The elusive 'early edge change'

[cragginshred]

I know this has been discussed over and over here and there seems to be a 'yeah but that's at 32 off' or greater mentality. Then there are those who agree with TW who say it should happen at any rope length, and TW has many videos to prove it can be done.

 

The purpose of this thread is not to beat these same 2 views to death but to seek more views on keeping a tight upper body and connection with good handle control while releasing the hips to swing out and not get lean locked which is usually what happens with a late edge change.

 

The key for me is keeping this consistent later in the course then still doing it as I'm fatigued.

[Horton]

@cragginshred What line length and boat speed do you ski?

 

First of all everyone falls apart when fatigued so I do not know how that fits.

 

Second, when you can edge change is predicated on a lot of things that happen between the ball and the wakes. It is not something that happens at the first wake. If you are in good position & have enough speed by the first wake you can simple bring your head and shoulders up and relax your lower body.

 

If you are out of position in any number of ways it is going to be a rodeo.

 

______________________________

 

Skiers who do not yet run 32 off are likely not in good enough position to changes edges early. I would say basic body position should come first.

[aupatking]

maybe focusing on your handle connection is getting you in better position prior to the wake and thus, helping that early edge change happen. An early edge change without good handle connection is no help whatsoever though. Focusing on handle connection outbound is what got me through 32, but there are some major building blocks before that.

I think you’re working on wrapping your head around a pretty tough concept. It’s that time of year, you need to go see a good coach. The good ones make it simple..... at least the mental part

[Stevie Boy]

Would I be right in saying that focus on direction before and after the edge change is possibly more important than focusing on the edge change, if load and direction are good the edge change should feel more automatic, it was once said to me by a skier who won the Big Dawg.

"It,s all about what happens at the end of the turn and into the first wake, the rest is pretty much automatic"

 

In saying that he is technically very good at what he does on the water.

[Adam Caldwell]

At the root of it all, an edge change is nothing more then when your COM is on a different trajectory- or path- then the water ski itself.

 

The question should focus more about the timing of 'when' and 'where' you might actually want the ski and COM trajectory to deviate from one another. Is it really at CL?

 

Something to think about. Even though the handle is changing direction at CL. Does that necessarily mean we want to change edges on the ski at CL? OR does that just mean that we want to change the direction our ski and COM is traveling on at CL?

 

Consider a ski that is pointing 90deg at CL and rolls Hard onto a new edge. Despite being on a new edge, the ski is still more or less going straight to the shoreline. The issue is, that handle your holding onto is tied to a 400hp engine going 34mph straight down course. How are you going to stay connected to continue the swing around the pylon? Although it might look cool at longer lines, Its basically impossible to do as the rope gets shorter - and thats because édge change' is not what we should be focusing on.

[Than_Bogan]

@cragginshred You might want to start a new thread where you don't use the phrase "early edge change" because that is basically a lightning rod and a phrase that seems to mean very different things to different people. (Either that or some of them are just plain wrong :smile: .)

I think your question is really about how to maintain connection going outbound, which is a great topic. I'd also encourage you to (re)read Bruce's famous article on handle control.