Does anyone else ski worse as the season ramps?

[jercrane]

I started this season on the early side for me and on a new ski. I've also been skiing significantly more than I usually do (thanks covid :# ). Oddly enough my skiing has degraded substantially as my body is starting to feel stronger and get back into ski shape. My 2nd and 3rd week on the water felt amazing this year. Everything felt like it was starting to click. I'm into week 8 or so now and my onside has gone to crap. Way on the tail and very unbalanced. I either cut way too hard and go into the dreaded wheelie or I try to chill, be taller and more on the front and end up losing so much down course I don't have a prayer at the next ball. I'm really struggling to get back to that nice smooth feeling I was having early on. Oddly enough my offside still feels great for what thats worth.

 

Is it possible that as I'm getting stronger I'm doing more of the bad things I shouldn't. Maybe early in the season I wasn't physically capable of bad technique habits? Now I'm stronger enough to do all the stupid crap again? face>palm

 

What gives and how to I reverse this really frustrating trend? Anyone been through this and escaped without taking a week or two off? My season is too short to take breaks. :)

[aupatking]

I’d check my settings to make sure nothing moved.

Probably not that, but’s it’s the quickest. Step 2, bad habit removal

[TEL]

That happens to me every year I go take a lesson and that puts me back on track again

[Andre]

Video would help !

Overskiing can be as bad as not enough...

[Fam-man]

@jercrane have you listened to the Spraymakers "slumpbuster" podcast? They talk about some tips to get past a low spot.

[ski6jones]

Not sure if this applies but don't chase buoys every set. Spend some sets just on technique. Ski back-to-back passes at the same speed/line length working out kinks to make them better. Alternate these with down the line tournament style sets. I decide which while skiing. If everything is clicking I'll go straight up the rope and work on my harder passes. If my skiing feels sloppy I'll work more on technique staying at my easier passes.

[DavidN]

Has the water temperature changed much recently?

Sometimes it helps to adjust your equipment a little.

[jercrane]

@Fam-man I have it on my list!

 

@ski6jones honestly I have not been chasing at all. My last two sets in the course I did all 22's and crazily enough. Every pass felt like it got a little worse. My first was by far the cleanest. I'm used to my 3rd or 4th being my cleanest and then things go downhill as I get tired. Very weird for every pass to feel progressively harder with no rope change.

 

@DavidN no we have actually had very consistent lake temps for the past month. It has been sitting between 68 and 72 degrees. Warm days and cold nights haven't lent themselves to any water temp gains. I'm eager for it to get up there though I'll tell you that. Tired of wearing neoprene.

[ski6jones]

After checking your settings I'd say get some coaching from a reputable coach. In person if possible, video otherwise. Could also be skiing too much. My performance definitely goes down if I ski too many days in a row.

[The_MS]

Stay in shape doing other off water stuff.

[BCM]

If I let my off water workout regime falter because I am skiing more, my skiing goes downhill toward mid-season. There is balance to backing off the gym so you can ski but not backing off so much that you are out of shape by fall.

 

How often are you skiing? I find that if I get more than about 10 sets a week my skiing goes downhill. I get stronger but my body doesn't fully recover and I get a bit of cumulative fatigue after several weeks. A break can allow your body to recover and might help any issues in your head. When I ski poorly mid season it is almost always due to physical fatigue or a messed up head.

 

If have a less than good set, next set I try harder, it gets worse, I try harder again, it gets worse again, and so on. Taking a few days off can help re-set my head.

[jercrane]

@BCM I think the vicious cycle of try harder, do worse might be my issue. I'm only skiing maybe 5-7 sets a week and half of those are open water when our course is not skiable due to permit limitations.

[Golfguy]

Same thing here, good start to the season. Then my ski caught Covid and boom down for the count. The new carbon construction must be more suscepatible.

[C5Quest]

Same boat. As water temps go up I get worse. Have to take a day or so off every week for body to heal. Ski better after a break but going into mid season slump

[teammalibu]

Take out some fin depth and have fun!

[Slalom.Steve]

@BCM how intense are you working out besides skiing? I'm a fairly scrawny guy, only 2nd season in the course, and definitely didn't do enough offseason training. I'm skiing about 3x a week, and my body is sore and fatigued enough that the idea of doing anything else right now seems crazy lol.

[WIRiverRat]

I started the year off strong and slowly regressed as well. It got so bad I started missing my opening pass. I too was tail standing and showing lots of bad habits. I decided to switch my ski from my Connelly GTR back to my old 15 year old D3 Custom X. On the first pass I picked up 12 buoys. I skied the D3 one more set and went back to the Connelly. I picked up another 6 buoys and am back to 35 off. Sometimes we just need a different feeling ski to force our bodies to get out of the muscle memory we have developed.

If you don't have a different ski try moving your binding back a hole for a few sets.

[jercrane]

@WIRiverRat interesting I may try that

[skialex]

Whenever I ski badly few sets in a row, I check if my settings are off (almost never the case) and then walk away from the water for lets say 5-6 days and start again fresh with the right mindset.

This always works for me...

[BCM]

@SlalomSteve - on days I ski I will either run 4-6 miles or do a 20-30 minute low intensity full body workout with a short run. Days I don't ski is either 60 minute free weights or 30-45 minute high intensity interval workout plus 30 minutes on the treadmill. I would argue that my exercise regime is overkill for skiing but my job requires a high level of fitness during late summer. Overall intensity of the workouts (weight used, speed of run, etc.) will depend on how i feel. Sometimes it is full speed and heavy, sometimes it is slow, methodical, and low weight just to get the body moving.

 

@jercrane - my high school baseball coach called it Cranial-Sphincter-Tendentious and is caused by thinking so hard that it causes your backside to pucker resulting in overly tense muscles/tendons throughout the body. It is by no means a medical diagnosis, but I believe it is real. I suffer from it regularly.

[skispray]

@jercrane 5-7 sets a week is a lot. I ski 3 sets per week and it's possible to improve with that much skiing. Have you been skiing 5-7 sets every week since the start of the season? If so, take a break!

[bsmith]

@BCM Whew! Your workout regimen is pretty intense. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of a job requires that much fitness?

[BCM]

@bsmith - I do a bit of wild land firefighting in the summer, recently been getting hand crew assignments. Lots of hiking with a heavy pack and manual labor.

[Than_Bogan]

@BCM Hah! I was literally thinking forest-fire fighter.

Either that or barbarian raider...

[jimbrake]

@jercrane - I'm confused - are you talking about your skiing or my skiing? Because it sounds like you're talking about my skiing exactly. I'm lighter and fitter this year, but have been struggling more than ever. It's super difficult mentally because passes that were a no-brainer for years suddenly are a challenge. For me I think it has been too many years (I turn 62 in a couple of days) of skiing like it's 1980. Overpower, over turn, over load, too much movement, too much speed, and a surprisingly crappy stack that I thought for years was pretty good and no one was telling me otherwise. For the past week and half I've had a high-level coach watching me and it's helping me to reset my thinking. All I can tell you is simplify - try to nail the basics of stack and connection in the swing and forget about all the rest. When you get those into muscle memory, then you can worry about other details. Lots of other good advice on here from running easier passes to taking days off to doing other stuff off the water.

[Jibbo]

When we first start skiing at the beginning of the season we concentrate on the fundamentals. Stack, body position and rhythm perhaps even free skiing and our skiing generally improves quickly as we refine these fundamentals.

As the season goes on we want to keep improving so we start working on smaller details like the turn, our reach and perhaps where we are looking etc. (forgetting or letting the fundamentals lapse)

Unfortunately our fundamentals of stance and body position start to drop off when we focus on smaller details, and hence we start going down hill.

Revert back to your earlier keys that you were working on at the beginning of the season which were of a higher importance and your skiing will start to improve again.

Sometimes working on the fundamentals all season and trying to fully master them is the key to continual improvement.

We often fall into the trap thinking we have these skills mastered but find we haven't done so.

[alex38]

I like to do one of two things when passes start to feel inconsistent:

 

Really focus on gate shots and drill it until I am running passes and regain confidence in my approach and timing

 

Good arm pressure through wakes

 

Rarely do I focus on other things like counter rotation or reach, maybe 2 hands on handle longer

 

Maybe occasionally I’ll look for a glitch off the second wake towards my onside or something like that but 9 times out of ten if I straighten out my gate and stay focused on it everything else falls into place

 

This is regardless of how many sets or fatigued I am, I have considered That my issue is fatigue and still focused on gates only to realize it’s not fatigue.

 

[markn]

That is a great question. Normally, I never change ski settings after getting the ski dialed in regardless of temps. I do check to be certain settings are constant. Have a new ski and the past 3 weeks have been a struggle. Did a tournament and almost missed EVERY pass. Literally a yard sale waiting to happen. Even at my site, 38 was a struggle and missed it more than I made it.

After reading this thread and my performance at the tournament, I did shallow my fin. Prior to skiing my new ski with the shallowed fin, I pulled out my Mapple T-3 which I set aside in January thinking it was toast. Damn, ran 2 x 28, 2 x 32, 2 x 35 and 38 on the ski. It felt better and kept me wider than my new ski. Then tried the new ski with the shallowed fin. Ran 28, 32, 35, 38. It did improve the ski with better roll and felt more efficient, but still not as fast and consistent as my trusty T-3. I am actually going to ski the Mapple for the next week to see how it works. Go back to a trusty old ski and make a comparison. #AMForever!