What did you learn in 07?

[Horton]

I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to share but first I want to hear from you guys. What did you learn about skiing that made a difference this year.

[tsixam]

I have learned to focus much better this year. My average is higher than before and I have beaten my old pb and it seem like I have been able to get myself together when it really matters. Technically I haven’t had the progress I was hoping for. But at least I know what I need to do better next year. We shot a video and it was embarrassing to watch. I thought I was skiing like Andy but it was far from it. There are 3 areas I need to improve at this point. First, my butt is sticking out a little before the gate and at the turn in and I get too far back on the ski. I need to get my hips forward and to be a little bit more patience in the turn in. Second, I have a tendency to pull my handle in too high and I crank the turns, More patience and counter rotation and I have to ski more to the handle. Third, I am really good at holding on with two hands but I let my shoulders rotate in to the turn too much and I am holding the handle too high. I need to start to counter earlier and really make sure that my elbows are on the vest.One can say that I have learned what I need to learn or at least do better. It is pretty hard to know you have a lot of homework to do, but you have to wait at least six month before you can start doing it.Tsixam

[Old MS Accout]

I have a few lessons learned in 07.

1. Stick with the same ski as long as you can. Messing around with new equipment in the middle of the summer is a no no.

2. Dont listen to Horton when he coaches you. It took me 3 weeks to get back on track. I know what he was trying to drive home, but I ski like MS, not Mapple. I need to ski like I ski and not someone else. 

3. Short line skiing is 99% mental and I need to work on my pre game routine to maximize my tourney scores. I can run 38 all day long at home, but bring me to a big tourney and I get beat by JTH. I will make it a point to read the Inner game of tennis this winter.     

[ski6jones]

What I learned;

1) Get professional instruction.

 - I made much more progress in 06 by taking some lessons than in 07 without them.

2) Watch video of your skiing.

 - You aren't doing what you think you are.

3) Only the ski has to go around the ball.

 - I guess I always new that, but you have to DO it as the line gets shorter. 

4) Have fun.

 - Don't ever forget this one! Helps ease the frustration.

[Marco]

Items 1-3 are things that I though I had dialed years ago, but realized this year that I was only doing them to 75%, when I needed to do them 100%

1- Ski high on the boat.  I am now pulling out as close to perpendicular as I can get (at shortline).  I am not high enough unless the rope is touching the rear bimini strap.  To help achieve this, I am now starting at the edge of the whitewash, where before I started just outside the trough.

2- On the turn in, establish good angle before the rope comes tight, and don't load until at or near the wakes.  Keeping speed on my glide enabled me to finally feel the load behind the boat.  The resulting acceleration felt really smooth and controllable, and set me up well for one ball.

3- Keep the handle in and down after the edge change and longer into the ball.  When I started exaggerating this move, my ski carried out so much better, and I did not lose outbound direction like I was doing with an earlier reach.

 I really thought I was doing all these things before, which I was to some extent, but as soon as I exaggerated these moves, I started runny my hardest full pass much more consitently.

4- Stay countered through the entire turn, and ski the hip back to the handle.  Unfortunately, I still have the tendency to rush my finish, and close up at the end of the turn and get on the handle early, and away from my body.  Until I can correct that, I will not reach the next level.

5- It is all at the start!!!  Without a great gate, it ain't gonna happen!

Now, if I can only remember these things next year.

[BillBarton]

WHAT!?!

 

We're supposed to ski AND learn?!?!?!?!

At the same time?!?!?!?!

[skidawg]

Make your freakin' gates.

[Horton]

Dawg,

As I have said for years . . . gates are not optional.

[skidawg]

but they do suck!

[Horton]

Ok so what did you learn this year about how to get around more balls.

[Ed_Obermeier]

Just a few of the numerous things that clicked on for me this year -

1) Patience in the turns, probably my biggest personal breakthrough.  Most of the new skis like you to be still in the turn, let them run and don't try to make them do anything.  I know I'm a bit slow to this realization; once I got it my passes got a lot easier.  Didn't result in a PB but I'm WAY more consistant and I can feel that next PB coming.

2) Improving core strength is major.  I worked hard this year on getting my core stronger and the payoff was much more consistant skiing with better body position and control.  I'm nowhere near perfect yet but much, much better.  If you don't have good core conditioning and you want to ski better, WORK ON YOUR CORE STRENGTH.

3) Good coaching is paramount.  I didn't know how much I didn't know (and how many misconceptions I'd had for way too long) until I finally got some GOOD coaching.  You've heard the saying "the more you know the more you realize that you don't know" ?  Ski with better skiers than you all you can and get thee to a good coach who can explain things to you in terms that YOU can understand.

4) You gotta REACH in the turns, really stretch it out.  Again I thought I was better at it than I really am.  Having someone who knows more than you do watching and giving pointers (thanks Keith A!) helps a bunch.   Videoing yourself skiing helps a bunch. 

That's enough for now...

Ed   

[ScarletArrow]

1.  Have a plan each time out.  I try to focus on one thing each pass/set...either to experiement with something new or reinforce something I've learned.  So many guys at my lake just ski the same way every time out...without thinking about what they are doing...and they wonder why they never get better.

2. My biggest gains came after watching myself on video...actually the first time I completed the course!

3.  Good coaching is money well spent...I kept going back to the lessons Seth Stisher gave me in May all summer long.

4.  Don't change anything the week before the tournament.  You will psych yourself out and think too much on game day.  I had a well meaning coach try to change (correct) my gate the week of the tournament, and it set me back 3 weeks.

5.  Be careful who you listen to and what advice you take...I hear so much conflicting advice ("coaching") and brand name evangelism at my lake from those who are not really any better than I am.

6.  Not to contradict MS above - but experiement with different equipment.  I'm new to the course...so I had no idea how different skis, handle sizes, gloves, bindings, ropes, wakes, vests, PP settings, fin settings, etc, would have on my skiing.  I played around with different setups from time to time just for the fun of it.  Probably cost me from completing an mph or two above my end of season PB...but I feel I'm much the wiser (and better skier) for just giving it a whirl.

7.  The most important turns for a LFF skier (that's me) are the turn in for the gates and 4 ball.

8.  Try to be the observers seat when someone better than you is skiing and take "mental reps".  Frequently, it's just my ski buddy and me (he's 3 @ -32/34) and I rarely get to watch him closely...when I do get the chance, I usually find something in his form that I can apply to myself.

Anthony

[lkb]

Maintain speed into the point where the boat picks you up. Without enough speed the whole pass is like a fight against the boat...and it always wins.

[HO 410]

1. Flooding will knock out half your season if the stars align.

 2. Don't screw with your setup if you're comfortable with your ski and you are already loosing half your season to high water.

3. I was way too relaxed in my lower body. (Sagging hips = weak upper body position = lost angle)

*I got the Matt Rini tip: pretend you're pinching a quarter with your butt, only with no time to give it a shot. Damn weather!

[Ed_Obermeier]

OK John, your turn.

[BillBarton]

Eye discipline.
They need to be UP, looking DOWN COURSE, and LEVEL. Keeping the eyes up and looking down course helps me maintain a balanced position on the ski, but level is probably the best of all.

Level your eyes to the horizon and your shoulders will be level, your hips will be level and up, and you'll be in a great position over the ski.

I applied this lesson by picking just a very few things to look at during a pass: 6 ball, the mirror, and 5 ball. For the pull out my eyes are fixed on 6 ball. When I hit my cue for the turn-in the eyes go to the mirror. After that they'll just go 5 ball, mirror, 6 ball, mirror, 5 ball, mirror, 6 ball, mirror, until the pass is made.

If my pass is going to end before the exit gates it's because I starred down a ball from across course. That'll end it. Where ever your eyes go you go.

As soon as 'eyes up, level and down course' becomes part of permanent memory I'll move on, but for now it's what I'm doing to pick up passes.

[ScarletArrow]

GT -

I gotta tell ya...I tried that after you posted it on 15off.com and man was it tough...I can't seem to fix my eyes on such a small object that far away while moving...I was real late making to the edge change b/c I was "looking" for the ball...my turns felt real screwy too...anyway, probably something I'll experiment with again next spring...right now I'm accustomed to turning my head 180 degrees across course (E - W) and focusing on a point in the water before the next ball...I posted this somewhere on here under the thread "My head/eyes".

Anthony

[BillBarton]

Well, everything doesn't work for everybody. I found that going into the course, 6 ball, the mirror ,and 5 ball are all about on the same level so it was easy to just come out from behind the boat and have my eyes travel straight across to 5 ball while 1 ball stays in the peripheral. It helps keep me quiet and gives me a good gauge on course width.

 When I start to scrap at the end I start looking across too so stick with what works for you.

[RS]

I don't try to focus on anything specifically.  What I end up doing is looking down 2,4,6 line at pullout, then boat, then down 3,5 (general direction not trying to actually focus on each), boat, etc...  I'm usually mentally taking in info on location of hips, handle and location and when I think about looking at exact points I'm not thinking about body position and feel thru the pass.   

 

[DW]

Gates are everything, they set the tempo for the pass.  Done right, your are off to a great start.  It's like a good start at a motocross.

Video really helps or would help if you did it.  You are probably not doing all that you think you are doing or there are things that are happening you just don't realize.  In the same vein, coaching is highly worthwhile, the greatest athletes all have coaches to make them even better or more consistent.

PMA, this game is highly mental.  What are the proper focusing and training techniques to be consistent and on pace in this endevour.  Consistency is a really difficult trait to manage and succeed with since there is no crutch or excuse available.

Best of all, this is a great sport to wash away a crappy day and end the day with a smile and that great worn out feeling when you are physically whipped from cranking several sets.  It doesn't get much better than that.

[Ed_Obermeier]

Amen!

[ISP6ball]

I learned that a torn ACL in early June makes for one sucky summer!

[JAG]

Ski with people who are better than you so you can watch and learn

If you're stuck in a rut with your old equipment, get new stuff (like a Connelly F1!)

Practice  Free skiing with short rope lengths as this helps in the course

Kahlua (for the coffee) is the best way to make friends in the morning

 

 

[Director Darwin]

Don't let Horton and MS anywhere near your equipment!!

[Horton]

Right left . . . same deal

[Roger]

That 3 paid lessons with a good slalom coach (like Chet Raley in this case) are worth more than 8 years of tips from very good slalom skiers. More paid lessons are in my future /vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cool.gif

 

[Horton]

I plan on looking for Rini in the spring. I spent 30 minutes in the boat with him that the ski test and was super impressed with what I heard . . . and he was not really talking to me.

[Roger]

Yeah, I hear you there. I had heard Chet before as well while pulling one of his students in practice for a Nationals at Okeeheelee. But when you go pay, and the talking is directed at you and about you, it's way better. I'm sure the same will be true for Rini when he's evaluating and helping YOU. Besides, I think we all learn better when we're paying /vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-wink.gif

[Horton]

My plan is to go down for only about 2 sets a day for 3 days. With video in the boat on me and recording what he says I think I will go home with more then a years worth of work.

[Old MS Accout]

Good plan JTH. Rini will get that Radar set up for you also.  

[Ed_Obermeier]

Exactly what we did last May.  Two sets a day for three days, videoed everything.  Some of what Matt was trying to get me to do didn't sink in immediately (while we were there) but once I got home and worked on it some more, reviewed the video several times, and let it finally sink in it all made perfect sense and really improved my knowledge base and my skiing.  Cool thing about Matt IMO is that he has the ability to operate at whatever level you're at without being condesending or over your head.  The net results were worth every penny and I'm intending to go back again this coming spring.

Ed 

[skidawg]

I learned how babies are made!

[DaveD]

For 2008 you need to learn how to get babies to sleep through the night.

[skidawg]

done, breastfeeding, fathers sleep all night