My skiing got too technical a few years ago and I have been on a quest to simplify. I kept thinking there must be a more simple way to think about skiing and therefore focus what is in my head on the water. Coaches that have helped are Rossi, Chet, and Kuz. The way I have consolidated it was to increase awareness of my water speed, my “line” and how they relate primarily to the boat/rope, but also the course. Specifically the boat/rope first, course second. After all, everything starts with the boat, then we add to it with our movements, and the result is measured by the course. But don’t let the course be the primary influence of your movements. Trying to find simple terms, don’t turn because the buoy went by. Turn because your water speed, position with respect to the boat/rope, and line all come together in a way to get you to the other side on the best possible path. It’s been said before, but I see so many skiers (me too) slam buoys because they went by and they are afraid of moving down course when they should slip down course and inside before the catch the load of the boat.
Chet talked about our “moving into our connection” with the boat and I would define what I thought he meant as the point where you need the rope to start accelerating you. Hopefully the rope was tight before that, but then you need the boat to shoot you to the other side. So adding a term, I try to always stay “connected” to the boat (tight line), but at some point you are “dependant” on the boat (where the boat is accelerating you). I try to be aware of the spot on the water where the dependence will happen, and see it in advance. When I am skiing well, I know where it will be from the previous edge change. I know how fast I am going, where I changed edges, what the rest of the turn will feel like, and how I can tweak the turn to let me perhaps adjust the dependence spot, and then move into it the best way I can. I think of the dependence spot both in terms of how wide I will be where it happens (aiming for as far behind the boat as possible) and how far up or down course I will be. Also been said before, as the rope gets shorter, I know I have to move my dependence spot inside and often down course because if I take the load from the boat at the buoy I will be crushed and pulled off my desired line.
I feel like the stuff above are top priorities after you have achieved balance on your ski, and basic body position that allows you to be leveraged behind the boat. Hopefully leverage, not load (don’t add energy with muscle). 90% of the time if I want to improve how a pass went, it was best addressed by with the stuff above, not fin settings, ski design, or complex thoughts on body position. I think about having level shoulders, about trailing arm pressure, etc. I even check my fin. But at best in parallel with focus on the above, and if needed as a second priority. I feel like once you open your eyes to this stuff and let it guide your movements on the water, its simplifies everything. Many skiers know this, but I would guess that most don’t. It takes a while to slow down what’s happening on the water, open your eyes wide, and pay attention to this stuff. It took me a few seasons, but the investment was so worth it.
Hopefully this makes sense, I wasn’t stuffing a sandwich down my throat. Instead, had too many cups of coffee and was procrastinating work! Been wanting to share this, hope it’s not reinventing any recent threads, lost touch with waterskiing in the Sierras, just getting fired up again.
KB
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