Balance on the Offside

[Brady]

I admit, I have farther to go than most skiers here, but like all great pursuits in life, no matter what rung I fall on the ladder, everyone is reaching for the next step. Here is the problem that is preventing me from taking that next step....I am having a difficult time keeping my balance after my offside turn. Let me explain. I am RFF and I have great gate shots and have a ton of time waiting for the first ball. I make a good fast turn and then load up and the problems start. I am always "barely" making 2, 4 and 6 and I am playing catch up on my strong side. The mechanics I have been working on are as follows:1. Turning my hip and upper body towards the boat. 2. Putting the majority of the pressure on my right arm and not on my left. 3. Pushing up my hips as far as possible. I don't get it! I am usually pretty athletic, but I am sure struggling. K, there is my dilemma, and I am open to all feedback, no matter the pain level.

[SkiJay]

Are you properly stacked back in the pre-turn (feels like pelvis to the sky) and guarding that stack through the turn around the ball and into the cut @Brady?

[GOODESkier]

Without video........ but, You might be coming in too hot because you re pulling long from your onside? Maybe just try to balance things out at an easier rope length or speed. Get back to a place where you can focus on the one thing tat gets you back on track. For me right now, it is identifying where I am looking.....

[ral]

Although video would be key to help more, usually "making a good, fast turn" for your offside means that you are being very quick in getting to the handle, thus thinking that you are turning quickly but, in reality, you are consistently not allowing the ski to turn. When you get the handle, you actually settle and shut down your ski turn. This is consistent with barely getting into 2, 4 and 6, and would be consistent with a feeling of putting a lot of effort without the ski picking up speed, as well as being ubalanced, as your ski will be always behind you.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

This one jumps out as being backwards: "2. Putting the majority of the pressure on my right arm and not on my left."

 

While you can overdo leading arm pressure if you are not properly aligned, too much on the trailing arm will cause you to rotate, putting too much weight on the back foot and sending you straight to 2/4.

 

Try keeping your shoulders open (facing downcourse), but keep as much pressure as you can on your left hip and shoulder.

[A_B]

Ditto Bruce. Maybe I am an old style skier, but I always load more on my leading arm. I found that transferring some load to the trailing arm behind the boat (keeping handle into waist) helps cast me out better, but at my advanced age and weight, I struggle with this in my offside lean. On the offside, to get the handle down on your hip, you may find some dry land practice helpful. It is an odd feeling you need to get used to.

 

Also, on your pullout, try to hit the perfect leversge position, as it increases muscle memory for what is in store after one ball.

 

Really counter into 135 by pulling your right shoulder back and then be patient and let the ski finish. You will be surprised how it comes around with some counter in the preturn.

[Than_Bogan]

Fantastic advice above.

 

A mental cue that helps me achieve some of those things is to think about skiing almost all the way back to the wake. If I allow myself to think about "pulling" at the end of my off-side turn, I tend to get back on the handle too soon, lose speed (sometimes almost a complete stop), and then have to take a giant hit and thus be unable to hold any angle.

 

If I think about skiing all the way around and not being in a hurry to re-grab, then it all flows together and actually is often better than my on-side.

 

Finally, be careful about your hips being square. Years ago, we all used to way over-turn the offside and completely close off and turn it into a tug-of-war (guess which 350+ hp end of the rope wins that...). So we all had to learn to avoid closing our hips. But I think today a lot of skiers hear all the talk of open hips and actually take it too far. If you force your pelvis dead square to the boat, you'll have to be a contortionist (e.g. Neilly Ross :) ) to get any angle at all. In my opinion, shoulders open is enough. Let your hips face the direction they need to travel.

[ForrestGump]

That is exactly the conversations I've had with Trent, Than. That the pelvis, and therefore, the hips need to point in the direction the ski is going, even with the shoulders open to the boat. THAT hip alignment needs to be static all the way to the top of the arc.

[A_B]

And it is really hard for an old style skier to not rotate the shoulders with the hips. It might be that the hips won't rotate without the shoulders, or I am just not very flexible. Watching Nellie makes my back hurt!

[A_B]

This may help. You might be yanking the handle in and muscling your offside turn leaving you out of balance.

 

http://www.waterskimag.com/features/2013/02/19/nate-smiths-4-tips-to-better-turns/?src=related&con=outbrain&obref=obinsite

 

 

[SkiJay]

It's important to understand that the counter rotation referred to above is more a function of skiing away from the handle which extends the handle hand and its shoulder forward than it is about throwing the free arm back into a countered pose. That latter risks moving your weigh back on the ski which will screw up the turn.

[A_B]

Good clarification SkiJay. You must reach to the boat always. Pulling your off shoulder back and pushing your inside hip forward helps stay square vs closed chest which drives the tip into the water, which kills speed and causes overloads.