dryland hips up

[prk]

well after going otf between 3 and 4 ball on last pass of my first set this season ( mar 31 ) I just got home from the hospital a couple of days ago 6-8 weeks for the bones to heal but no real timeline on the brain thing yet, thing is I've got awesome wally skier form, ass back bent at waist arms straight out at shoulder height, it just doesn't cut it for the course, I don't want to be doing this again so I need some dryland training drills I could do in the coming weeks to break the bad habits and start building positive mussel memory for a more user friendly form any help will be appreciated and considered

[Horton]

@prk

Dryland training always seems like a great idea for slalom but it never really seems to pay out. It is super easy to get in the position you think you should be in while standing on the dock but unfortunately that does not translate to on the water.

 

 

[keithh2oskier]

@prk I agree with horton that pulling against the pylon or a post usually doesn't do much in terms of translating to water. What you could do is pulling drills like the video below which allows you to adjust your form and feel it on the water. Notice how easy Seth just pops out to course width with little effort. Once you "feel" it I think its easier to replicate from a side to side across the wake motion. As for the course, just slow down and concentrate on the form and forget the buoy.

 

Good luck.

 

[prk]

Thanks guys I appreciate your help I do understand the difficulty in translating static drills to the dynamic flow and movement when under tow on the water I’m just hoping to put some cracks in my brutal form and build up a better foundation agh my heads hurting going rest awhile

[ISP6ball]

A week in the hospital? You must've got your bell rung pretty good!!

[TEL]

When I try that, it never looks that way. Seth makes that look so easy.

[One_Ski]

I agree with Horton regarding dry land drills - I was trying to work through the same issues you are, and found that what I perfected on land never changed anything for me on the water. My advice is either get out of the course altogether to learn the right body position, or ignore the balls and just focus on skiing that takes advantage of leverage and consumes less strength/energy. Pay attention to what muscles get overworked, and find a body position that puts less stress on them. No matter what I'm focusing on though, put me in a course and my brain switches from logic to animal instinct. As i approach 1 ball, the need to 'win' becomes all-consuming, and logic circuits go in to standby mode for the duration. The course helps fine-tune things, but it was never a good place for me to learn basic techniques.

[skispray]

@prk a drill that might help is the lean drill:

 

Pull out to one side of the boat and try to get as wide as possible.

Just keep leaning down the rope. All the way down the lake.

Record above process on video.

Review video and adjust form.

Repeat.

 

Another question: How fast are you skiing in the course? Most likely, you'll want to slow down until you can run a full set of passes at the same speed nice and early. Spend the sets working on skiing wide and early.

[ski6jones]

Go ski with a good ski coach for a few days (or more). They'll set you on the right track. Then practice what you learned until you can do most of it automatically.

[tjm]

If I understand your question it’s what can you do in the weeks while you heal. With that understanding it seems like strengthening your core would be most beneficial. Planks, etc. will help condition your body to be able to do what you ask of it when you do get back on the water.

[Than_Bogan]

@tjm Best and most important answer yet! Core strength is so key to maintaining good position AND is a great safety net to be able to control your body -- both to prevent crashes in the first place and to handle them better when they do happen.

 

I think some folks have unreasonable expectations about on-shore body position training. Of course it's true that perfect position on land doesn't automatically give you perfect position on the water. But if your body isn't trained to feel that those poses are natural, then I see no chance at all of doing them on the water. In other words, shore training is necessary but not sufficient.

[ReallyGottaSki]

I concur, I think one can reinforce wrong technique just as good on the dock as on the water

the trick is just what one is practicing.

Stance, Static pulls, lean outs can all be done with positive and negative effect we seem ot agree

 

decades ago, the 'hips up more ' mantra doesn't make sense until one actually feels it and locks them and then it finally happens and 'Oh!, that's what you mean!' . Game changer.

Its exciting to witness someone 'get it' after seasons of going nowhere after a 10 min instruction leaning against the handle on the pylon

 

basically, for most aspiring , a good mindset is when one thinks one's hips are too far forward, they are actually probably only half way there

 

 

[Than_Bogan]

Yeah, I've been working on that for 20 years, and have run -38 a handful of times, and my hips are only halfway there...

[prk]

Than, tjm and reallygottaski you guys are ringing the bell with me i'm looking for ways to break the bad habits and form I've groved into my muscals over the last 40 plus years of big lake wallie skiing with family and a few frenids that never knew any better there will be no med clearance for on the water training for me for a number of months I've had a good amount of leaking upstairs and sitting in a dark room staring blankly into space is pretty damm taxing right now as I started dipping my feet in this course skiing the last couple of years I have heard the squizze your butt hips up mantra to the point of nauseum it just never seems to click john hortons stand tall stand straight gives me more aha feel than that ( hey thanks john ) are you you guys talking about slap'n the handle on the pylon and leaning what dose that looklike can I hook the rope up in my garage somehow and do it the weather here the pacific northwest can be a little wet at timesdose it need to be anchored at a certain height sorry sorry too much screen time need a rest

[Than_Bogan]

I've said this 50 times over the years here, but it has never made an ounce of sense to me to try to move your hips to the handle. That would require insane lat strength at the very least, and probably some weird spine flexibility. Getting your hips to the handle should be the result of other movements that are actually possible. A few years back I wrote down what little I know about it here: Than's Old Leverage Doc

[Adam Caldwell]

@prk

The issue is when you tie a rope to a post, your pulling from the wrong angle, and therefore it fails to mimic anything experienced on the water and is pretty much useless at best.

 

Leaning against a horizontal force vector will not emulate the way our body is compressed as the boat tries to pull us through and across the ski.

 

If anything, the rope should be attached at the ground level, 5’ away, and your feet on an inclined surface.

 

You need to have something that will create the compression force in your legs the way a waterski would that’s being driven up into you. Mounting the rope at ground level will help accomplish this better.

 

Moving your hips to the handle is easy.

Stand your shoulders as far away from the surface of the ski as possible. That way, you hips have space to move into and occupy.

 

Think about it, can you get your hips forward sitting in a chair? No. Just stand up. Hips come forward pretty easy. No different on a water ski. You to stand on both legs to do this. Not all the load on one or the other.

 

One focus. Stand as tall as possible all the time on both legs. And keep the elbows and the handle as tight as possible against your body, as much and as long as possible.

 

Compressing your legs and emulating pro skiers in an edge change at 41 is very unwise. Thins are NOT what they seem.

[ALPJr]

Here you go

[prk]

thanks adam, trama clinic on Monday hopefully they will clear me for some light exercise so I can give it a whirl