in united states. I can finish in top 20 of any world cup event. Ski races used to be one in a matter of 1 second through the top 10 skiers now you're talking three-and-a-half seconds to the top 10 skiing has lost its touch and its fluidity and the magic that used to have from having short skis that are too stiff and throw you out of the turn. It's a lot of the reason why skiing is losing tons of scares every year and ski industrious and starting to lose money and ski schools have improper teaching methods to really make you a good skier. Try to impress me by coming over and blind noll . Or jump off the cliff and do a hip check and ski out of it. Try to explain when your skiing a course and you've got sheet ice, tell me what you do when you gotta make the next turn and you can't get an edge set!
Thanks for watching and for leaving a comment. Honored to have such a high ranked WC racer tuning into my channel. You are right, the CoM should move up and down a bit but not always. When I talked to Ted some years ago he said that you need to be able to do both. So its situational. Interesting what you said about the time differences between the top 10 racers as in many of the WC races this season the top 10 has been within a second. We cannot of course impress a top 20 WC racer but when skiing on ice we do the exact same thing we always do.
I absolutely love your videos! You're just killing it with these lessons!
Thanks, Tom
Another fantastic content ! I’m training ski racing and your videos are always not only entertaining but also very useful. Thank you for sharing !
Thanks, and thanks for watching :)
Great explanation of a key difference between race carving and less aggressive recreational skiing. I learned to ski in the 70's when unweighting was used in the turn, but since have transitioned to parabolic skis. I ski recreational, but like to ski fast and keep improving more towards a race style. At times I deliberately keep my body low and stable, and let the legs just move back and forth underneath, but then I fall back on unweighting when I get tired which brings the body up more vertical again. Have never seen a video which specifically addresses this issue. Love all your videos. Thanks!
Hi and thanks for your nice comment. If you haven't watched the 3 Levels of Parallel Skiing please do. Im just the same as you. I carve low and when I get tired I come up higher and at some point I stop carving and ski parallel instead. Even if carving usually is less tiring hahahaa. I hear you with the transition request. I will see what I can do about it. I have lots of topics lined up but that one is very important for sure. Are you familiar with the ILE vs OLR/OLF?
@@Triggerboy62 No, not familiar with ILE vs OLR/OLF.
@@tomkowalewski15 ok, I'll get back to this asap
The first time you nail that feels amazing, it's like jumping from wall to wall
Yes, so glad you are a chose one. Thanks for watching, Cheers T
Very well explained and illustrated
thank you!
Thanks :)
Thank you for your work!
Best video with explanation of how to carve!
I found here all answers to my frustration of how to carve. (Advanced level)
Thank you!
Awesome, thank you for watching!
Heck, that position is ‘addictive’! I mean, the sensation. I ski for about 5-6 years, starting around my forties.
This year, I put the technics into its full potentials. Well, all terrains seem skiable then, despite my extra care… and I understood why skiers could jump, etc. only after going low. I just ski for a week in a season though. But I like doing things to its optimised form/potentials. It’s like, my efforts are paid off. Cool :)
Thanks and thanks for watching. Cheers, Tom
Great video. Active extension and retraction (push and pull) are valuable skills, especially for quick slalom turns. The trick is to have the push compliment edge angulation, not stifle it. A more relaxed initiation allows the knees and hips to drop inside and the edge angle to improve. There's an interplay between strength and relaxation that the best racers master. At one of Mikaela's recent GS races, the coach called out "Strong and relaxed" as she left the starting gate. She won.
Scrolling through old comments and found this jewel. I need to make a video on that topic, strong and relaxed. That is exactly what is happening. Have you seen my newest video on KNEES. The drill to crank the knees into the turn at the very end for a powerful release? That is STRONG AND RELAXED! Cheers, Tom
excellent explanation! races apart, even if for my 71 years it is a bit tiring position (if i go too deep)... skiing becomes much flowing
Thank you. Really appreciate your comment. It is a tiring position but we do what we can. Keep your good spirit up! Cheers, Tom
Killer! I'm not even a racer, i'm just interested in skiing as quickly and cleanly as possible. Your content is inspirational. Thankyou. -ian from VT, USA
Thanks :)
You know he’s not a good skier right
@@noelhjalmarsson3437 I'm a good skier. These guys are approaching greatness
Hei triggerboy.
The progress during the past 2 years were great. Cool and well done.
Best regards from Germany
Hey, thanks for great feedback! And thanks for watching, Tom
Excellent video segments and description of movements
Thank you very much!
Very nice and instructive! Music was awesome too!👍👍👍👍
Thanks :)
Great stuff!! It gives me the reminders of what to concentrate on when carving.
Exactly what this video was meant to do, remind and inspire. Thank you for watching :)
Outstanding explanation of Flexing en Floating
Thanks :)
This is a great video, I especially like the backflip drill (would love to be able to do that). But the first and foremost thing, considering that skiing is a very equipment dependent sport is to buy carving skis/boots. You can only carve so much on a ski that is designed to do the opposite, and seems like many skis today are made for a different style of skiing.
Yes, racing skis are the way to go. Full racing. Racing plates and bindings. Huge difference. Also racing tuning. DIY sharp edges. Im going to do a video on that. Also good boots. Note that good boots dont have those fancy bases. The base and luggs should be a solid part of the rest of the outside shell.
Great work here! I also liked the hand movement at 0:16 looks like running or ice skating, incredible!
Thanks. Good observation. Yes, it is commonly called "swimming" and made popular by Kristoffersen. Skiing is all about momentum and timing. In all sports also the arms play an essential role. Cheers, Tom
@@Triggerboy62 my 2 week per season already are over :/ but when I'm back in the snow I can try learned stuff through observation over the year 🤙keep it up
Magnificent progress since he started focusing on down-unweighing for direction change! He's developing into a fine racer.
His SMIM (single most important movement) now should be foot-pullback, focusing on getting the BoS under his hips in the high-C of the turn. That should fix any excessive aft-errors. One example that area of movement should be the focus is the one you mentioned on 3.30, where his fore-aft error at release is actually the consequence of being aft also in the edge engagement phase, but since the gradient here is shallower, it's less visible. But, the best indication that he needs stronger foot pullback occurs when the gradient increase, such as on 2.37 where the feet are ahead of his pelvis, where mechanical outside forces therefore pressure a stance ski ahead of his CoM due to the feet/hip misalignment. The consequence, a skidded turn (skis that don't slice the surface cleanly), is not due to lack of tipping, but to lack of dorsiflexion and hamstring contraction in the previous turn, so that he doesn't get the skis back underneath him. For the skis to slice cleanly, the feet need to be under or even slightly behind (when it's really steep, due to how quickly gravity pulls your feet after your skis) your CoM at edge engagement.
Flexion of ankle and knees when the skis are light will give him a whole new experience of speed control on steep gradients. If you're disciplined with your inside foot pullback and counteraction during the turn, stance foot pullback is normally enough for the next.
Good visual cues that the fore-aft balance is on point in the leveraged parts of the turn: 1) ski tip to snow, ski tail up during the high-C engagement. Requires feet under or behind hips to be skeletally aligned in the sagittal plane for the mechanical outside forces that will act upon the skier. Important: don't get ski tip to snow by plantarflexing the ankle. Dorsiflex ankle, and contract hamstrings to create knee flexion. Crucial for fore-balance in this part. 2) ski tip up at release. Means the stance ski has sliced through the surface and moved forward through the arch. Because of this it's very important to keep the inside hip moving forward through the turn to prevent stance femur rotation and the stance hip following the direction of the ski tips (so that the ski tails hold edge), and it's also very important to keep the inside foot pulled back through the turn so that the weight transfer happens with a stable, dorsiflexed inside ankle with weight distributed between the heel and fifth metatarsal (pinkie toe pad).
Thanks. Great content. Yes, it is important to keep your outside ski pulled back under your hips during the pressure phase. But I think its wrong to extend through the transition only because you want to avoid being caught in the back seat. This is what most coaches instruct you to do. Its of course very tiring so not even many ski racers manage to do it properly. Chris was only able to ski down the track 4 times due to fatigue.
I'm not advocating up-unweighing when I say he should work on keeping his feet under his CoM. When he pulls his feet back during release (bending the stance leg), we get a retraction, a retraction is not a recentering of feet under hips by up-unweighing, it's a re-centering move of feet under hips by down-unweighing /flexing-to-release. That's why I say foot-pullback: foot pullback is not extension, it's knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion, the very opposite way of getting fore-aft alignment. In other words, we're in agreement. :)
I think the confusion came from "keep the inside foot pulled back". Note I'm not saying you shouldn straighten the knee joint (knee extension), I'm not saying you should extend the hip to get forward in the high c. What does have to occur is that the parts furthest from the CoM, ie. the feet, has to be brought back under the hips in another way, and this is done by leveraging the joints of those parts (ankle, knee), flexing them. Does that clarify what I tried to say initially, or was there another part in my original comment that caused you to believe I advocated the dreadful up-unweighing? Please let me know, if that's the case, for future cases.
Yes, strong down-unweighing movements is very taxing on the psoas (hip flexors). The plyos you had him do is a great conditioning exercise for that purpose.
@@gu5907 thanks for your clarifications. Its so easy to get mixed up when trying to write in few words. Note, some even wrote books on the exact same topic we are discussing. A funny thing regarding up-unweighting and down-unweighting... it has nothing to do with flexion and extension. Its purely a matter of "how our CoM moves in the vertical plane". When the CoM is moving up and it stops there is a moment of inertia and that is what we call a moment of unweighting. And since the CoM was moving up before unweighting we call it up-unweighting. Down-unweighting again is when our CoM suddenly moves down and we get a moment of inertia when we feel unweighted. Since our CoM moved down to cause this effect of unweighting we call it down-unweighting. And it has noting to do with extension or flexion. Except that we usually extend up to move our CoM up and vice versa. My point is that even if we flex our legs our CoM can be moving up and that is not what is commonly thought as down-unweighting but instead up-unweighting. The classical example is bumps. The bump pushes us up and we use this upward movement of our CoM to down-unweight. So, duw is just the latter component of uuw. Or lets say that all uuw has a component of duw as we start to drop down. Thats why pure duw is not practical. uuw gives us a much longer float. Not 10 times but nearly. This is the reason I like to talk about "extending to up-unweight" when I talk about the classic open parallel parallel christie. And "retraction turns" for carving. ILE is the other carving alternative transition. There you dont flex your outside leg to release. There you extend your inside leg. That is what the guy is doing in the "extended position" in the video. Sorry for long posting.
I'm a racing skier and if I can advice you something it wood be that you must be high with your legs and your hip bone ,and then going down with extended legs exploiting the centrifugal force.
if you flex your legs your carve won't be progressive and you won't do speed.
An other advice is that your arms and your bust must be more static and you ave to move only the legs and the hip bone
another thing ,when I mean that you don't have to flex your legs I don't mean that you haven't to be low ,your body must go forward and absolutely not highward.The thing is that you haven't to carve with flexed legs and with your hip bone downward.
Thanks for all your great advice. Not sure if I agree with you regarding being fully extended and with your hips forwards at transition. Are you skiing FIS?
Another awesome lesson
Thanks! By the way, did you ever watch the Line Selection video? This is just a small part of that video. Tell me what you think! Cheers, Tom
Thank you for the incredible content.
Thanks for watching!
Like this ,its funny when you has being going these thing for many years and feeling a bit silly now its OK so sometimes your Gut instinct is sometimes right
I think I enjoyed it more than you did. Thanks for grate explanation!
Glad to hear it!
I think the key is not to say "going low" instead of "let the legs push up and keep you upper body in
position". Imagine a virtual bump.
But anyway, this is the key to doing fastest strong twisting short turns.
Sorry for late reply to your comment. Great point you are making. T
Excellent. Thank you
You are welcome!
I've applied all of these technique to freeheel skiing! The sweet thing is the ski gets to flex into the arc of the turn with no flat spot! Railroad tracks just like Chris!
My son is Bryce Bennett!
Wow, what an honor to have you watching and commenting on one of my videos. Pease email me at tdk.skiracing@gmail.com !!!
Great to have a freeheel skier watching my videos. You guys are the true athletes. Bending down like that at every turn, wow. We just lean on the front of our boots hehehe. But evidently what works for alpine skiing also works for feeheel skiing, when it comes to carving at least. Thanks for watching, T
@@Triggerboy62 By the way I'm' on 165 sl!
Would you do more videos explaining and teaching the flexion transition with the outside leg or extended leg retraction? I really started to understand the new ski racing turn in this video. I would like to see it over and over again. Also, are their more tips and drills to work on for this turn? It reminds me a lot of a mogul turn. Stay flex as you absorb the bump and extend into the trough of the mogul. It helps to actively pull you feet to your chest. I feel, This is much like what you said about pulling the extended or outside leg to your chest and extending into the next turn. I think a real difference is to start and stay in the low extended position. As always a great video.
Thanks for watching. Yes, I need to make some more videos on this topic. Did you see my "secret move in ski racing". Check them out. They are about the same topic but a bit older so you might not have seen them. Good analogy regarding bump skiing. And the trick is not to start tall and then flex but the other way around. Same with carving. Start low and extend out into the turn. Not the other way around. That is the most typical mistake.
Great video!!!
Thanks :)
Great video. Does it make sense to try that also for a recreational, though advanced, skier?
Sure. Truly advanced skiers ski like this. It makes steep slopes easier to carve as you turn much tighter. And the cool aspect of it not to neglect. But foremost it is the feeling of being close to the snow and being able to carve solid turns. Cheers, T
Quality material as usual :)
Thanks :)
Great video thank you..
Keep up the good work..
Thanks and thanks for watching :)
This video (like all technical videos you make) is excellent.
Btw I have one question : how can I improve my balance when I do a fast transition between two curves in slalom.? Most of time when I accelerate my speed I almost fall after 3 or 4 stakes .!
You must be carving the last part of your turn becsuse other vise you have nothing to jump from if you think about a trampoline for example. A clean release with lots of momentum will give you more time to recenter and your balance is improved.
@@Triggerboy62 thanks a lot for your answer 👍
Thank u so much, nice working
You are welcome, Cheers :)
❤love your videos
Thanks :)
hahaha...doing it right is very tiring
but at the same time I find this an only way to really enjoy the speed and centripetal force :))
btw, great video as always!
You mean centripetal force?
@@santiagobustamante2082oops :))
Sorry 😂, i'm studying physics, can't hold it
There is a centrifugal force if you frame of reference is the skier himself, or?
@@Triggerboy62 it's just my second year studying physics and i have been in holidays for the last 3 months so i'm not quite an expert yet; however i don't think it matters. Every force has an origin, in the case of the centripetal force the origin is the contact between the ski and the snow, it's also called the normal force and it aims towards the center of the turn. In the case of the "centrifugal" force it has no origin, there is nothing that pulls you towards the outside of the turn, that's why it doesn't exist. The "centrifugal" force that you feel when you are skiing is the inertia, however the inertia is not a force, is just a tendency of continuing with the movement. I hope that everything i wrote was clear, English is not my native language. Greetings!
Hi, could you tell more about the inside leg? They put some pressure to inside ski?
Depending on the situation but yes, there is definitely pressure on the inside ski. I suggest you go over to my HOW TO RID A-FRAME video and check out the drill I suggest. The faster you go and the more edge angles you have the more you pressure the outside ski but for regular carving its somewhere between 60/40 and 80/20. Main thing is that our inside ski is engaged and actively carving.
Hi Tom, thank you for your super videos. Do you currently work as an instructor in Levi or in some other place?
Hi, thanks for asking. I do work as an instructor at a local hill. Not at Levi. Just making many of my videos there in combination with coaching camps.
@@Triggerboy62 I like your approach to training, a set of exercises and video analysis. If there are any camps in which someone can take part, then I would fit in with pleasure. I am not far away - in St. Petersburg, and have been to Levi, Takho, Ruka.
@@MrLamas1 great, send mail to tdk.skiracing@gmail.com :)
Leg retraction reminds me of a term from long ago: down unweighting. Are they similar?
Paul
Yes, similar. T
Chris sure is a true Boss on skies ;)
Trolle Bulle no he is not
This video is boss!
When is Chris going to do some drills and trainingsessions on gs skis? I know sl for the fundamentals and to understand how your platform works, but Id love to see him really pushing through some long deep turns.
Greetings from Germany!
Hi, thanks for watching and thanks for asking. We are not able to pull off GS training at the moment but have you seen Chris first ever GS session? th-cam.com/video/bhh2g-Ym9vo/w-d-xo.html
@@Triggerboy62 yeah I've seen that one, but his skill improved further. The performance on gs skis would be interesting, but I totally understand if it's not possible at the moment.
Keep up the good work!
Good emphasis.
You are making very cool, contemporary ski racing technique videos. Thanks, we coaches need you help bringing our club coaches up to speed. Your running videos of training in Levi every year are awesome. Any chance you could mention the athlete's name? The best distinguish themselves right-a-way most runs. When they all have the same uniforms (and equipment), it sometimes gets confusing. Who are you guys?? Can I contact you directly?
Thanks, Crawford Pierce, Ski Club Vail Coach, Vail, Colorado
You can contact me by email at tdk.skiracing@gmail.com. Thanks by the way for your good feedback. Good to hear as these videos are not easy to make. I know its hard to see who is who on the videos but I'm as puzzled as you. And I usually want to get the videos out asap so have no time trying to find out who the skiers are. Also, they usually change gear every season so it's hard to see at the Levi event who is who. Once they show it on TV its going to be easier for me. Reg Tom
I'm watching videos before beginning this season.
I'm intermediate level skier.
To me it almost ses like he's leaning backward. What is actual weight balance?
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. This is advanced carving technique and should not be used at the intermediate level. Chris gets away with his back seat position in the transition as he is "floating" through the edge change. He is unweighted. Like jumping on a trampoline. Check out my 3 levels of carving video and watch the first and second level drills and skiing. And check out my intermediate playlist on ski instruction. Cheers, Tom
@@Triggerboy62 Okay thank you 😁
Hi, thanks for your excellent videos,
But I have problem with my upper body which remain facing fall-line (like skiing moguls) , which correction drills you suggest?
Also in medium carv turn , should upper body be square to turn direction?
Thanks a lot
Jerry
Thanks for asking. Take a look at the 14 Essential Drills For Ski Racers video. There you will find the Super Man Drill variation 1 with a hand clap at 2:10 very useful because it forces you to SQUARE UP at transition but also to COUNTER early in the turn. Also the Reverse Super Man Drill at 5:20 will be helpful as it forces you to stop facing down hill all the time. Remember to also carve across the slope and not always close to the fall line. As Tina Mazes coach pointed out to me once, there are two types of turns, one goes close to the fall line and there you keep your upper body facing downhill and one that goes across the slope and there you need to follow up with your upper body in the direction of the turn. Face the wind. Hope this helps.
th-cam.com/video/YdHnGNzr2uw/w-d-xo.html
@@Triggerboy62 Thank you very much , You are the best
@@jtszaba6527 humble thank you!
Where your shoulder and hips should face depends on when a stance ski is tipped onto edge AND engages. That's why you hold counter in transition when the skis are light, even until the new uphill ski has changed edges. When the direction change of a tipped stance ski occurs, that's when you start counter stance hip rotation with the inside of your body.
Start to* counter stance hip rotation with...
Also, if you don't continuously tip your skis, there's no real benefit of progressively countering. Countering is necessary to keep the femur aligned to the lateral forces WHEN the ski radius change. If you twist the skis on edge and then don't change angles after, you should only counter slightly at the start when the direction changed (since afterwards you're just traversing).
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. That's my carving technique. And the more turns the better.
Good news for you TB. I'm releasing a short turn video tomorrow :)
so the key for carving is crossunder and not cross over?
Thanks for watching and commenting. There are many definitions to Cross Under and Cross Over. Also Cross Through. I like the definition of having the skis "Cross Under your upper body" when your upper body remains stable. This is also the most common definition what I know. Cross Over would be exactly the same according to some definitions depending on what your perspective is but it has been commonly thoughts of as your body "crossing up and over your skis". That would include and extension of your inside leg and also a very strong up move of your upper body. Both transitions have their time and place. For these kind of SL turns in the video the technique is deffinetely Cross Under as your upper body is low and not moving much. As I point out in the video, for recreational skiers skiing extedned is ok. That would imply Cross Over. I do that as well. Depending on the situation. Hope I answered your question. Just ask if you want a more detailed explanation.
My two cents (offered most humbly): cross over really is the focus of a vast majority of skiing by the general public and cross under is quite a niche technique for mostly slolom racing. As I free-skied today on groomers, I carved the f’ing sh- out of my skis, leaving clean railroad tracks, and trust me, I was crossing over! Not under.
Also, a vast majority of GS, Super G and Downhill racing turns are Cross Over turns. Crossing under involves the action of pulling the skis under the body at turn transition. Crossing over is, forgive me, a less self-conscious form of turn initiation and relies on a more natural body positioning ....ahhhh, damn it, I can’t find the words. And it matters little. I’ll go out tomorrow with my son, we’ll have more fun than Angry Steve and eat gourmet Mac n cheese in a Yurt in the woods. But trust me: we will be crossing over 99 % of the time! And still carving the sh- out of our skis (we will be bending them like nobody’s business, too)
@@philipschwartz5465right on Phil! gimme my skinny Volkl Explosive R SL's any time....
At age 68, these are the best ski videos I have seen. Tiring on the quads, but real carving is so much fun. The physics makes sense and is efficient ie. COM goes downhill in as straight a line as possible while providing the mass in a perfect line with the outside carving ski.
So true, quads on fire. Cheers, T
Nice
Thanks. Cheers, Tom
... I’m a BOSS on my azzz sometimes. Great video!
великолепно!
Thanks :)
Hi Tom. Do you run any ski camps for master racers?
Hi, sorry no camps. I am a Masters trainer and ski instructor at a local club but for now focusing on training Chris.
Nice skiing! I really enjoy your video's. Thanks to those I have been following Chris for a couple of years now. Great to see the improvements. To my taste, however, his upper body is too much bend forward, compared to Hirscher, Pinturault and Adrian Pertl (very talented young guy!) for instance. Therefore he is still somewhat more prone to end up in the backseat. He compensates for that with great retraction movements. But he should be able to retract faster (en thus change edges faster) had he been a little bit more upright with his body. Keep up the great work!
Thanks, its not only in skiing. We are working on it. In his latest videos I think there has been improvement :)
Хорошо парень забрасывает себя в поворот - всем корпусом и даже руками!
Yes, the ide is that he is never in a static balanced position. Instead he is always playing and positioning his center of mass over and against his base of support. Also using his arms. Good observation.
Hello. I know that this footage is quite old already and that Chris is improving all the time! I think it will be very interesting to compare Chris to Naoki Yuasa. You can search on youtube some incredible slow motion of him!
He s got "organic" style very classic very relaxed very efficient.
Ok, I will search :)
95% of the viewers must be beginners that try transit from pizza to parallel
lmao
There is no re-alignment along the ski during the turn. At the beginning of the turn you must load the nose of the ski. To do this, put the body forward and spread your arms to the sides. Next, you need to bring your hands in front of you, thereby moving the body back. And at the end of the turn of the arm from the front, the body from the back, the heels are loaded. To begin a new turn, again push your arms to the sides while the body is fed to the front.
@@oldskier3019 You at least post a video of what you said.
Thanks guys for watching and commenting. Yes, the prof lies in the motion picture :)
Your emphasis on the cross under is a bit vague. Crossing over is just as valid. Situational awareness will determine the faster technique.
Thanks for your comment. Whatever works for you is ok. However, if you watch skiracers on a track, most SL turns are cross under. And without that technique you cant ski on a racing track.
@@Triggerboy62 IKR, I know way too many self described experts who cannot demonstrate the difference between a cross under versus a cross over.
@@falllinemaniac could you please give me your definitions of cross over/under.
@@Triggerboy62 To cross over a skier thrusts their Center of Mass (CoM) diagonally forward over the front of their skis. This is usually done with extended legs. The upper body has an up/down movement with repeated turns.
While this intuitively makes zero sense, dynamically the feet will always come around and catch you in a perfectly executed carve.
Crossing under is when the skis cross under the skiers CoM in a legs retracted motion. The movement is generated from the spring in the skis from one direction to the next. This movement doesn't involve any up/down motion of the upper body, more of a steady position with the feet moving up and down.
@@falllinemaniac are you familiar with the ILE and OLR (OLF) consepts?
Personally I would never teach lifting the inside ski a bit when initiating a turn (which you refer to as flexing) but it’s unfortunately common.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Yes, picking the outside ski up in the air at the "release" is not something we aim to do. It just happens as the rate of flexing is hard to control when you have lots of things going on.
Watch WC'ers in slo mo.
With time your scoliosis will help you maintain a low position
Hahahahaaa.... I love your comment. GOT. Hall of fame. Comments are the best thing on portals like YT and yours is just so funny. Because it is true. We are working on it. Thanks for pointing it out. And thanks for watching :)
7
Don’t bend at the waist as much
Its kind of an individual thing. Juniors and kids bend over easily at the waist and other joints. That will soon be in the past hahahaaa....
Usually the Boss is fat and slow, in my opinion, I write :Haw to ski like a Hard Worker!😅
Hahaa.... you are right, I have to change the title :)
effective, yes. elegant and inviting? definitely not!
Thanks for watching and your comment. I agree with you, not very inviting especially since I know what it takes.
Looks like he thinks he is sitting on a chair
Yes... did you see my "secret moves in skiracing" videos? And BTW, thanks 4 watching :)
I don't know what to say about this video . I don't like a single theory that you're talking about your upper body should stay calm and quiet your legs should swing underneath view as a pendulum through your hips to get more power and speed out of the turn you wanna drop your hip into the turn actually trying to throw your hip down the hill , when you really is at the apex your energy should propel you forward into the next turn if you did it right will be in the air mid term.
There is exercises to do on the snow to help you learn this. Which apparently you do not know any of these exercises.
Ski schools are not setup to make you a great skier.
I trained with the us ski team and i was one of the best skiers in united states.
I can finish in top 20 of any world cup event.
Ski races used to be one in a matter of 1 second through the top 10 skiers now you're talking three-and-a-half seconds to the top 10 skiing has lost its touch and its fluidity and the magic that used to have from having short skis that are too stiff and throw you out of the turn.
It's a lot of the reason why skiing is losing tons of scares every year and ski industrious and starting to lose money and ski schools have improper teaching methods to really make you a good skier.
Try to impress me by coming over and blind noll . Or jump off the cliff and do a hip check and ski out of it. Try to explain when your skiing a course and you've got sheet ice, tell me what you do when you gotta make the next turn and you can't get an edge set!
Thanks for watching and for leaving a comment. Honored to have such a high ranked WC racer tuning into my channel. You are right, the CoM should move up and down a bit but not always. When I talked to Ted some years ago he said that you need to be able to do both. So its situational. Interesting what you said about the time differences between the top 10 racers as in many of the WC races this season the top 10 has been within a second.
We cannot of course impress a top 20 WC racer but when skiing on ice we do the exact same thing we always do.