Holding position thru the wakes

[Marco]

@disland -When doing the pulling drill down the lake, try slowing the boat down to about 18 mph. The only way to stay up is to be in a nearly perfect stacked position. This is one of Gordon Rathbuns drills. It's not as easy as it looks!

[Zman]

@disland you're lake looks familiar. Are you at Lakes of Katy?

[Texas6]

@Zman, I believe he's at Princeton Lakes near Dallas. Same developer for what its worth, so a good guess! Definitely not the L of K although he's always welcome!

[Zman]

Thanks @Texas6

 

[SkiJay]

@disland You asked for feedback on your leaning drill video. I'm such a big fan of this drill that I did it for the first pass of every set for two months this winter; this would be my feedback.

 

This drill is all about getting comfortable with standing tall and perfectly stacked at EXTREME lean angles going both directions. It looks like you are a bit crouched with too much weight on your rear foot while pulling. Did you notice how you shot forward half way through the pass when you put a little more weight on the front foot? Getting more weight on your front foot will make a big difference throughout your whole pass.

 

Your rear leg should feel like it's almost straight, forcing your hips forward over your front foot with more ankle flexion. Your chest will come up and your shoulders will drop back in order to maintain balance over the center of the ski. Boom, you are now in the strongest position in slalom and this drill will help make it feel like home with time and practice. Try to take this same position into the whips/rhythm drill, then into the course. And yup, it's harder than it sounds.

 

Shorten the rope to 38 off to take all the bungee stretch out of the rope so the drill is safer and feels more secure. This will also keep you safely inside the course turn balls no matter how far up on the boat you can pull.

 

Pay particular attention to your hips in your off-side stack. With the rear leg almost straight, driving your hips more over your front foot, play with how much you can rotate your hips open to the boat while staying tall. Also pay attention to you head position. You should be looking at or near the boat with your head as perpendicular to the water as possible to simulate good head position during a normal cut.

 

In every other sport, spending time on fundamentals is part of every practice session for a lot of good reasons. For the same reasons, these drills help commit good fundamental skiing skills to habit, but it takes a lot of repetition.

[h2odawg79]

Quote: "In every other sport, spending time on fundamentals is part of every practice session for a lot of good reasons. For the same reasons, these drills help commit good fundamental skiing skills to habit, but it takes a lot of repetition".

 

Very well put! -Sounds like the Basis behind what I had originally posted on the 1st page and the reasoning behind the Dry land drills...

 

Orig. post: "I like Hard Core Dry land Lean/Pull Drills in various positions to remind me to stay down and powerful. (it's important not to tie the Rope too High off the ground. 27" works well for me) On the water, two things would be to do some Open water Lean Drills on each side of the boat. Do a "Pull Out" and then just keep leaning. Get as far up on the boat as humanly possible 5 times and then do the other side.

 

#2. Now take the Dry land and the Water drills and put them both to use in Open Water, doing some Hard core whip drills. Do as many wake crossings as you can with a solid, stacked pull position. With NO concerns of any Buoys, you should be able to stay down in your fully leveraged position"...

 

@disland, Funny how the TRUTH never changes! -only opinions...

 

[disland]

@zman Yes its Princeton Lakes. All Ballers welcome to ski any time. Come and vist

[SkiJay]

Awesome bar analogy @OB!

BTW, my name is Jay. I'm a skioholic. I've been dry for five days now, but only because I'm up in Canada. I'm afraid the day I set foot back in Florida I'll lose my flimsy grip on reality again ...

[Zman]

@OB Free pulls? You have offended me at least a dozen times then. I''ll drive up soon for the skiing!

[Chef23]

@OB if I can wear a wetsuit I am in. My water is well below 40 still given the ice still floating in it.

[MattP]

@OB ha my dry suit is in the car. Ready to break in the lake for 2013.

[gregy]

@disland your not giving up lean, your giving up leveraged position, you never get in that stacked position. What I would suggest is starting your pull out a little earlier and give yourself some time to think about getting in a stacked position, push your hips forward.

 

This was mentioned before but, you drop your rear on the pull out and never get it forward before your cut into the gates. When you make your turn-in to the gates think about getting your hips up to the handle.

 

For me it seems like I'm really exaggerating pushing my hips forward but when look at film I'm still not where I need to be.

[SkiJay]

@ disland +1 for @gregy's comment on how it has to feel GROSSLY exaggerated and still it won't be enough when you review the video--especially at first. I call my pylon camera my "lie detector."

[h2odawg79]

@disland, All of these vid's are dryland pull variations by short line skiers and you'll probably hear the names Schnitz and Lucky Lowe! There are several Pro's who advocate the use of Dryland drills. Not soley of course, but inconjuction with proper on-water drills and practice... It is also a good stretching and conditioning tool. The last vid. is a series of warm up drills for Slalom by Brian Detrick, demonstrating a short pull variation at about 2min's... There is much that can be gained through Dry land drills in Slalom and in several other Sports as well.

 

 

 

 

[lathompson]

I watch @disland ski often out my home office window. Those pictures are not typical of his form (which is usually much better). Well, maybe typical of 40ish deg water in February form. My goal for 2013: better stacked position coming out of the turn. I am hoping that the dry practice I am doing this off-season will help somewhat - at least stretching and muscle memory or something.

[Brady]

I have to say that other than all the dry-land banter, this thread is an excellent resource for me. When I can feel my arms again, I am totally going to work on these drills, and I think I am going to get my butt down to see Seth. Excellent stuff guys! Thanks.. :)