My first BOS coaching session

[BobF]

@escmanaze, While not helpful as to how to advance your skiing, I just wanted to comment that your ski is coming around beautifully on your 2-4 side!

[matthewbrown]

this is stacked

[david_quail]

I am a beginner skier, having just run 15off at 30mph for the first time, still struggling to get into and maintain a good stack.

Let me say that there is no silver bullet for getting into good position. I can flex my ankles and still have my hips over my back foot. I can put pressure on my front toe and still have most of my weight on my back foot. I can have a proud chest and still have my hips over my back foot. And yes, I can even have my back leg straight and still have my weight on my back foot. No silver bullets.

The key for me, in the limited success I have had , was to realize that a good stack was needed at every point in the course. Not just pulling between the wakes.

Getting into stack on dry land? Easy.

While being pulled behind the boat? Pretty easy

While pulling for the gates? Still relatively easy.

Onside turn? Getting tricky but I'm still relatively ok.

Offside turn? For me ... It's a coin toss. 1/2 the time I'm in "ok enough" position to still run the course at this speed and line length. The other 1/2 I'm in position 1 at some point in the turn, and I'm doing a slooooooow wheelie.

So for me, at least I know what a good stack feels like (through doing a whole bunch of Rathburn drills), so that I can strive to get there (and know when I get there) at al points in skiing. So unless you're amazingly gifted and it comes natural to you, I feel like the only way to get there is to do drills to get the feeling for what you're looking for in the course ... And then ski ski ski ... Trying all these tips.

[david_quail]

One other comment as a beginner.

I have often been advised that all that matters is a good stack during the pull between turns. I can respect this. If you don't have this, you'll never run the course. But for me, unless I come out of the turn in good position, I'm never going to get into a stack once the boat starts pulling. So for me, the turn matters. A lot. But then again, I can't turn unless I have proper speed coming into the ball ... Which is all about maintaining good stack across the wakes. So a bit of a chicken and egg. Which is why I'd once again highly suggest those drills Rathbun has on YouTube to break it into several movements. Allowing you, in theory, to perfect each, independent of the others.

There. The $0.02 of a beginner struggling with getting into a reasonable stack reasonably consistently.

[lkb]

@skidawg what are the 4 main things you mentioned? Apologies if you posted them and I missed it.

[skidawg]

@lkb - I will post my thoughts this afternoon or tomorrow

[gsm_peter]

@ToddL

Question related to the 1,2,3,4 stack position?

Dryland training. LFF going into 1,3,5.

Assume ski tip is 0 degrees, hips squared are 90 degrees.

 

When get into position 4 I cannot get my hip to be squared.

If I twist the hip as hard as I can my hip (measured on the hip bones) reaches only 110 degrees.

Going straight forward I would need 90 degrees (?) and to turn right I need to rotate 10 more (to type 80 degrees).

Even though I am reasonable well trained and flexible there is no way I can rotate the hip this much with a straight back leg and chest forward.

 

Have I missed something?

[Horton]

@gsm_peter strive for position # 2 and keep hips pointed in same path as ski is traveling (not twisted)

[Jordan]

There is a discussion in part of the flowpoint 16 podcast with Jamie Bull whwere she and Marcus talk about how to get stacked....she talks about pushing her hips towards the next ball. it's worth a listen.

[Deke]

We all have a tendency to think of stack as something that is relevant to the force of the rope pulling on you rather than our position relative to the ski that we are riding. Maybe visualize this the other way around?

 

Check out G.U.T. 103

[TFIN]

Crazy how the simplest things get over-analyzed.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

I admit I didn't watch the video yet, but the comments are extremely entertaining.

 

@skidawg "....Damn, I may have to start drinking early today." As opposed to any other day?

 

@matthewbrown you definitely succeeded in confusing things :D 97.36% of the ballers will not be able to tell the difference between those 2 JR pics, but they will spend the next several days overanalyzing and trying to figure it out.

 

I really hate it when Horton is right. Fortunately that doesn't happen very often.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@escmanaze the single best thing for you to focus on is to close the gap between the handle and hip at all times. It is critical between the wake and bouy, but if it isn't close when you complete the turn, its nearly impossible to get the gap closed.

Outside of that, get more width on your gate and keep your weight on the front foot on the pullout, glide and turn in.

Do those simple things and you will pickup 2 passes, then check back.