That's very normal to feel awkward going one direction. And some days it feels more awkward than others.


Something helpful would be to focus on keeping even pressure on both arms. On the offside I have a tendency to get heavy onto my leading arm (going from 1 to 2 this would be the left arm). This limits ski angle, loads the rope, breaks you over and pulls your narrow. You will never feel as light on the rope as you do when both arms evenly share the work of holding onto the handle.

I'm am an average skier but what help me is focussing on shoulder back with the hands low. It's like fu.... the handle.  To feel this what i have done is just crossing the wake and glide in that position. Check Fluid motion site there is a good video of that drill. Isolate just the wake crossing and get the feel for the position. What i do is do 6 turn at the start of my run with that drill and when i am tired 6 at the end. I warn you it  is more difficult than it looks. What i have learn the last 2 years is that while we want to improve we go to fast to soon and built bad habits that are very hard to correct later on. The most important part is having fun and good sensation without getting hurt.

If you are skiing the coarse, then I would stay out of the coarse and free-ski for a awhile.

#1.  While free-skiing, I would 1st work on your pulls from just outside of the spray. (10-12 ft. past wakes) Very simular to a pull out & turn in but, still gracefully making a surpetine with all of the focus on your pull position and acceleration and not on the turns...

Make a slow graceful turn back toward the wakes with your arms straight and the handle low (waist high) and as Snow stated, do not even look at the wakes. (They are meaningless, and harmless. Especially if you have great form!) allow your shoulders to square up to the back of the boat while you Stare down the pylon  This will help you to stay in proper form while trusting yourself and the ski thru the wakes.
When you get comfortable and confident with this mini coarse drill you should begin to notice the "automatic edge change" that Will occur upon landing outside of the wakes! -Even at this slow speed! (just briefly look down as the ski lands and see how the water is breaking off the trailing edge...) This will tell you that you are doing it right. Now, just start slowly opening up the size of the turn area... (the imaginary coarse)

I would work on this for days or weeks. (I do it for warm up when ever free-skiing...)

#2.  Get someone to video you! Even if it's only a camera with video capabilities...

Good Luck to you!

Hey Guys,

Thanks so much for all the feedback.  There's a good idea in every response.  I shall attempt to implement.  I should have said that I am not in the course but only free skiing although I have access to a course occasionally.  I think the idea of not worrying about the turns right now but rather just working on the pull across the wake will really help me to focus on that...especially the offside pull.  Together with all the other tips I should be doing much better.

Now, the only problem is that it's going to turn cold up here in the Great White North pretty soon so I've only got a couple more weekends to actually put all your good suggestions to work.

Thanks again everyone.  What a great bunch of people on this forum.

Cheers,

Don

dwaller: that was exactly me, until very recently (think).  I was stuck getting through the course at 15' off at 52k for quite a while.  I would coach me friends telling them about hips forward and shoulders back and all that thinking I had it made.  Then my ski buddy videotapped me.  I was horrified.  I look terrible...like I was crossing the wake and going to the john at the same time.  I spent quite a bit of time thinking about why I looked so bad and couldn't seem to get into the right position.

I started to feel a difference when I focused on keeping my shoulders square to boat as I pulled across the wake.  In the past I would pulling my leading should away from the boat as I tried to get more angle.  This just set me up for a dramatic over the front fall. 

Now I'm able to really fell like I'm stacked from shoulders to hips to feet and I don't feel like I'm about to go over the front.

I'll have to video myself again to see if it actually looks any different.

BTW, were do you ski?  Summerski (summerski.ca) is 5 minutes west of Newmarket.

Don,

Just saw this post linked from the home page. I think the topic name says it all. "Crunching forward while crossing the wake".

Done some crunches lately? Like sit ups?

You should

When you lower your torso towards the floor, think about pushing your hips forward (keeping your core tight). Basically emphasize the anti-crunch. You can go ahead and think about your wake crossings like this.

If you're letting yourself do a crunching motion, just think about doing the exact opposite. Almost go out the back through the second wake. It's really hard to get hurt by going out the back.

SethStisher wrote:

Dwaller,


Here is also a link to a page on my website with some videos.  One of the videos is a wake crossing drill I call the rhythm drill that would be a nice way for you to practice this very thing with super low intensity.  Take a look at the next to the last video on the page:  http://www.waterskitrainer.com/spip.php?page=video


Seth Stisher
www.h2osmosis.com

Great video Seth! -yer awesome...

This vid. pretty much exemplifies my above #6 post.  All the  way down to the automatic edge change!
However, I might also suggest starting this drill on or just outside of the white water and slowly progressing out to where seth is turning... In my example, The turn process is a bit less prominate, with a touch of hesitation like a pull out/turn in (on both sides of the wake) allowing one to totally focus on only the pull aspect...

Last edited by h20dawg79 (Sun, Sep 20, 2009 12:36 PM)

ktm300 wrote:

Any thoughts on how to teach this to a child?  So much of what I would tell an adult seems inapplicable to a 65 pound 27mph skier.  When the wakes are about 1/3 the height of the skier, it seems to change things quite a bit. So far, telling her what to do but not how to do it seems to work best.  Maybe I'll go ski behind a 32' cruiser and get a feel for what its like to have someone insist that I "hold an edge through both wakes" when I am alternately going uphill, downhill and airborne.

Ya, you have it correct; "Teach by example"! -Ha,ha!!!

I feel the best method for children is to be short on instruction, Long on encouragement and Kudo's. And the very best example for kids, is seeing other or at least another child about their age doing it. I know that's exactly what kicked me in the fanny to really want to go for it when I was young...

hello dwallar (are the lakes frozen yet up there?)
Not sure if this helps but I have that problem occasionally and fix it very quickly by consciously absorbing the wake with my knees.  Especially with straight legs, but even with bent knees if you do not absorb the wake, when you take the bounce, the first reaction is to bend forward after the bump to balance yourself, and this causes many more problems.  This is especially a problem on longer lines (assume you are having this problem at 15 or 22, right?), it becomes mute after 28 off as the bump is much less.

Well guys, I thought I should post one more time in this subject to close things off....

I had another opportunity to ski at a private ski club near me with a great coach, Paul Roberts, and after doing a series of drills with me he slowed things down a bit to 28 mph and I attempted the course for the very first time @ 15 off.  On the second pass I got balls 1-4 and only missed 5 and 6 by two inches and that only because I had a less than ideal offside pull out from ball 4.

I know that these numbers are pretty mickey mouse for you guys but I really felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment since I have worked hard to get just to this point.  I feel that I am very close now to being able to run all 6 at 30 mph and 15 off.

Unfortunately, things have turned pretty cold up here now so I guess I'm going to have to pick this up in the spring...but I sure have something to look forward to.  Incidentally, I think the most important thing that helped me was the concept of leaning away from the boat and back edging the ski and then TRUSTING the ski to hold its edge through the wakes.  When I did that, things really improved.  So thanks again to all....

Cheers,

Don