Ski Tip 1: Using Eye Protection While Skiing
Ski Tip 2: The pull up
(for slalom drivers)
Ski Tip 3: Secret to skiing wide
Ski Tip 4: Improving Your Stance
Ski Tip 5: Energy Levels and How to Maintain
Ski Tip 6:
Practice Fatigue
Ski Tip 7:
Boat Driving for Slalom
Ski Tips
provided by Phil Crain and Frank Harwood. If you have a tip and you would like to see it on this page, submit
it to the webmaster: skiwatch@hotmail.com
Ski Tip 1:
Using Eye Protection While Skiing
Visibility is very important when negotiating the slalom course. Seeing
where you are and where you are going is a greatly underestimated part
of slalom skiing. Often, a slalom pass may be influenced or cut short
simply because spray obscured your vision to the point where you didn't
pick the visual clues so important to a successful run at your most
difficult line length. Frequently, the skier may look to some other
reason for missing a pass, when in fact poor visibility may have been
the culprit.
What can be done to improve visibility? Several things. First consider
using eye protection such as Specs or Bolle-brand eye wear. This type of
protection has several advantages:
--Reduced sun glare
--Reduced or eliminated spray to the eyes
--Reduced eye strain and fatigue
Some skiers try eye protection and abandon it soon afterward as being to
clumsy or the perception that they interfere with peripheral vision.
Others report problems with flooding during hard turns and inability to
restore vision soon afterward. I use Bolle goggles and have for the many
years and have found that the benefits far outweigh the detractors. Once
in a while, I do experience flooding but if you have patience they will
drain soon enough to make the next turn. They do require some
maintenance. Our water at Skiwatch puts a white coating on the lenses so
I clean them after each set. It only takes a few seconds to put on a
little soap, then rinse and dry.
Once every couple of weeks I reapply Rain-x to keep the streaking down
and to shed water better.
Another visibility-related tip--especially for tournaments:
removing sun screen from your face before you ski. Although you may not
realize it, the first splash on your face during a ski pass washes some
sun screen from your forehead into your eyes. Many top level tournament
skiers make a habit of "washing their face" just before skiing in
tournaments. The improved vision (not to mention improved comfort) is
just one of the many little factors that can turn a bad pass into a good
one.
This tip authored by: FH
Ski Tip 2:
The pull up
(for new slalom drivers):
The biggest problem a beginner usually has is the boat driver burying
the throttle with the skier dead-still in the water. This makes it hard
for the skier to hold onto the "load", and frequently results in not
being able to get up even after a number of tries. Get the skier moving
slightly before hammering it, and some of the inertia will be overcome
and the skier will have a much easier time getting up.
Phil Crain
Ski Tip 3: Secret
to skiing wide.
One of the most common problems skiers face as they reach shorter line
lengths in slalom, is the ability to ski wide enough to complete a
proper turn. What is a proper turn? In short, a proper turn is a turn
that allows the ski to complete its travel through the turn with the
smallest radius possible with the most speed. What this means is that
the skiers path needs to be wide enough so that the turn can be made
without losing too much speed. Most of us leaned to ski the slalom
course by negotiating the narrowest possible path from buoy to buoy.
That program provides a slow and comfortable turn, but makes progress
difficult. In this mode, the ski lacks the speed to get back up in front
of the skier where it can be pulled against. When the ski loses speed in
the turn, it gets behind the skier and by the time the skier realizes
this and forces the ski back up in front--valuable ground has been lost.
This lost of ground equates to loss of angle and subsequently a narrow
arrival at the next buoy.
The culprit is the tendency to "give up" the pull in the critical
moment--at or near--the second wake. In an effort to "get on with the
turn" many skiers relax the pull and begin thinking about turning at the
precise moment in time when the ski should be holding position against
the boat. There are a lot of reasons skiers do this. Many times this
tendency comes from poor deceleration skills. The thinking is: "if I
hold my pull too long, I'll have trouble getting rid of the speed at the
turn." That leads to narrow skiing and hampers progress.
To counter this tendency, relax the arms in the pull zone, leaning away
from the boat, centered over both binders, and HOLD THAT PULL a fraction
of a second longer. Then, make a definite, sharp, and sudden shift to
the opposite edge to initiate the pre-turn. How do I get rid of the
extra speed generated? Two things will allow that to happen. First your
extra width provides more distance for the ski to travel and decelerate,
and two, the wider position allows the skier to use the knees to slow
the ski down. Relaxing the knees (not bending them) is the key in making
a smooth, controlled turn with the ski running through the turn and
finishing up in front.
Summary:
Hold your lean away from the boat at the second wake
Use your knees to slow and control the ski in the turns
Hope this helps!
This coaching tip brought to you by: FH
Ski Tip 4- Improving
Your Stance
The transition between water and snow skiing tends to leave you in the
back seat when you hit the slopes, and somewhat out the front coming
back to water. One concept to keep in mind is that you want to keep
CENTERED OVER THE SKI(s) in both sports. Your forward/back lean feels
different with the snow or water, but in order to turn efficiently, you
must be centered (fore/aft) with both. In slalom water skiing, if you
are either too far forward or back coming off the second wake, you will
have to shift your weight to center before you can change edges. The
delayed edge change will result in you coming into the ball hot and
late. This position must first be established on the setup and carried
through the gate.
By PC
Ski Tip 5-
Energy Levels and How to Maintain
The skiguru used to get wiped out to various degrees during the late
stages of tournaments, after being out in the heat for most of the day.
The problem was found to be partly due to dehydration, and was solved by
carrying water pretty much at all times, and by drinking Gatorade,
etc. It has also proven that having a carbo-loading dinner the night
before makes for a lot more strength the next day. Having a light meal,
say just a salad will result in an empty energy tank the next day.
Protein takes a long time to digest, so if you eat protein during the
tournament, do it far in advance of skiing, or go lightly on it.
Letting your sugar blood level get low can result in compromised
performance. Fruit like a banana or sports drinks like Gatorade will
bring the energy level up. It takes about 20 minutes for these to get
in the muscles, so you want to take them about 20 to 30 minutes before
skiing, and possibly right up until you ski, depending on how full you
are. Remember that when you consume sugar, your blood sugar goes up for
a while, then the insulin level comes up to bring the sugar level down.
The insulin will actually take your blood sugar down further than normal
after a ton of sugar, so you have to time consumption of sports
drinks/sugar for the time just prior to skiing, or you can end up at a
low at the wrong time. Creatine has probably been a factor in the
recent football players deaths, as it is used by a lot of athletes for
energy and strength enhancement. If you take it, remember that
dehydration is one of the effects of creatine, so keeping hydrated is
necessary for survival.
PC
Ski Tip 6: Practice Fatigue
The best way to pick up bad skiing habits and injuries is to continue
after
you are tired. The arms come out, the shoulders come forward, the edge
changes come late, and the header looms just off the next wake. You are
beating yourself up physically and mentally and having negative
practice.
When you feel fatigued, get in the boat and take a break. If you have
enough left, take a set later, after you have recovered.
PC
Ski Tip 7:
Boat Driving for Slalom
Some of the keys to being a good driver are a constant awareness of your
skier. On the pick-up, you can see in the mirror that the skier has some
forward movement by looking at the ski to see if water is coming off of
it.
It is a lot easier for the skier to get up with a little movement than
it is
getting jerked suddenly when just sitting still in the water. (See Laws
of
Motion in your high school science text.)
You want to be smooth on the throttle. By placing your forearm on the
side
of the boat next to the throttle, you can use your hand to smoothly feed
by
having your arm braced on the boat. More throttle for heavier and double
plate types.
You want to have the speed up and the speed control engaged well before
the
pre-gates. You also want to have the boat path lined up well before the
pre-gates. If you see you are not lined up, don't go from where you are
in a
straight line to the gates, get in line with the course right away.
Once you get the speed control engaged, you will need to back off the
throttle some.
With the mirror position on most boats being slightly higher than an
observer's eye level, you can regularly check your boat path in the
mirror
and actually get a better perspective on your own. While in the course,
you
want to see not only the guides that are next, but also use the ones
down-course to maintain your path in a straight line, and down the
middle.
As the rope gets shorter, it helps to get your reactions in QUICK MODE.
Watch the in-car cameras in race cars and you will notice very quick,
small
corrections, compared to the typical Sunday driver, who uses slow, long
movements. If you are in the SLOW MODE, when the rope gets short the
sudden
pull from the side of the boat will pull you over substantially before
you
react.
While driving thru the course, it helps greatly to find something to
brace
one or more arms against. In a Nautique, one can brace the right forearm
on
the side of the seat, holding the wheel at bottom right, and with the
left
hand at top left, you have very good control. Or you can put the left
elbow
on your leg and hold the wheel lower on the left side.
With the current efficiency and accuracy of the speed control, you can
give
your skier almost exactly the time they are looking for. A good driver
will
set up the wind adjust, and put the effort into adjusting the speed to
give
consistent speeds. Too many drivers will pull you fast in the tail and
slow
on the head and never bother to adjust the speed control. This does not
make for ideal practice (or tournaments either). Changing skier weight
changes KX, while wind does not. (So I'm told, anyway). So when there is
much wind, you are better off to set the wind adjust rather than change
the
skier weight.
When you drop the skier, remember that you are driving for the skier.
Pay
attention when you swing the skier out, focusing on their position and
direction at all times. You want to swing the boat away from them to
give
them something to pull against. By chopping the throttle right at the
apex
of their pullout, you can help keep the boat from coasting too far in
front
of the skier and jerking them. I have had drivers even at ski schools
that
swing the boat to drop you, then don't pay attention to where you are in
relation to the boat, so that they drag you a long way after you drop.
After the drop at the end, one sure doesn't want to put all the effort
into
a pass and then have a driver that is for whatever reason dragging you
through the water when you are trying to recover. To recover from
exertion
you have to relax the muscles, and having tension on the line makes this
impossible. So after dropping the skier, make sure you keep an eye on
the
line tension and keep it loose.
Now you are ready to go to the top and repeat.
PC
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