Meeting Notes off snow: Pressure Maintinace and Change

Here are the notes from tonight's (2/22/10) meeting:

Attendance: Kevin, Cindy, Kate, Charlie, Dennis, Schanzy, Jeremy, Will, Tom, Kristen

Topic: Flexing and Extending as it Relates to Pressure Management

Kevin and Charlie talked about Ron LeMaster's virtual bump, and how the top of the turn the pressure is light, middle the pressure is medium, and the end the pressure is heaviest as it relates to external forces. Schanzy talked about increasing bend of the ski throughout the virtual bump turn. Will then said the diagram was incorrect, and the turn shape should be more like a J if the bend and pressure isn't consistent thoughout the turn.

Dennis talked about his intent for pressure management, in that he imagines standing on a bathroom scale, and trying to keep the needle in the same spot.

So, with that thought, what are we trying to accomplish? Will said that wherever in a turn is the highest pressure, the center of mass is vertically farthest from the platform. Is this true in all situations? In hard snow, the most bend of the ski is when the center of mass is farthest away from the platform. However, I didn't believe this was true in bumps. The highest pressure was when the skis hit the bump, and the center of mass was moving closer to the platform to absorb the forces. There is also chalky snow, in that if your CM moves father away from your platform or your edge increases, the consequence is the ski chatters. To decrease chatter, you need to keep moving, decrease your edge angle, and keep steering throughout the turn. This begs the question, what is real vs ideal, and does the ideal change with terrain choices on and off piste. We will need to explore this tomorrow.

Game plan for tomorrow
Use Michael Rogan's sound board/mixing board to ski through the virtual bump, muscular vs. skeletal stacking, and real vs. ideal maintenance change flexion/extension. We will vary speed, terrain, and turn shape.

We will meet at 9AM at the bottom of Exhibition. Any late comers will meet at 10:45 at MGR.

We also need to discuss at lunch whether the blog should be public or private (invite only).

Please add any further ideas before tomorrow morning-

Bill Seguin notes-

Talk with a purpose, use your eyes, facial expressions, and voice to draw in the audience. Tap into your energy so that is goes into your connection with the audience and doesn't get leaked. Lean forward toward the group, and be aware of your geography. Male power stance is a more equal stance with hands at the side, and the female power stance is one where one foot is in front of the other and hands out front. Stand and move with a purpose. Audience has CPA- continual partial attention, your goal is increase this attention.

There were some great presentations, I feel honored to be included in this group!!

THANKS-
Kristen

Training Report

Thursday Night:

In attendance: Will, Kevin , Schanzy, Cindy ., Hap

Tom H was nominated to be the note taker and distributor of notes for this round of training. i will send out a reminder as we get closer to the next training and nominate someone to take the role of 'messenger' for that training

Future Dates
February 22, 4:15 , Highlands’s locker room Flexing and Extending as it relates to pressure maintenance
February 22: 5:15 Bill Seguin: please email Schanzy at jschanzy@hotmail.com to reserve your space. This session is
Specifically for this group only. Please bring $20.00 for your space.
February 23, 9:00am, Highlands Flexing and Extending as it relates to pressure maintenance

April 5, 4:30pm, Highlands locker room
April 6, 9:00am, Highlands

This session we are going to focus on Pressure .... specifically ' Fore and aft’

Schanzy shared his belief that there are two ‘two points of view’ 1) those who believe that the ski is tipped before being bent. 2) Those who bend the ski before it is tipped

Schanzy also shared his belief that skiers who use their legs independently to create some ‘lead change’ have a larger sweet spot in which to balance. Skiers who turn their legs together remaining ‘square’ have a smaller sweet spot to balance upon.

We discussed the concept of the tail following the tip relative to fore aft pressure.
•At first it was shared that forward pressure would create tail displacement.
•Will convinced us that possibly the tail follows the tip because the tip cuts or creates a platform in the snow that the tail can follow. This results in the tail being bent because of what the tip did.

We discussed the concept of bending the tip of the ski as a ‘preferred’ strategy of good skiers.
•Hap shared his belief that the center of the ski is not under the foot and that good skiers are in fact moving ‘forward’ to bend the ski from the center which is closer to the toe piece.
•It was agreed that what we describe as tip pressure may in fact be ‘center’ pressure relative to the ski, and that the front of the ski bends because of the deflection caused by the tip being wider than the mid body of the ski.

Friday Ski Day

In attendance: Schanzy, Cindy, Will, Jax, Kevin, Josh, Hap, Kate


Terrain: Stayed on groomed terrain, with one run down AMF

Conclusion: We believe that we must actively choose to bend the ski before it is tipped or turned. We have a choice of where we bend it along the length. Where we bend the ski and how will affect our ability to create rotary and tipping movements. Each ski functions independently of the other in this regard.

We found that opening and closing the joints in a variety of dirt moves the torso fore and aft to create bending of the ski in different places.

Ideal for most turns is to bend from the middle of the ski (toepiece). In general the ankle must maintain some flex as the knee opens during transition-initiation to allow the torso to move forward with the ski allowing bend from the middle of the ski (toepiece). If the ankle opens at the same time we see a movement of the torso up and back since the skis accelerated at that moment relative to the torso.

We experimented with making choices to balance to the center of the boot or the center of the ski. This created different ski performances as the tip engaged the snow and bent more when we bent the ski from the center. If we choose to bend the ski from under the boot a bit more rotary was needed to shape the start of the turn.

There was a great progression that had to do with skating and screwing. I missed this when I left to organize classes. Cindy offered to send notes on that progression.

An interesting dynamic developed as many of us were processing feedback and thinking of fore aft movements in a new way.. Late in the morning it seemed the group was looking to Schanzy for direction/feedback. We discussed this at lunch and reminded ourselves that this was a safe place to offer input and ‘practice’ sharing concepts. We need to remember our responsibility to the rest of the group to contribute. Our growth comes from mutual sharing and contribution of ideas. There is no clinic leader guiding our progress it is up to all of us to do that.

After lunch we ventured on a free run down AMF. In recapping that run, comments about how the softer snow revealed accuracy issues with regards to bending from the middle of the ski.

We returned to groomed snow and skied Javelin turns and Leapers. Much of the Javelin turn discussion moved to accurate fore aft to allow the rotary. In leapers we discovered greater consistency and success when focusing our efforts on accurately moving in the fore aft plane during take off and landing. Have we found a task that isolates fore-aft balance?
•Skiers who kept their skis parallel with the snow leapt and landed stacked and balanced to the center of the ski.
•Skiers who landed tip first(forward) were compensating for having taken off tip first (back)
•Better success when take off and landing was linear
•Better success when the focus was on alignment and landing stacked
•Less success when the intent was to change edges or turn in the air

Cheers,

Hap