Feedback Please.

[dingbat]

I'd appreciate some criticism of my riding. My hope is to correct bad technique before it becomes bad habbit.

Thanks,

-Mark

[trailertrash]

Mark,

If you can, try to make it to here. Call in sick if you have to. :D

[dingbat]

Aww Maaan, Thanks for the invite. Unfortunately, I have clients in that day.:(

[dingbat]

Bump.

Throw me a bone here folks. I got no one on my hill to get help from.

please?

[DiveBomber]

Go a little faster, and get more forward, My coach would say reach for the nose of the board. DO you have any rear heel lift?

You look like your trying to get a low stance, but then you seem like you're just leaning. You dont seem to be moving your legs up and down. try to push into the turns

[cail]

if you want to meet up sometime i know there's a handful of hardbooters at jiminy peak, that's where i go mostly. check the MA ride board.

might be able to make it out to your mountain if you can't make it to jiminy.

[Jack M]

Too bent over at the waist and hunched in your shoulders. No need. Move your weight forward and backward using your legs, not your back. DO NOT reach for the snow with your hand. Let the snow come up to you. A few other things, but there is good potential here.

Try the Norm some more and see if you can really get your board to slice without any steering whatsoever. Looks to me like you're still pushing the board around a little. After you get that to happen, then add the suspension back into the system.

Coming to the ECES?

[queequeg]

Go a little faster, and get more forward, My coach would say reach for the nose of the board. DO you have any rear heel lift?

You look like your trying to get a low stance, but then you seem like you're just leaning. You dont seem to be moving your legs up and down. try to push into the turns

I'm with Divebomber and William Blake here. You're not riding the board, the board is riding you. You've got a good start, but you need to start telling the board what to do, rather than just accepting what it gives you. Once you do that, you'll really start having some fun.

You need to be a bit more assertive with the board, and in order to do that, you will really need a bit more speed (not alot). You are also bending at the waist far too much. you want to suspend the majority of your mass above the edge and between your feet on the boards sweet spot, and shift your weight back and forward by pressuring your rear and front foot more and less. In other words. your spine should be nearly perpendicular to the length of your board, with your thighs and lower legs at nearly 90 deg angles to one another. This allows you to push the board with your knees, ankles and hips, while maintaining solid and quiet body mass.

I'm not exactly the perfect example of good technique, but my profile pic provides a good example of what I am talking about. I ride a bit farther forward than most do, but you should get the basic idea:

http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/member.php?u=2204

Try this. It has worked well with me in the past for getting people to ride more assertively.

1. Find a run that is gentle, wide and that you are very comfortable on.

2. Before your run, and while standing still, practice getting into the position I just described and bouncing up and down, such that your upper body retains a vertical orientation while you move it up and down by flexing your knees. Concentrate on using your knees and ankles and hips all together in concert. Your boots should be flexing when you are at your lowest point, and at your highest oint your front leg should be flexed just a little bit. Your upper body should move up and down, but not fore and aft. Bounce until it feels natural.

3. Get on one side of the slope and make sure that there is nobody descending from above that will run into you if you make a traverse across the trail. Point your board down the trail at a diagonal, towards the other side, such that are pointed mostly downhill, but travel across the trail fairly quickly without being too far up on edge.

4. Start down the trail with your chest facing uphill (toeside), keeping a neutral stance, somewhere slightly above halfway between the most crouched and most erect position you achieved in step one. Keep your base as flat as possible, don't bend over and keep your eyes on the edge of the trail that you are aimed at. As you get closer to the other side of the trail, crouch a bit more, lowering your body mass as you did in step 2. Wait until you have gained some speed, probably a (bit) more speed than you are comfortable with.

Do not get too close to the edge of the trail, you don't want to fly off it if you you don't get this right on your first attempt.

5. Once you have some good speed that will help to decamber your board, and get low, it is time to start your turn. Turn your head so that you are looking Back into the middle of the slope. Turn your head way into the slope and let your shoulders follow suit, pointing with your trailing hand At the same time. Focus your body on where you want to go.

6. Lift your toes to engage your heel edge and push against your board progressively with the same technique used in step 2 and think about driving your knees in the same direction your eyes are looking.

Keep the pressure up and let yourself make just one big turn. Doing one turn at a time will let you get the feel for being more dynamic with the board--without requiring the amount of speed necessary to exit each turn upright, so you can ease into more speed as you get comfortable.

Keep practicing this until you feel really confident about it, pushing harder and harder each time and adding a bit more speed. Practice it both frontside and heelside. Play with applying less and more pressure, and practice applying more pressure to the front and rear foots, to get a better understanding of how you can control your boards arc. Start trying to control the nature of your turns based upon what you learn from this exercise.

For safety's sake: Keep away from the actual edge of the slope and watch out for uphill skiers.

Once you have it down, start linking them together.

[dingbat]

Thanks a billion fellas!

That gives me plenty to work on. Is there a specific thing I can work on to keep weight forward without bending at the waist? Is that what driving with the knees does?

Cail,

It's tough for me to get away from home, but if you want to come out to Berkshire East, I'll buy the beer.

Jack,

I do plan on coming to ECES. I'm waiting to hear back from my siblings so I know how big a place to get. Should be there Fri-Sun.

[queequeg]

Thanks a billion fellas!

That gives me plenty to work on. Is there a specific thing I can work on to keep weight forward without bending at the waist? Is that what driving with the knees does?

Cail,

It's tough for me to get away from home, but if you want to come out to Berkshire East, I'll buy the beer.

Jack,

I do plan on coming to ECES. I'm waiting to hear back from my siblings so I know how big a place to get. Should be there Fri-Sun.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting my weight forward - just don't break at the waist.

[dingbat]

williamblake,

Fear not, I read your posts about shifting the board fore and aft, and intend to make it my primary focus when I get back on the hill this Fri. The engine/rims analogy was not lost on me either. To be sure I understand you, I'll describe what happened with my last few turns of my last run on the day of my video.

Just before transitioning, I shifted my weight toward the nose of the board, causing it to curl and shoot the board across, at an angle, underneath me. This allowed me to set the other edge with an increased force which resulted in a tighter turn. I got three transitions in succesion like this. It felt as though I was turning tighter and leaning further without going any faster. I'm betting it didn't look as good as it felt, but it did feel like I was on the right track.

Does that sound like what you're recomending I work on?

I appreciate your offer. If you're still willing, e-mail me and I'll work out some time to get down there.

Thanks,

-Mark

[jtslalom]

Your problems will not end with just critism. yes it is important to listen to what people say but nothing beats time on the slopes. My solution is ride every day you can. Get out 50 times this season and ride, ride, ride. SOmetimes the best coach is time on the slopes.

[two_ravens]

Mark-

Yep- the offer is good. I'll contact you through the onsite email interface, please do the same.

ANY day of the week is fine by me- IF you can break away on a weekday AM, all the better re: avoiding crowds, etc.

You'll likely experience wildly drastic, positive results.

We'll do some before & after vid work, as well, for the site.

I need this kind of thing as much as you do, as there isn't much call for professional alpine s/b coaching here in southern NY, and I need to stay fresh on my random-client coaching, while I'm stuck stateside and writing this manual.

J

Dang - I'm a little jealous! Dingbat, hope you get the chance to take williamblake up on his offer - his approach sounds super solid.

williamblake, don't suppose you ever wander out west and feel a need to do a bit of coaching? I know I could use it! :rolleyes:

[dingbat]

williamblake - you've got mail.

[BadBrad]

Dingbat, you're lucky. When I ask for criticism of my riding I just get told, "You suck!".

[cail]

william where in NY are you located, what mountain do you ride?

[dingbat]

Dingbat, you're lucky. When I ask for criticism of my riding I just get told, "You suck!".

Must be my natural lack of charm and oafish good looks.

[Jack M]

This is why I avoid mention of peripherals- now he''s worried about getting fwd. and not bending at the waist-

Regardless of whether or not these are things he could improve, they are NOT among his major locomotive issues.

Now he's obsessing on peripherals.

I would say that your waist/lower back is part of your core, not a peripheral. Hands, sure. I have a friend who had a lot of potential, however he started with the same problem with hunching his shoulders. He's never been coached. 20 years later, he still has it. Bending too much at the waist and/or hunching shoulders hurts one's ability to balance. A better posture with your upper body stacked over your c.o.g. leads to better balance.

better not to move one's weight fore and aft, as much as to push the board fore and aft beneath you.. Granted, this will trypically entail throwing one's mass fwd. before each turn, to get the CM past the waist of the board, followed by a nice, slow drive of the board ahead beneath the rider's mass.

Agree completely. Beckman once described this to me as feeding the board through the turn like a dollar in a change machine. Between each turn you pull the dollar out again.

Congrats dingbat, you're the BOL project of the month. I hope you take Mr. Depp up on this free coaching, what a nice thing to do. Treat him nicely!

[Erik J]

I need this kind of thing as much as you do, as there isn't much call for professional alpine s/b coaching here in southern NY, and I need to stay fresh on my random-client coaching, while I'm stuck stateside and writing this manual.

J

Hell - if that's the case then I'm your b!tch! Anytime you're looking to coach for coachings sake - I know I could use it.

FWIW - it's good to see you back here.

[jtslalom]

Time on the slopes, without benefit of a coach's eye and suggestions, will often only amplify one's movement pathologies.

I guess I should be a little more clearer.

I am by no means a coach. The many coaching points I have received from people have been taken in stride. Sure good coaching when available is valuable. My point is that if one listens to to many people, it is hard to decipher the bad info from the good. I can't tell you how many times I have been told to do something that some one else thinks is wrong. So my point is to take what you think is good and use it alot and practice it over and over. I have learned to not make suggestions to many people because others are so willing to criticise them. My suggestion to every one is to ride as much as possible and gain insight to riding as they go along. Hopefully from a reputable source. Don't read to much into my suggestion WilliamBlake, I'm sure not to many others have.

By the way Eric J, I have noticed that I have a few more posts than you do. This is so my soup doesn't burn, I always stir the pot.

[Jack M]

Hell - if that's the case then I'm your b!tch! Anytime you're looking to coach for coachings sake - I know I could use it.

"Boing".... you need to be giving lessons, not the other way around.

[cafercr35]

I must say my riding improve the most and my knowledge of the technical part of riding was all learned from attending SES and ECES.....There is nothing better than following more experinced riders and ASKING QUESTIONS.

I know I am happy to spread the carve love at anytime and help someone improve their skills.

[dingbat]

williamblake,

Did you receive my e-mail?

[Jack M]

no need to yell. I was only trying to compliment his riding. that's all.

[jtslalom]

Well williamblake as I recall it was your words of advice (about 17 years ago)that I have kept with me for all the years I have been riding. "Drive With Your Knees" I have written about this many times on this forum and still think about driving my knees into every turn. dingbat, your in good hands:D