A February dose of TWinter

[Horton]

 

[VONMAN]

@Horton See as the rope gets shorter Terry's pick-up line load moves in closer to the wakes and the work zone is moving more behind the boat. That's why it looks so smooth. He knows that to try to load the line right after the ball is bad news as the line gets shorter. So instead of a greatest Hits run, the driver and Zero Off are happy.

[Horton]

@twhisper any commentary?

[teammalibu]

I ski just like that, in my dreams!

[Terry Winter]

1 hour ago, VONMAN said:

@Horton See as the rope gets shorter Terry's pick-up line load moves in closer to the wakes and the work zone is moving more behind the boat. That's why it looks so smooth. He knows that to try to load the line right after the ball is bad news as the line gets shorter. So instead of a greatest Hits run, the driver and Zero Off are happy.

Mostly agree. The harder the skier loads out of the buoy the harder it is to maintain a solid body position through the edge change. The better the skier can hold their body position through the edge change the more space the skier creates on the buoy allowing them to commit to the turns earlier and stay more ahead of the pass.

I also think that at the shorter rope lengths there is naturally more speed carrying the skier in closer to the wakes before the line ever becomes completely tight. It's not always a "choice" to load later, it just works out that way.

If I do happen to get the load directly out of the turn then usually my entire cut/load can be lighter because I know there is no hurry to get to the other side of the course. I have a target path with my vision and I can see that I need to pace myself.

Where I might run into trouble is when I finish the turn and get the load early, but ended up tilting my shoulders inside too much. In this situation I can't really control when or how hard I load. I'm just along for the ride, and the only way to keep it from "snowballing" is to make sure I hold a really tight connection through the next centerline crossing/edge change.

[Horton]

28 minutes ago, twhisper said:

I also think that at the shorter rope lengths there is naturally more speed carrying the skier in closer to the wakes before the line ever becomes completely tight. It's not always a "choice" to load later, it just works out that way.

There is a widely held theory that elite skiers are very much trying to load later. Are you saying that this is a misunderstanding? 

[MarcusBrown]

@Horton what load are you talking about?

Load on the Rope?

Or Load through the Feet?

[Horton]

@MarcusBrown

It is a theory I often hear but not necessarily totally understand or ascribe to. I guess the idea is to delay load on the rope. 

[Terry Winter]

5 hours ago, Horton said:

There is a widely held theory that elite skiers are very much trying to load later. Are you saying that this is a misunderstanding? 

I think elite skiers are going to load sooner out of the buoy on their easier passes. It's much easier to finish a turn with a completely tight rope at 32'/35' than it is at 39'/41'. 

The sooner a skier can start to take the load (in a controlled manner) the better off they are going to be, but that also means the strength of the load is going to be spread out more evenly from the finish of the turn through the centerline. It will be steadier.

Usually at the hardest passes elite skiers are dealing with less than perfect turns. There's still some leftover speed creating a looser line. The load will take some time to be applied to the skier. The window for loading gets smaller. The load gets more centered behind the boat, and the spike in the load increases.

I'm saying that an elite skier would rather have the load begin as early as possible, but when it does get applied early they will not get greedy with it. It will be managed over a longer range of space. A 100% lean effort immediately out of the buoy is not going to end well for most.

More or less confused now?😄

 

 

[Horton]

@twhisper I appreciate your " let's not make this complicated" approach. What you said makes a lot of sense. 

[6balls]

Total sense.  

[VONMAN]

@Horton So your saying I might be right?

 

     A good one ball gives you Six.

[Horton]

@VONMAN Read what TW said over and over and over again and then tell me what you think

[Mateo_Vargas]

Can we get our March dose early?

[VONMAN]

@Horton

Ernie here, this is something I learned from my coach Will Bush in the 90's and a short interview with Nate Smith about 9 to 10 years ago. It was reinforced when I coached a skier who on a great day run 38 off 50% of the time. When driving the boat he would slam the boat at the roll in and at the turn balls. The first thing we did was to change from a one handed start to a two handed start and progressively lean/load to centerline with 1 ball being a easy controlled turn. We worked on 38 off till I could barely feel him on the wheel. 38 off fell petty quick after that. 39.5 off brought the beast back, but after 3 weeks 39.5 fell. We kept on smoothing things out finding the perfect pickup point and progressive lean/load point. His first run we would treat as a tournament run, 28, 32, 35, 38, and 39.5 off with a 70% rate of running 39.5 off. Sig at the time was over 35 years old, had not been competing, speed 34.2 mph Zero Off. So 2 months of training and on this day in 2010 Sig is in the zone. I barely feel him on the wheel, he’s hitting his marks and Zero Off is happy. He has just stroked 39.5 off. He looks up at me and I at him. Set the rope at 41 off, and proceeds to run 4 balls at 41 off. I had to ask my spotter in the boat because I didn’t feel him on the wheel.

My first student when retiring to Florida I met while me and my wife were out on Lake Weir he saw me skiing and came up and said “I want to learn how to ski like you”. Craig was 43 at the time War Veteran suffering from PTSD. So for the next 3 years I worked with him and molded him into a skier. It was all free skiing training, trying to build a good foundation. Good times with one setback but no course skiing at all. When the day came, first time in a course it paid off. With Perfect Pass set at 32.3 he ran 15 off! Coming back another 15 off. Shorten the rope to 22 off, Bingo! He runs that. To easy, shorten to 28 off and he runs that!! Just awesome day with my ski Bud.

Remember that interview with Nate Smith? It was at a tournament in Michigan and I only asked him a couple of questions. I asked how do you make it look so smooth, you don’t look like you are working hard. His replay was “ When behind the boat I’m pulling my guts out”.  That is the key, taking all these boats and Zero Off can offer to your advantage. This isn’t the 80’s where you could slow a boat down.

Since retiring to Florida I've been teaching a lot of newbies to ski. Because of that I do a lot of free skiing and to make my time more exciting I test myself by skiing 32, 35, 38, 39.5 and 41 off with control. (maybe not the width required for the course) The big thing is as the rope angle gets higher up on the boat, you better have your s?it together if you think you will turn and burn off the ball. The wall comes for me a 43off because of the line load coming so quick wanting to pull you sideways to the boat. That's why I say get out of the course and try it. You will learn so much. That 39.5 will fall for you.  

 

           A good one ball gives you Six

 

 

[Octopus_Paxarbolis]

So if I free ski and pull my nuts off behind the boat I will run 4 @ 41?  

[KRoundy]

Wow. I have watched that video a lot. Come on Summer!

TW, are you going to do the coaching again this year?

Kevin

[Terry Winter]

@KRoundyyes, video coaching all year and a handful of weeks at Liquid Zone throughout the Summer.