This Actually Happened

[ozski]

New ski school student turns up and goes off the dock at -38 and proceeds to run the mini course. Our assumption is that student has their own theory that you can learn to run -38 by progressively getting wider and wider which is interesting. Second and third sets became even more interesting as the theory shifted to -41 off the dock. After some convincing a quick examination at -28 full width revealed that 2 ball was a significant barrier. Student was unwilling to negotiate an alternative approach and has since decamped never to be seen again. I'm not going to say this theory is not sound but what I can say is that I've never seen it before and there was probably much more to it than we got to see.

[gregy]

This could be a new tournament format. Start at 41off and move the balls out an incremental amount each completed pass.

[mwetskier]

wasn't that training method pioneered by some guy in Michigan many years ago and it helped him win several national titles?

[MISkier]

@mwetskier, that was in Wisconsin.

[dchristman]

While that skier may have been naive in believing the method to be a magic shortcut to running shorter line lengths, there is certainly nothing wrong with the concept. You have the variables of speed, line length, and width to play with... there's no reason not to take advantage of all of those variables in your training.

 

If you choose to be a hardliner and stick to "man speed", only the official line lengths, and focus only on hammering away at getting to that next ball just like you want to in a tournament, you are doing yourself a disservice.

[auskier]

I have discussed similar ideas to this with a few pros and 41+ capable skiers in recent times. It does raise a valid point and question that; are we teaching slalom skiing wrong for skiers with high ambitions? So many skills required to run very short lines vastly differ from those believed to be required to run 15-35 off. Concepts such as 'being wide and early', 'building ski load and speed' with a 'stacked position', or lots of 'cross course angle' for example dont necessarily apply when learning to run super shortline. Being 'wide and early' at 41 is not efficient. You have possibly burnt yourself to get that space. You are likely to have loaded very heavily, or gained mach 10 speed. Anyone noticed that Nate typically skis A's while most other pros ski C's? Does this give him better outbound speed to come up on the boat, versus speed and load off the ball? Possibly. I have been told that ideas such as 'body speed' versus 'ski speed' become more important to consider to minimise excessive load.

I have been fortunate enough to drive many skiers through 39 and 41 at 34 and 36. Its doesnt take long to gain an idea about how it should feel to drive and how well the pass is going to go, just by the load taken from the gate shot and out of 1 ball. Load, speed and line control become absurdly critical. Driving a pro through 38 or 39 can be easier than driving for someone who has been stuck at a few at 38 for many years, and will struggle to make that next step due to the level of load they develop.

 

Having said all that, would I take a mini course skier off the dock at 38 and believe them as capable of accomplishing anything positive from it? Hell no. Concepts like getting the ski under the line, developing cross course direction and carrying speed off the second wake, staying connected, and coming up on the boat would be near impossible to learn taking such an approach. Those are much more important for learning short line slalom.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if this earns me a panda, but whatever.

[RazorRoss3]

This doesn't seem like an efficient method to me for a number of reasons but the most important I think are measurability and consistency. we don't have a buoy every 3 feet out from the boat guides so it is very hard to measure if you were more wide/narrow on pass 1 than pass 2,3,4,5,etc.. the difficulty with measurement beyond eyeballing it makes this approach challenging to begin with.

 

The other piece I'd put out is that the ski doesn't behave the same way from narrow because it never casts out to set up the pre-turn like it does at full width. Even at 38,39,41 the ski casts out for the preturn, it isn't outside the ball as soon like it is at 28 but the ski makes a notable transition. It is difficult to create that when skiing narrow.

 

I think it is probably possible to learn the way this individual is attempting to however I think it is far from efficient and that the vast majority of us would be better served learning in more traditional methods of practicing good technique and using rope length and boat speed for training variations. Practice mode is a beautiful thing to be able to cut a half mph off of a hard pass or add a half mph on to an easy pass.

[disland]

Down under all kind of strange things happen. Even more after many VB's

[Horton]

VB! Love it!

[JAG]

"wasn't that training method pioneered by some guy in Michigan many years ago and it helped him win several national titles?"

 

Please don't associate the fine citizens of the great state of MI with the scandalous Dr. Jim Michaels. He isn't qualified to floss my dog's teeth. :)

[liquid d]

JUST TO CLEAR UP...the good dentist didn't win any national titles! EVER. The only thing he ever one was local yocal tourney in his back yard.

[SkiJay]

... he also won a horrible reputation—permanently.