position out of turn

[Chris Taylor]

Ok I know you guys love video but all I have to offer is a pic today. This is coming off my turn in, it looks like I am a little far back on the ski. How do I correct this? Also any suggestion on body position in general are appreciated.

 

[ColeGiacopuzzi]

@Chris Taylor‌ What you do in the beginning of the turn translate to the finish! If your on the tail in your preturn you'll come out of the finish on the turn on tail. Really think about bending that front knee and pushing the tip of the ski down and it will initiate the turn better and you will come out of the finish of the turn more balanced and with more speed.

[Chris Taylor]

So does just bending the front knee bring you forward?

[SkiJay]

. . . only if you drive the front knee forward @Chris Taylor. You don't want to just bend the front knee by dropping your butt back. One way to think of it is to use your rear leg to push your whole stacked core further forward over your front foot. This also means your ankles will be flexed forward more too. Nice stack btw.

[Chris Taylor]

@skiJay, Thank you. My stack was the first thing I wanted to work on. Now for position over the ski, Ok so use rear leg to drive weight over front foot........ Straight back leg?? Trying to picture this at my desk instead of on my ski right now.

[Chris Taylor]

Ok I understand what you are saying, stood in my office and drove weight fwd. To bend my front knee I have to push fwd.

So do I want to keep this position all the way across the wakes?

[ColeGiacopuzzi]

Yes exactly like @SkiJay‌ said! You have o drive it foward! From the second wake when your initiating the preturn, start driving that knee forward, you will carry much more speed through the turn and feel way more balanced. @Chris Taylor‌

[Brady]

Chris, I am by no means anywhere remotely close to where @SkiJay and @Colebrah are, but I will give you my input on this because this is something I worked on a lot last year. After taking lessons from Terry Winters, there was two things he told me to do that have made a huge difference in my turns. 1. Like what was said above, I consciously push my front knee forward over my foot so I can't see the front of my binding. I actually bounce a few times in my set up pushing my knees forward before the 55's. @scotchipman does that always--kind of a muscle memory for him. 2. When coming to the ball getting ready to turn, I was told to fall inward and let the ski turn, instead of jamming my back foot down and pushing the ski into the turn. The old way was a way to impress people with my massive spray, but it did nothing for my speed and it was a motha hanging onto the rope as you loaded up. I am finding that by simply falling inward, and getting my handle tucked into my hips, and letting the ski turn without me trying to force it, I am getting stacked faster and am generating much more speed with much less effort--and I am a big dude! These two bits of advice have kept me more forward and have sped up my wake crossing dramatically---which is where I strive to be fast.

[Chris Taylor]

@Brady Thanks, I have been working on just falling into my lean on the pull out but like you had, I have the old habit of wanting to push the back of the ski to turn.

[Ed_Johnson]

Chris...All the above advice is good about knee forward and falling into the turn, would just like to add one thing...Try to counter your hips outward with the free arm back, while doing this coming into the apex...When you fall in, try very hard not to rotate the Upper Body, and keep the shoulders and head LEVEL !!!

 

When done right, you will actually see the ski come around in front of you and under the rope...Let that outside hip ski around to the handle and don't reach for it...Just keep falling all the way to your forward stacked position like it is one move...That way you are ahead of ZO and you reach your leveraged position before ZO knows your there....Good Luck !!

[Steven_Haines]

Another thing that should be said is that if you're letting your arms go right off the second wake, it's really hard to do any of the things that have been mentioned above. Typically if you let the arms go you end up taking a path directly to the ball. That is one thing that I really have to focus on otherwise I find myself narrow with low speed and all you can do from there is push on the ski. Bad news! That Cale Burdick video on the front page addresses that. Good viewing!

[Brady]

Chris, another thing I noticed today is the width of your spray. It seems you are jamming down the back foot to get it turned. One thing I have found interesting is this; last week when I was in Lake Powell skiing with some buddies, they made the comment that I have two levels of sprays. My spray around the ball was about 1/2 of the size of the spray coming into the first wake. I never realized this before, but when I do it right, it is easy to grip the handle coming into the first wake. When I do it the other way, it is all I can do to maintain my grip coming around the ball. Fast behind the boat equals easy relaxing turn at the gate, imo..

[Chris Taylor]

Now all I need is for the weather to get better so I can get behind the boat a couple more times this year.