John Gilmour Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Anyone interested in this? If you want to ride at a higher level of performance- having your gear properly adjusted/working for you, NOT hindering you is key. I'll help you set you boots, bindings, cants binding angles stance width etc...etc.. to optimize whatever gear you have. I'll explain the biomechanics of what you should be trying to shoot for. I'll be looking for alpiners joint angles which will vary somewhat due to people's inherrent flexibility and conditioning differences. I'll also set you up for proper body positioning to really let your gear do most of the work for you. This is NOT on snow...it will be done on carpet. It will focus on making the best of what you currently have. Price for admission? $15 per person (which will be put towards a 17" Apple laptop for video editing alpine footage) --------------------------------------------------- If that one goes well- well have a $20- tune clinic for the next one. And perhaps a $15 clothing/gear clinic after that. _______________________________ I also might consider an alpine snowboarding specific pre- season conditioning clinics as well. (8 sessions) To get you guys ready by X-mas- and to help protect extremities at risk (Shoulders, neck, back, biceps tendons). For half of the session you will be in your boots bindings and board, indoors wearing t-shirts- oh, and yeah ....you'll be sweating. Price to be determined. Looking to start the "GET DIALED IN" Clinic at 1-2 weeks after thanksgiving. Please post your availability and I'll decide on a date. I need a minimum of 6 people to do this. ________ Drug test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Frappe Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 I would love to do this, even if only to better understand the mechanics of it better. Although, it would be great to know where you're located. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishrising Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 I might be interested...where would it be held? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trailertrash Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 I would be interested in the tuning clinic. Thanks John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTA2R Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 very interested, can you give the course for the DC area SoPa riders? or a webcast or recording. thx, Barry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Originally posted by Frappe I would love to do this, even if only to better understand the mechanics of it better. Although, it would be great to know where you're located. Why in "Bahhston" Massachusetts of course! I could consider doing a clinic here And/or in Connecticut. ________ FORD RANCH WAGON PICTURE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncermak Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 john- I'm IN. weekends after thanksgiving have me on snow teaching...maybe an evening, the further west the better. -Noah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 The Connecticut location would be in the North West corner near Hotchkiss school. ________ JAGUAR XJR-15 HISTORY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 John, are you going to be able to ride this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncermak Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 what aboput the mass location Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Originally posted by John Gilmour Why in "Bahhston" Massachusetts of course! I could consider doing a clinic here And/or in Connecticut. Doh... I'm actually going to be Boston the weekend after Thanksgiving... but i'll probably be too busy visiting friends to do it even if you were to move it up to the 28th of November. If you ever end up in the Bay Area (jetblue Boston->Oakland for $220)... I bet a lot of the tahoe carvers here would check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 I am totally FORBIDDEN by my surgeons and physical therapists to set foot on any snowsliding device other than a bobsled this winter. Sux. On the bright side the shoulder surgery is PERFECT - tibia plateau fracture miraculously healed perfectly (no one else in rehab with tib plateau fractures seems to be able to walk very well at all in comparison) and they have a second shot at my right knee (miniscous and MCL) when they go in to reatttach the PCL on the right knee in March. Left ACl is being done Jan 20th. I should start a brisk business of selling my unused narcotics- I prefer ICE it isn't addictive. But I thought I would still stay connected with all you guys this way. I am going nuts thinking about how all you guys will be tearing up the slopes with green sidewalls this winter on your newly minted Madds. Ski Patrollers will be trying to clip a lot of passes this year.....if they can catch you. Even though I have to sit out until July in Argentina or August in new Zealand.....I'm still looking forward to seeing this season go well. I know how you all feel - My board "Grand Prix" 170 was born 4 days ago. I can't wait to have the adoption papers processed and see her arrive stateside. ________ Vaporizor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Glad to hear your recovery is coming along well. Those who can't do, teach - literally in this case I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smaynard Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 John, I'm interested, and I might be able to get a few others to sign up if you hold this in Connecticut. Thanks for the offer, Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Well I have a high speed connection in mass but not in CT. I don't think it would help that much to try and film it- as you won't get the depth perception to see what is going on. But why not? If you want to handle the computer stuff by all means feel free to do so. So which week is better? 1 week after Thankgiving or 2 weeks after TG? And what works better weeknights or weekends? First thing is the get dialed in clinic. Which would be a good thing to do before the pre-season clinic. I figure we could start the preseason thing the week after that. 2 sessions per week for 4 weeks. Wait until you see the leg burners I've got for carving.....it's all stuff I'm developing to help my return to carving. ________ Acura specifications Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trailertrash Posted November 16, 2004 Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 1 week after TG. Where in Boston? John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 To be announced...Just like in College. We might do it with the Boston University Snowboard Team (BUST) facilities...just waiting to hear back. JG ________ Buy vaporizer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2004 Since I am hoping this will be a year of crazy carving- I want you guys to look as low and bad ass as possible. Totally ...........most of carving is setting body angles quickly and efficiently -without hesitation, the rest is up to the board and your legs. Besides with a bunch of you on 170's going "stupid fast" I want to make sure you are ready for even the most hairball situations. (I don't want to have any of you competing with me for my orthopedic surgeon's time- or for my rehab therapist..) What I really want to do is hook up with BU and snag a tramp so you all can practice landing a jump directly into a low slung carve. ________ Uhwh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Originally posted by John Gilmour Since I am hoping this will be a year of crazy carving- I want you guys to look as low and bad ass as possible. Totally ...........most of carving is setting body angles quickly and efficiently -without hesitation, the rest is up to the board and your legs. Besides with a bunch of you on 170's going "stupid fast" I want to make sure you are ready for even the most hairball situations. (I don't want to have any of you competing with me for my orthopedic surgeon's time- or for my rehab therapist..) What I really want to do is hook up with BU and snag a tramp so you all can practice landing a jump directly into a low slung carve. I can vouch for the setting the body angles quickly without hesistation. I've been having heelside issues with my carving and John mentioned that I should be basically throwing my lead shoulder hard and quick into the turn (essentially into the snow). I was having a lot of trouble doing this without hesistation because I felt like I weas just going to slam my lead shoulder into the snow. Over the summer, I did a bit of longboard skateboard riding and got a armoured jacket. First, trying to throw myself into a deeply leaned turn on asphalt without having my feet attached to the board - made it seem much easier to do on the snow in comparison. Also the way longboard are setup (even the snappy loaded vanguard I have), you basically have to bang out the carves back and forth without much hesistation, or you lose the stored energy of from the previous pump because some skateboard busings/decks don't have the return to center spring to them if you hesistate between carves. Second, have a armour back and shoulder really gave me the mental confidence to just commit my upper body quick and hard into the heelside turn (essentially throwing it down and forward into the turn). As a result, I can get much shorter radius heelside turns and I avoided the "skittishness" I use to have on the heelsides, where you would see my nice thin trenched line on the toe... suddenly go flat and even wavy and inconsistent as I tried to increase my board lean without committing my upper body forward and down into the turn. I still have a lot to learn - for instance I still can get even more board lean on the heelside, and I need to be more dynamic in the carve and especially "bouncing" from edge to edge. However, I feel like I'm on my way there thanks to a little bit of advice and a bit of off-season cross-training. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimcheen Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Count me in for Ct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Originally posted by lonerider I can vouch for the setting the body angles quickly without hesistation. I've been having heelside issues with my carving and John mentioned that I should be basically throwing my lead shoulder hard and quick into the turn (essentially into the snow). I was having a lot of trouble doing this without hesistation because I felt like I weas just going to slam my lead shoulder into the snow. Over the summer, I did a bit of longboard skateboard riding and got a armoured jacket. First, trying to throw myself into a deeply leaned turn on asphalt without having my feet attached to the board - made it seem much easier to do on the snow in comparison. Also the way longboard are setup (even the snappy loaded vanguard I have), you basically have to bang out the carves back and forth without much hesistation, or you lose the stored energy of from the previous pump because some skateboard busings/decks don't have the return to center spring to them if you hesistate between carves. Second, have a armour back and shoulder really gave me the mental confidence to just commit my upper body quick and hard into the heelside turn (essentially throwing it down and forward into the turn). As a result, I can get much shorter radius heelside turns and I avoided the "skittishness" I use to have on the heelsides, where you would see my nice thin trenched line on the toe... suddenly go flat and even wavy and inconsistent as I tried to increase my board lean without committing my upper body forward and down into the turn. I still have a lot to learn - for instance I still can get even more board lean on the heelside, and I need to be more dynamic in the carve and especially "bouncing" from edge to edge. However, I feel like I'm on my way there thanks to a little bit of advice and a bit of off-season cross-training. I've been teaching Inline skating since 1988- and have taught over 15,000 skaters to inline skate and NEVER has any of them had an injury. How can this possibly be????? No Injuries???? Some other interesting things...I didn't know how to Inline skate very well before I started to teach. I just skated better than my students. So a primary concern for me was making sure my students were not going to wipe out because I likely would not be able to catch them.... and IF they were to wipe out that they should not get hurt. So over the years I developed a few drills with Jon Sullivan who was the head of Sunday River's Ski school (He even ran the hiring clinic choosing instructors) . I developed the balance part of the class and he developed the body angles part. We merged this into a logical learning progression where each step reinforces the last step you were learning.....even if you did not completely learn the previous step it would be continuously reinforced throught the class by the subsequent drills. Very throrough....in Just (3) 1.5 hour lessons students learned how to skate backwards, do cross overs, stop on a steep hill, skate forwards on flat land at about 15-20mph, do parallel turns, spin stops, t-stops, spin backwards to forwards and forwards to back, and of course how to fall without injuring yourself as well as how to recover your balance when you were out of balance and indentifing when you were too out of balance and had to fall. I also taught students their center of mass control and the biodynamics of strength and efficient use of muscle and combining multiple muscle groups effectively without muscle conflict. Most of this was through very simple drills with only 1 new movement pattern introduced per drill. The course was so effective we could have taught Norton and Ralph Kramden, Gilligan, Don Knotts, Happy Gilmore's Adam Sandler, Herman Munster, Norm from Cheers, Jack Tripper, Newman + Kramer + George Castanza (No relation to Jeff Caron) , to skate well. A big part of getting people to skate well was teaching them balance (balance is a learned trait- nobody is born with it or you would walk out of the womb) and setting body angles.....all while in non threatening terrain ie...... The grass. It is a lot easier to teach people body angles while stationary and holding onto something. One nice thing about Inline skates as opposed to skateboarding or Snowboarding was that students were already dialed in (no trucks to adjust like in roller skates). All you might have to do is adjust the tightness of their skates and teach balance and then body angles work EVERY TIME- immediately with 100% success. Its one of the reasons inline got big and later when the inline Manufacturers demanded more balance input from the novice skater by going to unsupportive soft boots- the sport quickly died. In skateboarding stance is part of getting dialed in but you don't have to worry about the sneakers tightness. And flat terrain is easy to find. Carpet makes for an easy learning surface. In skiing we worry about stance, but since it is dynamic in nature you don't have many issues with it being "stuck" in the wrong position securely anchored by 8 steel bolts. In Alpine snowboarding we have almost EVERY problem possible when it comes to being dialed in. 1. Boots must be adjusted correctly 2. Boot flex should fit rider weight, agressson level, strength, snow condition 3. Cuff height should also fit the rider 4. Cant must be correct 5. Orthotics should be used if needed 6. Stance angles must be optimized because you can't alter it when riding as in skiing 7. Stance width must be correct 8. Binding cants must be correct 9. Binding slop should be correct 10. Board flex should be correct 11. Knees and hips and shoulders should align correctly 12. Turn initiation should be done in proper sequence 13. Adjustments made mid turn should be within the range of the rider whether fine tuning adjustments or huge "saving bacon" adjustments 14. Finish angles should be executed matched properly for snow condition 15. Cuff pressures and internal boot pressures must be applied for each phase of the turn and blended smoothly. 16. Arm postion must be correct 17. Selected riding height of rider must adapt to terrain 18. Turn sequence and speed should be planned in advance by at least 3 turns. Or its la de daa...... scape scrape scrape your way gently down the hill...merrilly merrilly.............. Of course once you learn all the steps its pretty much automatic like driving a car.l (Actually its likely more like flying a fighter jet) But the getting dialed in part... its over 10 of the steps....its more than 1/2 of the steps towards being a good rider. And it can be Done FOR YOU. Dirty little secret- # 108749 When I used to "demo" Madd boards I trained the staff to dial people in to the Madd Demo boards- to force people to do what worked and to check the stance settings + possible body angles while the rider clipped into the demo board. Then a Madd Rider took the rider on a "Guided Demo" which was nothing more than showing a rider how to set proper body angles for a Madd board (which admittedly at the time was RADICALLY different from today as back then ~1995 other alpine boards were designed with very soft noses and everyone was a "tail rider"). We showed people how to get low and stay low, how to hold their arms, how to position their knees- how to get the most out of a Madd board- (actually the same techniques today apply to any well designed Alpine board, Donek, Colier, F2, Pogo, etc. etc. etc...) A big part of the success of the "Madd Guided Demo" was just showing people proper body angles and letting the board do all the work. People bought into it because they believed that this riding style was a requirement for Madd Boards (actually they also tail ride quite nicely) but I knew since you could be EXTREMELY DYNAMIC with a Madd board and not get your face driven into the snow, that people would enjoy this newer type of riding and embrace the boards as a result. (If you tried this on say a Burton Stat or Ultra Prime your front part of your edge would either blow out or you would fold the nose and land on your neck). If you bought a Madd 158 and are new to riding it- you should think about taking a clinic on setting body angles. That board is a different animal than most of the stuff out there. ________ NEW MEXICO DISPENSARY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Oh- and the body angles part...That will be simple- just a easy checklist to remember while plumeting down the hill at 40mph. You won't have to check everything while riding- I'll make sure it is automatic. You'll just have "boot destinations" in mind and to learn to "feel the float" with your upper body- when to drive and when to float. It won't be a complicated thing to learn...and there are lots of simple cues I'll install in your head so you don't forget them. Most things will only have three basic steps- then as you progress we will add detail to those 3 steps. But you'll always be practicing what you just learned as you progress to the next step. ________ Maine medical marijuana dispensary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hollywood 90210 Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 John, If you do a Boston area clinic let me know. Ben, Millie and I would like to attend. Regards, Glenn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted November 17, 2004 Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Originally posted by John Gilmour riding and embrace the boards as a result. (If you tried this on say a Burton Stat or Ultra Prime your front part of your edge would either blow out or you would fold the nose and land on your neck). Ha! There's the clear excuse for my lack of riding ability! :D I started out on a Burton UP and was always afraid of blowing out my heelside edge and slamming my shoulder/head into the snow :D Clearly that's the problem (I'm joking). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilmour Posted November 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2004 Not that that was a dis on Burton- I'm just using Burton as a reference point most people know. The same sort of blow out could occur on any board with a soft nose ridden aggressively- or riden by a rider that was way over the weight range for that model. For instance one of the boards I really like- and rode for a long time The Checker Pig G6 was stiff at the time- but I have gotten back on it after riding other decks....and it sure is easy to fold the nose of that now....and that was one of the stiffest nose decks at the time except for the Aggression Stealth 165sl, 175gs, and I think the Rossi 173gs with external VAS as well as the horrible riding Kemper Screamer. BTW I thing the Aggression Stealth was one of the first decks to get so many things Right that so many companies were getting wrong. (ie Narrow, stiff, aggressive flex pattern/firm nose, durable base, and compensating toeside cut (to help toeside on high stance angles) in combination with a nice ...."we mean business look".) Still probably one of the better asym decks that were produced in the last 20 years. Problem was that it was considered too extreme and retailers often tried to discourage their customers from it. Had there been even a few crazier looking decks....maybe people would have tried it- extremes scare most customers and make them wary. Its only true drawbacks were free mounting plate- which was a bit small- and really strong ASYM drift and ASYM lock. You had to be like a shark on that board- constantly turning and moving .....or die. Glenn- I'll certainly let you know. Your boards might be on the plane with Mike tomorrow. ________ AVANDIA CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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