Amped up/Jacked up/ Can’t Wait for the new season But......."I need a better Edge out"

[Rico226]

After 15 years, I have determined, “The single weakest leak in my chain is the “Edge Out”

 

A LFF skier Mens IV – 34mph. My thoughts just prior to Edge out. Weight on the front foot, hips up, elbows on the vest, arms straight, fingers relaxed, handle low, ski close to the wake as possible but out of the trough, I start when the boat is approximately a half a boat length from the pre-gates. As I go, I turn my shoulders slightly to the boat, with vision on the back of the boat’s platform to get my hips moving in the direction I need to go, (having my vision anywhere else has not worked in the past and causes me to break forward at the waist, as my eyes directly control my shoulders). Most of the time midway out from the start of the edge out, to the middle of the white water, I end up losing some of the front foot pressure, the hips squat back a little (strangely I never feel it until it is too late), connection (elbows to vest) is lost and I end up with decreased outbound speed and energy, instead of the opposite increased speed to take me high up on the boat. I believe once the hip drop occurs, I hang on the line a little bit too long (as a consequence) in the edge out to achieve that width. I feel like most of the time I have ended up with down course rather than outbound speed.

 

My next move is to stand tall and square up to look down the buoy line. I normally do get as wide as the 2, 4, 6 buoy line at 28 & 32 off. The end result is a slower turn in for the gate, ski gets stuck or trapped slightly behind me instead of out in front in a good stack position. The boat pulls me down course through the gates into a “late” one ball. Video displays a slight squat on the back leg through the gates with space between the elbows and vest (all as we know no good). I would say 75% of the time this is my start to the pass. So I want to really change it up this year more than ever. Searching for the why I allow the hips to squat a little, even with so much focus on not doing it. Note I have and will continue to do get more professional coaching just in Atlanta nothing is too close by, either over to South Carolina or down to Florida are the closest avenues.

 

A little background, 2012 I was a 35 off skier (scrapper, mainly because of the poor late starts), I managed to get one or two balls at 38. 2013 broke my L ankle right at the beginning of the season, hit 2 ball square and didn’t release (fogman bindings) and was done for the year (surgery). 2014 started my come back, changed my bindings got back to skiing 32 off (but never liked the new reflex bindings, were just too sensitive for me). Stayed away from tournaments last year just because I never made it back, Could not ski consistently where the first two passes were on demand out the boat, normally start at 28 off. Towards the latter part of the season, I just fell a little out of love with chasing buoys and worked more on free skiing instead of course skiing, with the intent to change up old ingrained bad habits. Free skiing helped some, (I am an adrenaline junky, so ripping 100 turns over a ski practice brought me back some joy into the pureness of skiing. but never helped me as much as I thought, once I would go back into the course) Overall, For me, if I am not skiing the course 3 times a week, I normally do not make forward progress getting shorter down the line. If you are like me, your perception of what is going on in the pass versus reality are nowhere close to each other. Long story, but hopefully the details are clear in understanding.

 

2015 is here I have decided to go back to my original fogman bindings that I really liked because of the stiff cuff and now have them mounted on the OB4 system. Really been motivated over this fall, & will be back to high school weight by the start of the season in March, dropping 15 lbs (180 down to 165lbs & I am 6’ tall). So wondering, How do you keep & maintain your stack in your edge out ? For those that have mastered your edge out if you can think back on what you did mentally to keep the hips up at all times. The start dictates the rhythm & speed of the pass. Any suggestions/comments are appreciated on what I listed above. I believe the RFF skiers may have different approach than the Lefties on the start, so if you would not mind advise which foot forward you are. Thank you

 

[SirDukey]

Hi, Im really not at your level of skiing so forgive me if I say something that's incorrect, this is my first comment ever on BOS.

 

I am LFF and also experienced a similar pull out to yours. Firstly if I look at your train of thought before you edge out "Weight on the front foot, hips up, elbows on the vest, arms straight, fingers relaxed, handle low, ski close to the wake as possible " Believe it or not but I have exactly the same thoughts before my pull out, only difference I made which helped me was I also think about what my back leg/foot is doing and I try to keep my back leg a bit straighter and the heel down (no weight on the back leg though), I saw a post from Horton somewhere on straightening the back leg to help get more front foot pressure and it has definitely helped my pull outs.

 

I was probably lifting my back heel a little bit and putting pressure on my back foots toes, causing my hips to drop back a bit without even knowing it.

[drewski32]

I'm a RFF, but I have the same thoughts before my pullout. Try thinking about using your hips to control all movement. You want to point your left hip and "fall" in the direction you wish to travel. Don't fall away from the boat, but rotate your upper body towards the boat and "fall" more down the boat path. This way you should have most of your weight on your front foot. I use a RTP instead of double boots however, so I don't know how difficult that will be. My pullout is rather quick and aggressive, but not heavy on the boat. Try doing some pullout drills. I think Seth Stisher has some videos on youtube that would be good to watch.

[Jordan]

I think you need to think less and feel more....you can have one, maybe two thinks to focus on during your pull out....more than that and it will have you late while you are processing so many things.

 

Ski in front of a good coach....and work on one thing in that phase, the coach will easily identify your key.

 

 

[Rico226]

Great suggestions ! I have always kept my back binding loose and intentionally heal lifted my back foot to place more weight to the front leg, pondering now if the consequence is loosing some balance in the rear ball of the foot and rocking back onto the heal. In actuality doing the exact opposite of what I wanted. Will be trying to feel that connection with the new binding set up where my rear foot will be locked in tighter. Two rooted foot beds with a straighter rear leg sounds like a good starting plan. That laundry list of keys are more of my "dry land skiing" daily chant ritual. I do try and only carry a couple of technique intentions into a pass, but for sure I am guilty of over thinking. Hips dropping in, are definitely in the forefront, I tend to toggle back and forth with trying to be the one legged man, figuratively speaking, and just using the hips in the edge out. Did manage to shed the weight, 17 lbs gone as of today, shooting now for 3 more lbs to make it an even 20, before I start the new season. Thanks very much for the feedback