Rigid not pressing

[jercrane]

I’m curious what folks think about Joel’s coaching here.

 

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A post shared by Joel Howley (@joelhowley) on Jul 4, 2020 at 2:42am PDT

 

Funny aspect aside of this amazing OTF being completely ignored in his evaluation. I’ve never heard anyone position the approach this way. In fact there are a LOT of people on here that I hear saying you should be standing tall and pressing the head away from the water etc.

 

This feels to me like the kind of guidance that would result in me personally skiing more compressed. I’m so focused right now I’m getting out of my damn compressed body position.

 

I did really like and have seen good results from Trent and Rossi’s “punch in the gut” technique they shared on Spraymakers. Maybe this is sort of the same thing and I’m misunderstanding?

 

Thoughts?

[scuppers]

I think it was good advice

[Andre]

Advice form the World Champion...

[Horton]

mmmmmm not sure about this.

[Chef23]

I have been coached by Joel a few times and always skied better as a result of it. I am not smart enough about skiing to critique his coaching here though.

[2tracmind]

I am in agreement with this. I have many more miles ( hundreds more) on alpine skis than waterskis. Attacking the wakes regardless of the size has never been a problem of mine (I have many others..). I have always been a bit confused when decent skiers struggle and complain of wake size. I believe my alpine skiing experience and managing the changing pressures on snow has allowed me to do this easily. When I heard Joel's explanation in a YouTube late last fall it made sense to me. The "tensing" of the muscles is what is called an "isometric muscle contraction"

[JoelHowley]

Hi Ballers, nice to see this one got some ppl thinking. Solid crash hey, haha. I didn't realize I had forgot to mention the crash until I was editing the vid.

 

@2tracmind cheers for passing on the correct lingo. Much appreciated. I didn't know that but you are spot on.

 

@jercrane You are correct in your assumption that focusing on isometric contraction will not help a compressed body position. This tip is for ppl who enter the wakes in a good position but fail to skip over the trough. If you need to stand up it's time to stand up, (easier said than done I know).

 

For long line skiers this issue normally looks exactly like the guy in this vid. For short line skiers it often causes a small trip on the wakes.

 

"Punch in the gut" seems like a good way to explain what to do with your abbs, I should have a listen to that episode.

 

When you see a short line sker pop the handle their hands often remain in the same place. When longer line skiers pop the handle they will occasionally go close to punching themself in the head.

[Interjon]

Joel, not good enough (yet) to put in practice most of your recommendations. But, love all of your content. Keep it up.

[jercrane]

@JoelHowley thanks for expanding in this. That makes a ton more sense now. So in summary

Step 1 fix stack, alignment, structure etc

Step 2 isometric contraction to increase control and maximize acceleration

 

@2tracmind I don’t really agree with the alpine skiing analogy. My biggest problem in water skiing is that I have like you far far more hours in the body in alpine skis than water skis. 44 years of alpine skiing with 15 of which was racing at a reasonably high level. I am spending most of my time trying to break alpine skiing habits when in the water. In alpine skiing you need to be way more fluid (ironically). Being rigid is the worst thing you could do. You engage your muscles but you allow the legs to constantly flow. That doesn’t work on a waterski.

 

Anyway I think I get what Joel is saying now

 

 

[Andre]

For those of you who never watched @JoelHowley Youtube channel,you're missing a LOT of good stuff,always entertaining and funny comments while being slalom specific advices coming from the World Champion!

I also recommend to watch the video of his ski school kids that are having a blast while training with Joel and any videos with...well,watch all of his videos and subscibe!

https://www.youtube.com/user/shortlineslalom/videos

[2tracmind]

Jercane - I agree for sure with the fluidity in alpine skiing. My comment was more related to be confused with the trouble many waterskiers have crossing the wake and perhaps alpine skiing has assisted me in managing the pressures we feel through the legs. By extending/pushing as we approach the wakes makes crossing them more difficult and probably amplifies a body alignment position that is biased to the tail of the ski.

 

8 passes (successful ones) is 48 turns, that's a warm up run in alpine. We will have 500 turns in well before lunch.... That's why we struggle to break habits or progress. Golf anyone?

[jercrane]

By the way can we just pause for a minute and recognize how cool it is that world champion participates in the same forum with the rest of us idiots.

 

Also @Horton what's up with @JoelHowley's BOS status as "baller" haha :D Those Aussies get no respect.

[JoelHowley]

haha, these forums were really helpful to me back in the day.

 

Aussies tend to be pretty relaxed with everything and Ball of Spray showed me that there were other crazy ppl like me who cared way too much about every aspect of the sport.