Low handle. Goal or by product?

[ski6jones]

Conventional wisdom suggests handle near hips. "Ski your hips to the handle" is something you hear frequently. I also remember hearing Jamie B quoted in an interview saying something about having a rope break and racking himself as a result. This implies he was applying force to get the handle lower. If my rope broke i might hit myself in the stomach if I'm lucky.

 

So is the handle low because of your skiing position, or do you apply a force to get the handle low, or both?

[lpskier]

Your handle is “low” when you ski in a properly aligned position (so-called ”stacked”) and lean away from the boat. So long as you are properly aligned, the more you lean away from the boat, the more you close the gap between your handle and your hips, and accordingly the “lower” your handle goes. You can push the handle down trick skiing, but you can’t when slaloming.

 

So to answer your question, in my mind it is a byproduct; the goal is alignment and leaning away from the boat.

[RGilmore]

There are no low handles; only high hips.

[Horton]

For some skiers there is value in thinking about pushing the handle down. Realistically can you push the handle down? No but trying to use tricep strength to push the handle down for some people helps some with their alignment. On the other hand I've definitely seen people who are trying to push handle down who then put themselves into a very disadvantageous position.

[NameUnavailable]

I always think about it as handle control. You have to control it thru the wake, in the edge change, and the finish of the turn. Mine sits the same place on my leg/hip every time. It really doesn't matter where it is if you get a bad turn...

[MDB1056]

Agree - we all have a lot to do with where the handle is so handle control is indeed important. Is your handle low or high as it determines where you're being pulled from as well. Arms or core. When I think about it and try to keep it as noted above in a consistent position things always go better and with less effort. Goal is to do it without having to think about it.........

[ski6jones]

I'd argue it's a bit of both. Clearly you can't "pull" the handle to a lower position if it's already away from your core. When loaded out of the turn and into centerline it's mostly controlled by where it was when you took the load and your body position at that time. After centerline as you're coming up and transitioning the handle doesn't stay low and close without effort, at least for me.

 

[jedgell]

Way back when I was still working on 15 off I had a bad problem of skiing with my hips back, still struggle with it a bit... The coach I was skiing with at the time told me to try and push the handle down in my pull and edge change. Made a huge difference almost immediately. Now I know you can't force the handle down, but what it did for me is to help me keep my hips up, and probably more importantly keep my arms straight. Can't ski with bent arms when you're trying to push the handle down.

[Minelickskier]

How about the concept of a low handle at the end of the glide to help you set up for a low handle and strong position as you move in to pull position toward the gates?

[A_B]

I think Hip up more than low handle.

This thought also helps me from “sitting” back on my ski.

 

Taken to an extreme, if you lower the handle to your ankles, you wouldn’t make a pass.

 

[AdamCord]

In a pull there’s going to be a pretty straight line from your shoulders to the pylon with your hands and the handle in between. The loads are too high for you to manipulate the handle position much. That being said, you want the handle and your hips as close together as is feasible to ensure a powerful pull and swing.

 

I’m always trying to evolve my skiing, and something I was able to figure out this summer was that I can do all this much better when I try to keep my hips between my shoulders and the boat. It’s a similar mechanism to “hips up”, but a different way of thinking about it. Now I just try and keep my hips from ever moving away from the boat all the way through the pull and edge change. The other thing I focus on is keeping my armpits tight, as opposed to trying to drive the handle down.