Tired of breaking at the waist around two ball!

[makeall6]

Tired of breaking at the waist. Need some help. Just joined the site, very nice. I am a left foot forward skier, D3 X-5 and cannot stop reaching down to the ball on 2 and 4. Never changed fin, just took off wing and that helped. What can I do to fix the problem? 32 MPH and I have run 28 a few times. Any help would be appreciated.

[MISkier]

First tip I would give is from @AB. Pretend you are starting a chainsaw going into your preturn to get some counter rotation and open your shoulders up.

 

Second tip I would give is to make sure you are getting that ski out in front of you off the second wake. Soft knees, flexed ankles. No straight legs.

 

Third tip is don't rush getting that free hand back on the handle. Push your hips around, drive the ski under the rope and ski naturally back to the handle to grab it.

 

Too bad I can't do any of this either.

[The_MS]

Ski back to the handle and do not reach for it. If you start the pull out of the ball separated, you will never get it back. Read the handle control artificial from Butterfield for a good explanation.

[skibug]

Without video and fin setting it is difficult to comment. One thing you could try is consciously turning you palm up as you reach; this will tend to keep that shoulder up through the turn and keep you from reaching down.

[tsixam]

Its hard to comment without a video. My best tip would be, make sure you keep both hands on the handle longer. At least until you get out to the bouy line or until you can feel the boat is taking it away from you.

Tsixam.

[crashman]

@MIskier that sounds like good advice. What are the mechanics of getting your ski out in front? any good pictures or videos of good and bad examples regarding this concept?

[BruceEmery]

Make sure your left elbow is behind you as you extend the handle going into two ball. This will help in leading the turn with the inside hip, and also help to keep your head and shoulders level.

[thager]

Or take out a little tip. i.e reduce fin length a few thousandths.

[Zman]

what @tsixam @BruceEmery said

[ToddL]

What happens at the end of the turn is a result of what when wrong (or right) at the edge change or possibly earlier. Your body position during the lean from 1 to 2 can impact your edge change into 2. If your edge change into 2 ball is off, your turn's finish will be off.

 

As stated above, how you edge change is key. Edge change with elbows in, bringing the handle in front of you with both hands. While doing this, think about your right hip coming up over your bindings so that your hips are what is putting weight on forward on the ski. When you are ready to reach (which happens after the edge change not during it), you will want to reach toward 4 ball. Your left shoulder should move back as if toward a zero ball. This is that starting the chainsaw position. You can also think of this like an archer drawing the string back on a bow. If all of the above has happened, then you will not have slack during the turn. Your handle will be in front of you and your ski will come around and under the handle as if it was the central point of the ski's arching path. The key here is to let it all happen on its own at the end of the turn. You are doing nothing but letting your hips lead your body through the finish of the turn. In fact, your shoulders are sort of left behind and have to tag along after the turn is finished. The hips come around and under the handle as the turn finishes. Then, after the hips come around, is when your left hand can return to the handle. When this all happens, you will seamlessly transition from the finish of the turn into a stacked lean toward 3 ball. It is a sweet feeling for sure.

[ToddL]

Oh... one more thing. If when you perform these moves as described above you find yourself and ski with major tip rise or wheelie, then you should check your fin settings and binding position. It is possible to build a habit of using forward shoulders in the off side turn as a result of improper fin/binding setup.

[MISkier]

@crashman, I like the Wim DeCree video of him running 28 off through 39 off. He has a nice slide sort of move about in the middle of the wake. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the result is the ski is out in front of him for the edge change and turn.

 

I suspect of lot of it is achieved by some of the techniques described in the handle control article. But, there seems to be something more as well. I wish I could do it about 25% of how he does it. Looks effortless.

 

You can see that video here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMeWeoIVNOI

 

[Marco]

Another thought is to make sure you are not grabbing too much out of 1 ball. Hitting 1 ball too hard will stand you up at the wakes, making it impossible to cast out the ski at the edge change coming into 2. Then the only way to make the ski turn when you are right on top of it is to jump on the tip and close your shoulders (breaking at the waist). Ease up at 1 ball a little bit and you will be in better shape coming into 2.

[lpskier]

What @thager said.

[jipster43]

@ToddL are you saying reach for 4 ball when you're at 2 ball? I need a little clarification!

[ToddL]

@jipster43 Yes. Instead of your reach being perfectly down the rope pointed back at the pylon, your reach is down course, down the turn buoy line. So while rounding 2ball, your reach is more toward 4ball than back toward the boat. Naturally, you can't fully reach that parallel to the boat's path, but this concept prevents a reach back towards the centerline of the boat's path.

 

Possibly more important is what your free hand's shoulder is doing. It should be moving back and away from 4ball and the boat. Think of opening your chest up, spreading your shoulders apart, and showing your sternum to the shoreline just in front of 2ball.

 

This is hard to describe in words... Look at the pic on this page:

< a href="http://www.wotimes.com/articles/2011/08/10/news/sports/sports01.txt" target="_blank">http://www.wotimes.com/articles/2011/08/10/news/sports/sports01.txt

[jipster43]

@ToddL Thanks! I finally remembered to try this on my last set yesterday and my off side snapped right around, but I didn't want to say anything until I was sure I wasn't doing something retarded.

 

I had a strong premonition you were going to direct me to a picture of Neilly.

[ToddL]

@jipster43 :-D

[makeall6]

Thanks everyone for all of the help. Really appreciate it. This is a great site and I am hooked. Too bad summer is going so fast here in northern Ohio.