Ten commandments of skiing

[ToddF]

So do I focus on:

Leverage first

Handle control first

Etc

 

When You are trying to improve what points are the first to focus on?

When do switch focus from Leverage to handle control or counter rotation? And then when do you go back and revisit leverage

 

Obviously no one can focus on everything at one time so when do you know/feel it is time to switch focus to another key point?

 

I think it would be nice to have a list of key things to learn in some type of order.

Kind of like the 10 commandments of the sport. Probably would be a good FAQ

 

 

[6balls]

#1.) Thou shalt have fun. Beyond that, I'll leave it to the BOS membership!

[ToddF]

@6balls good call! Sometimes I have to remind myself of that.

 

Only nine more to go

[Horton]

@ToddF to me it is pyramid. Basics on the bottom and the tricky stuff at the top. Everyone wants to do the tricky stuff and not work in the basics.

 

#1 thing I tell anyone who does not crush 35 or better is stack. Forget everything else until your body is in line (stacked) at the wakes.

You may go about it in a number of ways but it is the foundation.

[east tx skier]

1. Thou shalt not complain about thy wife's driving.

[SkiJay]

@ToddF There probably is an intelligent order of things to work on, but boiling it down to ten meaningful keys seems a fairly personal thing. To me "get stacked" encompasses five or six sub-keys involving my head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees & handle; to you it may be one or ten things. "Lead with your hips" to one skier may feel like "get your chest up" to the next. A key's meaning is somewhat unique to your personal stage of development.

 

If you boil down all the things you tend to work on or that you keep hearing from coaches, you can probably come up with your own personal concise list of key movements, and it will be a better list than someone else can write for you. And I think it's important to actually write your list down somewhere.

 

Right now I have 10 keys I'm working on, and I try to focus on only one thing each pass. In order to give them equal time, I list them on my ski and work my way through the list, one key per pass, over and over and over ...

 

My list is constantly evolving too, both in content and in order of priority. Over time, different keys will merge into one, and the list gets shorter. It would be cool to someday have only one or two keys that encompass everything I need to keep making progress.

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1530989/Waterskiing/BOS/Cheat%20Sheet

[Brady]

@Skijay. share please.

[A_B]

I am with Horton on this one. You can turn great and make a big spray but if you stand up and plop over the wakes, you will go nowhere in the course and will be frustrated and not have any fun, and probably blame the wife's driving..

[lakeaustinskier]

Keep it simple. Only work on one thing (maybe two things) during each pass. I put a reminder of the day's goal(s) on my phone calender to go off right before I ski.

[Horton]

@lakeaustinskier totally disagree!

 

Should be only one or maybe two things for dozens of sets. The trick is to find the most fundamental thing you need to learn and think of nothing else.

 

I do admit that identifying that one thing can be a challenge in itself

[SkiJay]

@Brady I'll share my current list below, but it will likely be different by next month because it's a personal list that changes as my skiing skills and knowledge evolve; what each cue below means to me is almost certainly different than what it may mean to someone else.

 

@OB's questioning of "Early Edge Change" is a perfect example. OB may see changing edges too early as a bad thing. For me, I have to try to change edges by the first wake for it to actually happen just beyond the second wake. Moving my actual edge change back to AT the second wake is a work in progress, and I'm noticing that "Early Edge Change" and "Lead the Ski Out of the Turns" (another story in itself) are morphing into one cue for me lately.

 

I don't necessarily recommend "Eyes in the Boat" as it doesn't work for everyone. I'm just trying it because it seems to help my efforts to keep my head more level which in turn helps me get better stacked, etc. etc. etc. I would have to write paragraphs about each of these cues before they would mean the same thing to each reader. Cues or keys are wide open to interpretation which brings me back to my comment to @ToddF; the best list he can get is the one he develops for himself.

 

Lead Ski Out of Turns

Early Edge Change

Stay Down & Connected

Counter Forward

 

Head Level

Eyes in the Boat

Chest Up

Elbows to the Water

 

Stand Tall

Load lead Arm

 

Listing cues on my ski and paying attention to them on a rotating basis like this has an interesting side benefit. It really makes obvious the parts of my technique that pose the most challenge and which cues make the biggest difference to how well I ski.

[luckyone]

always thank your boat driver.

[mellig]

Great perils of wisdom from all.... #1 skiing is like golf so you better just appreciate being on the water or you have already lost. #2 Horton summarized it perfectly 'stacked at the wakes'.

[ToddF]

@skiJay I was thinking of list of key concepts of learning the course for beginning through advanced skiers alike.

Where someone could use the list to start teaching their kids, or a good skier revisiting areas that maybe they have gotten away from.

 

Just like you I already have my key points that I focus on during a particular pass or day. but those aren't necessarily the things that I should be focusing on.

 

So far

 

 

1. Have fun

2. Get in good stacked position

a.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oDlyJi8MRdF9t8uQcEMCUEGsivhQ2tP7qOO6HfPgCDg/preview Than's article is pretty good

b. This could take years and will always require cultivating (Agree/disagree)

 

3 @ob Early edge change. Personally I think this will change and happen at different places depending on the skiers ability. Probably should be further down the list. or higher up the pyramid

 

[lakeaustinskier]

Horton completely caught my mistake. I meant 1-2 things max during the entire set (not per pass). I can go an entire month just working on the same single thing.

[Marco]

I focused on only 3 things during the second half of the summer, and still don't have them perfectly dialed in. 20 years of bad muscle memory is a hard thing to overcome.

 

One item for the commandments: Thou shall not covet thy neighbors 200

[SkiJay]

Up until this summer, I was picking one issue and focusing on it for months, and that's good for progress with that issue. What frustrated me was that when I moved onto something new, previous gains tended to slide back into old bad habits. I still have a primary issue I'll work on the most, but rotating through this "checklist" on my ski helps me keep a conscious awareness of the whole picture I've been working towards. I feel like I'm better maintaining individual gains and dream of the day this is a list of one or two keys.

[ForrestGump]

Commandment #1-Thou shalt bring bikini clad babes to lake

 

Do any other commandments really matter?!?!?!

[Than_Bogan]

I'm almost positive OB was making fun of early edge change. He and I (though not everyone) appear to agree that thinking that way can be quite dangerous to the progress of most skiers until (maybe) when they are extremely advanced.

 

Btw, my leverage position sucks and I work on it a lot to try to get where I want to be. That's how I was able to make a thorough document about what you're supposed to do. But it sucks a LOT less than it did back when I was stuck at 36/-15!

[ToddF]

@than I know he was. so was I. I agree a good and proper edge change is a result of a lot of other factors.

Hence the point of trying to come up with a logical series of position to master before trying something else.

 

 

[Than_Bogan]

I appreciate you, OB. :)

 

Now stop posting good stuff so I can get ahead of you on The Points That Don't Matter!!!

[ToddF]

@ob I care! Now give me something good for the list.

[jimbrake]

@OB - we notice, my friend. Oh, yes, we notice.

[rodb]

Horton has it. The ski must go between u and the boat. (good body position through the middle)

 

[A_B]

Don't spray the boat crew when they stop to shorten the rope.

[Jordan]

***1. Thou shalt not complain about they wife's driving.***

 

How do you do that ?! ;-)

[Brady]

@ShaneH. There is definitely one more commandment that should matter to you. Thou shalt bring a damn ladder to get thine scantily-clad-drunk-bikini-wearing women out of thine boat.

[6balls]

@OB agree that edge change initiation, meaning coming off the deepest pull, and edge change itself are different. At short-line I'm for early edge change initiation.

[Horton]

for you guys that are all about early edge change and or do not pull to long. It think the problem is why and or how?

 

Why do you pull to long and or how do you fix it? SoCal Yoda aka His Greatness Rob Mulightner is always on me about hooking up to early and getting in a rhythm where I am on the away edge too long. I am not sure if I follow his thinking but I do agree that there is most likely a cause that makes me stay down when I am stressed. Find the cause not the symptom.

[RichardDoane]

I was able to get a ski ride with AM in the boat last month, his tip of the day for me was to put a little more emphasis into charging the first wake harder, that way the load on the ski would help it "pop" into the edge change off the second

[ToddF]

1. Have fun

2. Learn the stacked Leveraged position by far the longest and hardest to achieve @horton

 

3. Balance, head position, body position and handle position @rico @skijay

 

4. connection between you and the handle/boat What does that even mean?

 

5. concept of how you want to ski the course. ex.. "charging the first wake" @richarddoane

"nate smith turns vs jeff rodgers turns" light on the line vs aggressive

(this is my take, so if it is wrongly place tell me)

 

6. make sure you treat your body well enough to be physically fit and capable of skiing your best

 

note: each movement gets more precise and specific as you get better or go up the pyramid

 

have we got to turning yet?

[Horton]

Somebody please get @ToddF a link to the Butterfield article.

[A_B]

@ToddF

http://www.ballofspray.com/tech-articles/87-what-the-heck-is-handle-control

 

[ToddF]

@ab Thank You.

 

I think I will have to read it about ten times to absorb all of the information.

 

1. Have fun

2. Learn the stacked Leveraged position by far the longest and hardest to achieve @horton

 

3. Balance, head position, body position and handle position @rico @skijay

 

4. connection between you and the handle/boat What does that even mean?

 

5. concept of how you want to ski the course. ex.. "charging the first wake" @richarddoane

"nate smith turns vs jeff rodgers turns" light on the line vs aggressive

(this is my take, so if it is wrongly place tell me)

 

6. make sure you treat your body well enough to be physically fit and capable of skiing your best

 

7. Handle control http://www.ballofspray.com/tech-articles/87-what-the-heck-is-handle-control

 

Repeat steps 1-7 five more times.

[jipster43]

It's always the driver's fault.

[SkiJay]

Good luck with that one @jipster43. I tried it on my wife this morning after she kept entering the course at an angle. Apparently, she's now too busy to drive me tomorrow. Oops :|

[jipster43]

@SkiJay I usually save that one for when I'm driving. Otherwise I just say it under my breath!

[ForrestGump]

Commandment #2- Though shalt send @Horton pictures of girls to his cell phone.

[Horton]

Not when I am driving

[GOODESkier]

1. Follow the boat

2. Smile from ear to ear

3. Forget that non-ethanol premium fuel cost $4.65 this past summer

4. Take it one turn at a time

5. Find your ski buddies and gang up on posting as many new PB's as possible

6. Ski tournaments for fun, and appreciate everyones best moments/wins

7. Make skiing fun for the family (especial your children-my son loves his rc boat-3 year old)

8. Focus on your strengths more than your weaknesses

9. Teach someone new to ski the course every year

10. Always say thanks to the boat crew and give your wife a kiss for being the best driver ever!