Center of Mass from the second wake to the ball.

[Horton]

Off the second wake => the more level your shoulders, the more vertical your spine, the more to the right your center of mass (going to one ball), the less & later you reach => the wider and earlier you will be. In addition to that =>the more your pelvis and sternum are pointed to the right => the wider and earlier you will be.

 

Does anyone disagree with this?

 

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[bishop8950]

@horton - don't disagree.

 

@OB - I am with you, shoulder dipping is the top nemesis of so many skiers. Like Dave Miller said, "yeah, whatever, was I dipping a shoulder?". This is my top all time mental cue and I doubt it will ever go away.

 

I am pretty sure it was KLP that told a friend of mine "point your belly button at shore when going through the wakes". I never got around to trying it but I bet it works.

[Horton]

@bishop8950

 

So are you saying that you think your hips should line up with your ski (closed)? Or that you should be more open?

[bishop8950]

@Horton I read it: as at least aligned with your ski, perhaps more open. I think KLP meant you should be working to have your hips more open on your way to one. Where does that start? I don't know what KLP would say but I would start it as I move into the first wake and emphasize through the gate and as I move out. I personally don't want my belly button pointed at shore at the apex, at that point I feel better if I am aligned with my ski.

 

This is one of many things where I don't know the difference between what you feel in your head and the reality. We could pull up 100s of pics of great skiers on their way to one and analyze by degree the difference between hips and ski, aligned or not

[ForrestGump]

If you ask a skier at the end of the pass where their vision was, they won't be able to tell you. Ask em about where their shoulders were and they can tell you if they dropped a shoulder.

[matthewbrown]

@horton I completely agree with your statement...except for the part where you say "the more your pelvis and sternum are pointed to the right, the wider you will be"--actually I take that back, I actually agree with that part as well but the problem is do you still want to be aggressively fighting for outbound direction when you are 15 feet past the second wake?

 

When you and I sat in the judges tower at the Gold Rush tourney we both witnessed most skiers with aggressive leans well passed the second wake. As the line became really short, we also saw these skiers flip from cutting edge to turning edge all in one movement, essentially transferring there perpendicular direction to parallel too drastically. We only saw one skier who did things differently, one skier who was using the physics of this sport perfectly. Because Nate Smith had more speed into the first wake he was able to start coming up out of his cut earlier than everyone else. It also was much more gradual. It looked like a long drawn out edge change because it was. There is a difference between un-weighting the ski while simultaneously leaning against the boat vs. still pushing on the ski and leaning against the boat.

 

On a related note, probably wrong thread but I know you were talking about it…..one of the problems with right arm pressure into one ball is that it makes for the rebound effect because it means you undoubtedly are still on your cutting edge fighting for angle rather than riding the natural arc of the line. The other problem, albeit a little sneakier is that when your shoulders are turned towards the shore, it is harder to balance the load as it is being distrubuted over a narrower area tangent to the load, whereas if your shoulders were more open to the boat, you would have a broader platform enabling greater stability. So, back arm pressure does not mean get all twisted up and lift your lead shoulder up and in towards the pull(you still want to be right of your center of mass). It just means having a square platform for handling the load in the most efficient way. Can Mapple still run 41 all day long by burying his lead shoulder after the wakes, yes……but, that’s not the question…the question is how much better would he be if he didn’t do that?