Slalom A.D.D.

[Horton]

I have talked about this before but I think it is super important (and I don’t know all that much so I have to recycle old ideas :-).

The one mistake that I see almost all skiers make is “Slalom A.D.D”.  Skiers find something that really helps their skiing, work on it only until a new idea pops in their head.

 I firmly believe that once you find a tip or mindset that makes a significant improvement you must obsess on it for weeks  - until you do it without thinking about it.

This sounds obvious and simple but I have to remind the people I ski with about it all the time.  Last night I told the guys, “I do not even need to know how you are imagining it, just focus on that one thing. Nothing else. Don’t even talk about it. It does not matter if anyone understands what you are doing. If works, stay the path.”

Another thing: if you are in the boat and you buddy is working on something good. Do not send him in another direction unless you are really really really sure you want to distract his focus.

If I skied with MS I would tell him something different every pass and then wear ear plugs when I was skiing.

[Horton]

Brent,

Find a easy pass what can get around all 6 without losing train of thought. Run it over and over and over and over. You can own it but you have to focus. Tell the boat crew to be quiet. focus. pass after pass.

This the formula for every major thing I have learned as an adult skier.

[Horton]

One more thing...

the other hard part is finding that ONE thing that is most important. You can wander in the woods for months looking for the one thing or thought that you should focus on it.

[MattP]

Horton I totally agree with this thinking. I learned this type of training mentality from rowing and have applied it to my skiing and it has helped my skiing a ton over the past seasons. I do what Brent talks about with just reminding the skier in the water at the end of each pass on what one thing they need to work ok for the time being and having the skier repeat it to me. I hope this does not get me a quick pass to the loony bin but I talk to my self out loud wile skiing and repeat what I am working on until it becomes a natural movement. In rowing we are thought that it takes around 1,000 consecutive correct strokes for your body to do the movement naturally. I'm thinking it is not the same in skiing... Thats a lot of passes

[Horton]

I totally talk to myself before every gate. Join the club.

 

I also talk to myself all day at work

[MattP]

before the gate thats good! Talking to yourself at work is ok if the door is shut but if your answering yourself out loud....

[Horton]

Key to what I am saying is: This is not about one ride or one weekend. It is about dozens of rides.

Again you may spend months & lots of coaching $ looking for that one key. When if clicks get earplugs and stay the path.

I am screaming about this because I think so many skiers change what they are working on every week, ride, pass or... ball. Never going to learn that way. 

[Chef23]

I bring that attitude to my golf but I don't generally to my skiing. I may do that next week leading into my final tournament of the year. I definitely will lose something that was working if I stop thinking about it.

[tsixam]

I usually tell the boat crew what I am trying to practice on. Then they can concentrate on just the thing that is important to me. If they start to talk about other things I can point them in the right direction by saying, it doesn’t matter, I was training hips forward only.

Tsixam

[Gern Blanston]

MattP -

 good to have another sculler on the post!  I just picked up the sport this year because we can't ski before 8 on the lake. It kills me sometimes to not be out there when it's pure glass.  I got a Maas Aero this spring and have been surprised at how relaxing and intense it is at the same time - just like skiing. 

Horton, i have to agree with you.  I learned that trick with golf.  I am simply not smart enough to  concentrate on more than one thing at a time.  Sure my mind wanders from time to time like with the type of stuff that goes into making up that shirt from LakeOneSkier.  but the best passes are those that I'm simply thinking about that one thing.

 for me currently, that one thing is the counter rotation during the turn.  If I can relax the outside shoulder, everything just stacks up really nicely when I come around and set that new edge.   It gives me more time. 

After a fall, I just float in the water and tell myself to relax, enjoy, and have fun otherwise I over think it and mess myself up.  My body knows what to do.  I have to get my stupid brain out of the way and let it do it's thing.

[MattP]

Gern- another rower! Mass Aero sweet! I'm a Vespoli guy. I mainly sweep but I have done my share of sculling. If you ever have any questions about rowing let me know or just whisper me I know about 100x's more about rowing that I do skiing! That also go's for any of you crazy people who cross train with erging. No skiing before 8? Ouch!

[Than_Bogan]

I rowed a little in college, mainly for a way to get some exercise in the fall.  Safe to say I was pretty bad it -- and that was on the MIT team which isn't exactly top tier.  I could see how someone could REALLY get into that, though.  It's like running except sometimes it doesn't completely suck...http://www.ballofspray.com/vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif

The only thing I was good at was keeping the boat set.  I was pretty confused at how awful most folks were at that at first, but I guess they just hadn't spent much time in any sort of boat.  This gave me a definite leg up as a novice, but eventually my total lack of endurance athlete credentials left me in the dust.

 

P.S. Strangely appropriate to be talking about rowing in a thread titled Slalom A.D.D..  Look -- shiny!

[MattP]

You could say I REALLY got into it. Rowing took over my life 6 days a week every day after school for the past 5 years. The only downside was it pretty much put my skiing on hold... But I loved every minuet of it. Regionally ranked every year and Nationally this past year that was a good end to it all. Now I'm coaching for my team. MIT well that better than me! My college does not have rowing. Or even a ski team we are about 10 min from a lake so I'm working on starting one but having some trouble. If you only rowed in the fall you really missed out on the 2k Spring season. And rowing is nothing like running NOTHING! Running always sucks! Keeping the boat set is hard for some people for some reason I really do not understand why...

 

Yeah we are A.D.D.

Sorry John we hijacked your tread for a little bit.

[Bill Gladding]

Where'd you see the shiny thing!

[Gern Blanston]

Thanimal, I agree....I think moving this thread (somewhat) to rowing/sweeping is entirely appropriate for a post with ADD in the title.  ooohhhh shiny....Bill.  it was there a minute ago.  What time is it?  Did I eat lunch yet?

I only row about 3 to 5 days a week for about 45 minutes at a shot.  I usually go early when the lake is glass.  Rowing is nothing like running.  I used to run a LOT (2 marathons back in the day).  Running is what I call a mind screw sport.  Some days 10 miles is easy.  Some days 5 is hard.  If you gut it out, you physically feel like crap.  If you quit, you mentally feel like crap.  I find with rowing that I have to relax or its too hard to do well.  Not that I'm very good at it, either.  I have no base of comparison as I have the only shell on the lake.  Matt, where are you?  I'm in SE Wisconsin.  I watch the Marquette teams row on the river downtown.  Sweeps appear to be very different from sculling.

To show how naive I am, I don't even know what setting the boat means!   Matt, I thank you for the offer.  I'll whisper you my email.

 Other things that I've worked on this season (slalom wise) are keeping front foot pressure especially on the off side.  I've worked on setting the initial edge harder.  I've worked on getting more knee bend.  And I've worked on getting more width.  Video really helps.  I don't like to do it every set because I then over analyze.  We do it maybe once a week so we can see progress (or not).