my offside is terrible

[PJ]

hey everybody. please take a look at the pic below and provide some comments and advice. the pic on the left is me pulling out to drop at the end of the lake. this seems like the form i want. the frame on the right is me pulling to 5 ball and seems like what i don't want at all. what do you think?

 

[GAJ0004]

Let the ski finish the turn a little longer on your offside. You will get better angle and be able to establish a stronger lean away from the boat. If you do it right you can actually make up more time on your offside pull verses your good side pull. You have to allow the ski to come around longer to get the angle and leverage that comes more natural on your good side. For a split second you the front of your body to be pointed across the course. Once the ski comes around you will be in a stronger stacked position.

[Wish]

Video would probably tell the whole story. What is cought in a snap shot may just be a symptom of something else. May be a symptom of how you exit the ball or even before that. It's great that you are utilizing the pull out at the end. A lot of folks ignore that opertunity to practice stacked form. In person analysis would be even better....see you Thur morning. =)

[mwetskier]

what @GAJ0004 said.

[PJ]

here is the video from that set

http://youtu.be/p534gp7zxTw

[PatRe]

@PJ Nice skiing, nice lake too! It's hard to view on my phone but here's my $0.2... Perhaps try a (much) wider gate and hold the handle a touch longer with both hands approaching the buoy line. The result should be better outbound East-West speed. It will likely not feel faster due to having more space before the ball. 28's and beyond will be much more consistent.

[kfennell]

Given the similarities in our skiing I suggest that you watch this. I agree that your #1 thing is a wider gate and a smoother stand up on your gate though.

 

[PJ]

@kfennell - WOW. Thanks for sharing. We are pretty similar. Except i just moved down to 34MPH :). at around 6:50 your gate shot is noticeably better. you can really see the body alignment and the ski swing through. that's what i need right there.

[Waternut]

You're not far behind me. Looks to me like you're riding your back foot really hard and standing on the ski with a stiff front leg. One of the things that really helped me was to start pushing my front knee over my foot. Every chance you get, ride with your front knee pushed forward. Getting up, in the glide before your gate turn in, after coming out of the exit gates, etc. Eventually you'll start to learn to ski like that too and all of a sudden you'll start noticing how comfortable you feel through the wakes and how much angle you generate. If it feels funny or you feel like you're about to go OTF just standing on the ski, you may need to pull the bindings back a tad.

[gregy]

I'm with @waternut. Stand tall and get better alignment and some of the other issues will start going away. Front ankle flexed, hips up over you front foot. I think what Trent is saying applies as well. Be patient and let the hips come up to the handle.

[Jordan]

Nice skiing...I notice that when you pull out for the gate, your arms are straight and the handle is down at your waist...good strong position.

 

Now, look closely at your arms when you are in the course. Your arms are bent. This is preventing you from maximizing your lean against the boat. It is also the reason why your upper body is being pull forward at -28, leaving your butt lagging behind.

 

Straighten your arms out with your hips at the handle and you will get across the course with much more speed, and in much a better posture.

 

As a bonus, your arms won't burn out and you will ski much better later in your set.

[SkiJay]

Lots of great comments here @PJ‌. Here is another angle. It looks like you are in too big of a hurry to get your feet between you and the boat, rushing the hook-up. This puts a lot of load on the rope trapping your hips behind you. Chet Raley hates calling the turn at the ball a "turn." He prefers "change of direction." Rather than rotating around the ball with your ski, hips and shoulders, and ending up at right angles to the rope before the whitewash with a ton of load; a change of direction is more like launching yourself inbound from the apex without so much body rotation. This gets your whole body, and especially your hips, moving inbound before the hook-up which gives you more time to establish a nice tall stacked position before the boat hits. It also preserves more speed so the hook-up is a little more progressive and a little less crushing.

 

If you look at this picture of Seth, also LFF and at the same exact place in the cut as you are in your photos, notice how his ski is not between him and the pylon yet, but his hips are. He has placed a higher priority on moving his hips inbound than his ski to this point. Then, starting at this photo, Seth fires his hips and ski through the edge change so proactively that he is on his next turning edge by the second whitewash . . . but that's another issue.

 

Focusing your efforts on getting your hips between you and the boat exiting the ball is more helpful than getting your ski between you and the boat right off the ball.