RFF vs LFF let's see these stats!

[popof]

Ok, so after messing it up the first time, here is the real poll, let's determine which %-age of us slaloom skiers are LFF and which %-age are RFF.

 

In case anyone wants info on footedness:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footedness

 

But one thing I've learned from my previous post is that people in board sports in general and skiers don't think the same way ;)

[allycat]

rff on the ski lff on the wakeboard i find that strange but it works for me

[GaryWilkinson]

What ever happened to the concept of having official slalom courses set up with buoys on both sides? I'm not debating the issue that LFF skiers have the advantage at 1ball just getting an update to where this idea went.

 

[BraceMaker]

I think people were just griping in the same way as the gates discussion from the moomba.

 

In reality you're talking 6 more bouys and anchors, a nightmare for portable course arms.

 

And at many lakes with turn islands you'd have to either round the island on the inside of the wakes, or make an early move to the inside at the island, which on a short set up could be tough.

[MattP]

@GaryWilkinson LFF skiers may have the advantage at 1 ball but RFF skiers have the advantage of getting to 1 ball..

[Jody_Seal]

Left Foot Forward on a slalom and I ride a trick ski Right foot forward! Is that strange?

[swc5150]

I'm rff on a slalom and lff on everything else. Seems odd?

[Ryno]

@swc5150 Not odd at all.... With sports like: wakeboarding, surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding etc, the board is turned/controlled predominately by the back foot.

With slalom skiing it's the opposite - why would you want your best leg in a kicker with almost no lateral support?

[allycat]

@Ryno spouse that makes sense thanks

[swc5150]

Makes sense indeed

[KM]

I would like to see if the statistics of foot forward have anything to do with dominant hand. I am left handed and am RFF.

[popof]

@Ryno I don't mean to be a pain in the "bottom" :) but I don't necessarily agree with your "rear foot" statement. I've heard and witnessed Surfer talks about who was a front foot surfer and who was a back foot surfer, and if I had to compare to my (tiny tiny) experience in skateboard, wakeboard, snowboard etc, i'd say actually both feet control it.

 

Even for us slalom skiers, I feel like it's not only the front foot, even though it is the leading one.

 

It would also be interesting to compare with "which foot do you drop when riding a bike, a motorcycle etc" at a red light ;)

 

As far as I'm concerned, the same foot (left) always gets the heavy loads and it's the only way i feel comfortable;

 

Kicking a soccer ball: left foot stands and right foot kicks

Jumping long distance or high (basketball): left foot is the last impulse

Bike: left foot is the one I drop

Slalom: LFF

Any wake/board/surf related activity: Left foot forward and weight 50/50

 

There is actually nothing I can manage to do with my right foot haha I might just cut it off! :)

[popof]

@waternut , in deed and that thread had something like a 60% LFF vs 40%RFF if i remember well, let's see what arises from my poll, so far it's roughly 50/50.

 

@horton, on the other topic (the one that was closed), you said most skiers were RFF, was that your own experience and observation or did you hold that info from somewhere?

 

i'm asking because I also wonder if at some point in the competition, one side is dominantly represented.

 

For instance, in Tennis (my other real hobby), lefties and right handed co-exist in the same proportion as in society. BUT once you start reaching high levels (say, top college players and above), I've noticed lefties are "over-represented", which can be explained by many facts I won't go into, but I was wondering if the same happened in slalom skiing.

 

i don't know if my broken english allows me to make myself understood? ;)

 

 

[Horton]

@popof

lifetime experience

[Waternut]

I think switching the course around to accomodate RFF skiers would do WAY more harm than good...to everyone.

 

I don't even understand the controversy of LFF skiers have an advantage. Pretty much sounds like "the grass is always greener on the other side". Sure they have an advantage going into 2 ball but the RFF skier has the advantage going into 1 and 3. If you're going to get nit picky about an extra ball or half ball, the RFF skier makes two onside turns for 3 balls and the LFF skier gets only one onside turn.

[swc5150]

Being rff, I would not want to switch the course around. I prefer starting with my comfort side pull into 1. I don't feel it's a disadvantage at all.

[PJ]

i might switch when i get to men's 3

[JackQ]

Lets see, LFF have three good buoys; 1, 3, 5 RFF have a good 2,4 and 6, in almost thirty years my good #6 has never helped me. When my son starting skiing I recommended that he went LFF if it was comfortable so he could have three good buoys.

[Waternut]

@JackQ IMO, RFF has three good buoys 1,3,5 because that's the hard cut required to make it to the buoy. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but as a RFF skier, I see no disadvantage. In fact, I see it as an advantage because I'm able to get into the course as strong as possible and I'm already in the rhythm of the course by the time I need to hit my off side turn. Before learning the gate, I made more mistakes skipping the gate and taking a slow turn around 1 ball going into 2 than just I did just going for the gate.

[XR6Hurricane]

Wow...I thought LFF was the minority but guess not. I'm LFF and right handed with extremely poor dexterity in the left hand.

 

I read a long time ago that when a bicyclist falls, it's almost always on their left side. The theory was that a loss of balance tends to favor that side because the heart is on the left side of the body. It would seem then that a left turn inherently would feel more natural as well for the same reason. IF all that's true, would it then follow that a LFF skier would have more of an on-side advantage and more of an off-side disadvantage than a RFF skier?

 

???

[Horton]

Those stats are goofy. Go to any tournament and you will see 75% RFF

[SkiJay]

Most of the skiers at our club are RFF too. But apparently, the majority of avid slalom skiers who participate in BOS polls during every post-Mayan calendar off season so far are LFF. Hmmmmm, very interesting ...

[popof]

Actually @horton this is exactly what I was trying to say when comparing with tennis.

 

If you look at handedness stats, roughly 85-90% of the population is right-handed and 10-15% is lefty.

 

When you show up at a tennis tournament, you'll notice there are at least 20-30% lefties, and in final rounds sometimes 50%. There are TONS of theories out there to explain this phenomenon, brain hemisphere , Lefties are supposed to have overall better reflexes, and also right-handed people will mostly play vs right handed people (90% of the time) so the day the have to deal with a lefty, spins are the opposite, their forehand nails our backhand (which is statistically a weaker stroke) blablabla

 

Anyways, there have been roughly 120 participants in this poll, so if I remember well (college is far away), the margin of error for a sample of 120 is something like 8-9%, so maybe instead of 58-42 it could be 50-50 (ooor 66-34), but given the independance of our sample (I don't know how you say this in english, but let's say this sample is not "distorted", we all come from different places, different ski schools, different ages, genders etc, so it should be representative) these figures should be about correct and seem to indicate that there are overall, more LFF guys out there.

 

On the other hand as you and other people stated, since there are so many of you RFF guys out there in the tournaments and ski clubs commited to slalom, it clearly appears that RFF either have an edge in the course, or are people that statistically have better balance, or more of something or less of something else and who have better this or that (I'm not even trying to explain what the phenomenon is with you weird RFF aliens ;) ), and who will perform better on a ski, specially in a course!

 

Any stats for trick-skiers? maybe these are different!

 

Romain

[Horton]

it clearly appears that RFF either have an edge in the course

 

No. I think that in the tournament community we teach skiers with dominate foot forward. It is not better. It is just what happens ...

[popof]

@horton, Yeah sure that works too! :) As I said there might be tons of reasons, and what you stated was just the beginning of a sentence opening to other options, it wasn't a conclusion or anything like that ! Anyways, whatever the reason, the percentage of RFF rises as you come closer to skiing seriously and that's for sure.

 

I guess now I know i'm doomed for this sport ;), might pick up curling again? Or wood chopping? Or Chess Boxing?

[Horton]

@popof I sort of wish I was LFF. It is not a disadvantage.

[ForrestGump]

I think it could be area specific too. In our area, the ratio you'll see at tournaments is pretty well split even.

[Horton]

@ShaneH man not out here.

[maxpower220]

I'm RFF on slalom and LFF on everything else. Strangely, I can easily envision skiing the course LFF, but when I try to put the ski on and do it, I feel like a monkey with a football.

[Skoot1123]

@horton or anyone else - have you known anyone that has switched which foot forward they use? If so, have they commented on if there is any advantage (perceived or actual) to the way the course is set up?

[popof]

@horton I sort of wish I had never left my combo skis in the first place!

[nate93]

RFF but when I surfed and wankboarded I was LFF. I agree with @horton go to a tournament and RFF is a majority.

[TomD]

1. Will Asher - RFF

2. Chris Parrish – LFF

3. Nate Smith - RFF

4. Thomas Degasperi – RFF

5. Christopher ROSSI – RFF

6. Adam SEDLMAJER – RFF

7. Carlo ALLAIS – RFF

8. Aaron LARKIN - LFF

9. Jonathan TRAVERS – LFF

10. Nick PARSONS – RFF

11. Jason MCCLINTOCK – LFF

12. Daniel ODVARKO - LFF

13. Joel Wing – LFF

14. Andy Mapple – RFF

Top 14 from the Elite ranking list – 8 RFF and 6 LFF – however 6 of the top 7 are RFF.

 

[MattP]

Elite ranking list is a poor way to evaluate skiers ability...

World Ranking list

1. Chris Parrish - LFF - RTP

2. Will Asher - RFF - RTP

3. Nate Smith - RFF - RTP

4. Thomas Degasperi - RFF - RTP

5. John Travers - LFF

6. Daniel Odvarko - LFF

7. Nicholas Adams - LFF

8. Chris Rossi - RFF

9. Terry Winter - RFF

10. Nick Parsons - RFF

11. KC Wilson - RFF

12. Jean Baptiste Faisy - RFF

13. Corey Humburg - RFF

14. Carlo Allais - RFF

Top 14 from the World Ranking list - 10 RFF and 4 LFF - however only 3 of the top 7 are RFF 4 of the top 7 are LFF. All of the LFF are in the top 7.

 

@TomD who evaluates the top 14 and not 15...? odd number if you ask me. Just saying.

[popof]

Make that another RFF

 

Jb Faisy

 

http://waterskimag.com/files/2010/11/jb-faisy-connelly-prophecy-600x462.jpg

[MattP]

thanks @popof I found it. Did the others from memory

[TomD]

@MattP I was only going to list the top ten, but then I saw Andy at #14 and had to include him.

[MattP]

@TomD that's what I figured. Elite list is still a poor way to measure skiing abality.

[Ski_Dad]

it's weird my folks are LFF and I'm LFF but never tried the reverse. All my ski buddies are RFF. I might be tempted next year to try RFF. My oldest boys are LFF as well but probably b/c I said use that foot.

[lpskier]

So I pulled a new skier today. 28 degree air, 35 degree water, but who's asking anyway. Okay, so the guy is an athlete, and a really good RFF skateboarder. I gave him the "push in the chest" test and he scored LFF. He went LFF. First shot, up and out of the water.

[So_I_Ski]

Strange. Our group has been under the belief that RFF had the course advantage because they always have fantastic gates and a great start is important as the difficulty increases. Here's my theory. LFF should be the dominant choice because more people are RHH and the dominant foot or hand is the one you put in the control position. We control a golf club with our right hand or arm and the left is just an extension of the club. Same with waterskiing where the back foot controls the ski. For an onside turn "if" we want to drive or smear the ski we use our back foot. And if we are RTP we may even be moving our heel around slightly to enhance the control.

 

Here's something about our group that is interesting and might explain something. There are twelve of us and we're all LFF. Not a single RFF. We all ski the course now but we all grew up free skiing on open water and came to the course in our late thirties or even later. I think if you started skiing on a course as a kid you will have been encouraged to go RFF but if not, and you choose what feels right, it will more likely be LFF.

[Horton]

Anecdotally I think you will find most people who were taught to ski by competitive skiers are RFF. Most people that started out on a public Lake without instruction are LFF.

 

I think you will also find that most people will kick a ball with their right foot just like most people are right-handed. I think we can all agree that we want to control a Slalom ski with our front foot.

[greghayes]

@horton - I anecdotally agree from personal experience, but why do you think that may be the case?

[Horton]

@greghayes I think it is culture. Tournament skiers know that front foot controls a ski and most people are right foot domination. Non-Tournament skiers look to skate or surf where the back foot is more dominate.

[DanE]

@Horton When you kick a ball with your right foot you put your entire body weight on your left foot and control your balance on the left also.

[Roger]

RFF skiers practice their offside turn three times every pass, LFF only turn the offside twice.

I know when Kris and Jennifer started training Taylor, they had her start RFF.

 

Alas, I'm LFF...

[Horton]

@DanE I never said it was sound biomechanical logic.

[parkerc2112]

As a kid I chose the foot I kick a ball with as my forward foot. RFF

[So_I_Ski]

The control thing seems backward to me. I've always thought the front foot did little if anything to actually control the ski, as in foot pressure. But maybe I'm wrong so I'll have to pay attention when I'm back on the water in four months.

[Ralph Lee]

For us wannabes, Lefties have a HUGE advantage in the course up to 38 off. 38 and shorter, the gates get pretty hairy! I'll trade the pullout and gates any day of the week for 1,3,5.

Like Mapple said, you guys got it easy!