Mikaela Shiffrin is usually the most balanced skier (male or female) on the world cup. She makes the most consistent turns of any skier. She and Marcel Hirscher were the two skiers that really defined modern short and medium radius racing turns over a decade ago. The difference is that many times Marcel lets the energy coming out of the turn get himself into unbalanced positions which are very fast, but the ensuing speed gain is negated by having to throw his body into crazy positions to recover and scrubbing snow off to make the next turn. Whereas Mikaela isn't as radical, and makes time on the clock slowly at every gate. She is known for "swinging" her momentum down the fall line of a flush in the last part of a steep section onto a flat section. She can do that little acceleration trick because she is in perfect balance. Swedish skiers Sven Larson and Hector are fast because they always try to take the most direct route (straight down the fall line) and then try to recover after a few gates. They and Bodie Miller are alwaays trying to find and somehow manage to stay upright between linked recoveries. Wendy Holdener is usually in control, but is overly harsh on her edges and doesn't direct the rebound ski energy down the hill. I'm looking forward to seeing Mikaela, Marcel, and Lindsey Vonn ski at Sun Valley in the WC finals. When Mikaela was injured the first ttime (2015??) she recoved from injuries at Loveland ski area and was performing a lot of drills to get herself balanced on skis. Unlike many prima donna WC cup skiers she actually listens to her coaches and publicly mentions the team effort on her behalf to let her succeed.
@trip5694 Re: what went wrong? 2nd gate into the steep was a tight, tuff line. First 2 skiers didn't/couldn't manage energy of 1st turn or line up the arc needed for the second. Next 10 skiers do some version of "apex below the gate", but survive, coz turn 3 was more forgiving. My $0.02.
After a re-watch: 2nd gate was also on fall-away terrain. Even if the forces & balance were well managed coming out of the 1st gate, it would be challenging to redirect and "sting" where the hill drops away from your arc( and your edges) that way. Course-setter sadism.
hey man just want to say that your way of describing a gs turn just changed my way of thinking about it, in a couple days i'll be hitting the slopes, can't wait to try something new this year, thank you so much, cheers from italy.
I always find it crazy how bad the snow surface gets for these FIS races. Barely can even call it snow at this point
Innovative clip, Joe.
Something we'd never see on a sports network.
Well done.
Thx.
Thank you! I thought it was a worthwhile presentation even without any added commentary
Thanks for the video on stepping, weighting, rolling vs unweighted, transfer, edge carve bend.
Mikaela Shiffrin is usually the most balanced skier (male or female) on the world cup. She makes the most consistent turns of any skier. She and Marcel Hirscher were the two skiers that really defined modern short and medium radius racing turns over a decade ago. The difference is that many times Marcel lets the energy coming out of the turn get himself into unbalanced positions which are very fast, but the ensuing speed gain is negated by having to throw his body into crazy positions to recover and scrubbing snow off to make the next turn. Whereas Mikaela isn't as radical, and makes time on the clock slowly at every gate. She is known for "swinging" her momentum down the fall line of a flush in the last part of a steep section onto a flat section. She can do that little acceleration trick because she is in perfect balance.
Swedish skiers Sven Larson and Hector are fast because they always try to take the most direct route (straight down the fall line) and then try to recover after a few gates. They and Bodie Miller are alwaays trying to find and somehow manage to stay upright between linked recoveries. Wendy Holdener is usually in control, but is overly harsh on her edges and doesn't direct the rebound ski energy down the hill.
I'm looking forward to seeing Mikaela, Marcel, and Lindsey Vonn ski at Sun Valley in the WC finals. When Mikaela was injured the first ttime (2015??) she recoved from injuries at Loveland ski area and was performing a lot of drills to get herself balanced on skis. Unlike many prima donna WC cup skiers she actually listens to her coaches and publicly mentions the team effort on her behalf to let her succeed.
Great stuff, now we just need an analysis of what went wrong!
@trip5694
Re: what went wrong?
2nd gate into the steep was a tight, tuff line.
First 2 skiers didn't/couldn't manage energy of 1st turn or line up the arc needed for the second.
Next 10 skiers do some version of "apex below the gate", but survive, coz turn 3 was more forgiving.
My $0.02.
After a re-watch:
2nd gate was also on fall-away terrain.
Even if the forces & balance were well managed coming out of the 1st gate,
it would be challenging to redirect and "sting" where the hill drops away from your arc( and your edges) that way.
Course-setter sadism.
hey man just want to say that your way of describing a gs turn just changed my way of thinking about it, in a couple days i'll be hitting the slopes, can't wait to try something new this year, thank you so much, cheers from italy.