pretty sure it helps him get free from the boat...

Ya, I would Love to hear Chris explain the Dynamic of this move...

I will say that I was staying way too far fwd. over the ski in a effort to "stay balanced", but I was a times struggling with smooth pull outs and turn ins. I was ragged and inconsistant and a couple times almost fell during a hard lean pull out!

Matt Rini brought to my attention that I needed to get back on my back foot more prior to my pull out and to duplcate this move on my turn in. It made a great differance in my consistancy and leverage. I just wish the season hadn't ended, so I could work with it some more.

I like what I see Chris doing and I would like to better understand the technique...

Maybe Rossi and Rini will comment!

The Biggest reason that I would like a Little more insight on this is because it seems like I hear over and over,  people saying "ya gotta get off the back of the ski,"  "tail turners" and "stay Balanced at all costs," "get up over the front of the ski more" etc, etc...

This move that Chris is doing is obviously unique or so many people would not have commented on it on this and other sites. By applying a little more back foot he not only does a "Tail turn" but he does so while staying Balanced. And this is done @ the most important part of his run. (the pull out & turn in) I think it's cool and deserves a 2nd Look from most of us and maybe a little more in depth explanation of the cause/effect advantage of this move from the Pro's...

My goal with gates is to accelerate from the starting point.  I used to focus on falling away (more forward) and catching the boats load when I reached the bottom of my fall.  This works fine but I found that my speed was developing too late so I was ending up too wide on the boat.  I focus now on getting into my accelerating position before starting my out for the gates.  Standing more center to back, engaging my hips forward, torquing from the trailing arm, and attempting to leave my ski more out in front of me during the first stage of the gate sets me up with a better line.

ChrisRossi wrote:

My goal with gates is to accelerate from the starting point.  I used to focus on falling away (more forward) and catching the boats load when I reached the bottom of my fall.  This works fine but I found that my speed was developing too late so I was ending up too wide on the boat.  I focus now on getting into my accelerating position before starting my out for the gates.  Standing more center to back, engaging my hips forward, torquing from the trailing arm, and attempting to leave my ski more out in front of me during the first stage of the gate sets me up with a better line.

Hi Chris, I am a little confused.  Where is the "starting point"?  By "first stage" of the gates do you mean the beginning of your pull-out?  I haven't heard these terms used.  How many stages are there for the gates?

Does standing more Center to back mean shifting your weight more on your back foot? 

Is torquing the trailing arm the same as loading your right arm?

Thank you very much. I appreciate your help!

-Dan

Last edited by danbirch (Thu, Dec 10, 2009 3:56 AM)

Thanks for the detailed explanation, but how do I do this without ending up feeling like I'm on a wheelie which ends up giving me an in-efficient pull out and a bad line to one ball? Obviously I'm on my rear foot too much.

StevenHaines wrote:

Thanks for the detailed explanation, but how do I do this without ending up feeling like I'm on a wheelie which ends up giving me an in-efficient pull out and a bad line to one ball? Obviously I'm on my rear foot too much.

Steven,
Schnitz talked about something similar a few years back and I asked him "how do I weight my back foot while maintaining hips forward?"  He explained it like this...  Stand one foot in front of the other.  Move your hips forward over your front foot.  Now, without moving your hips or leaning back, lift your front foot.  Your hips are forward AND your back foot is weighted!  My own way of thinking about it is to stand with both feet together, then take a step forward.  What happens?  As you "fall" forward your weight is on your back foot but your hips are (moving) forward.  The point being, it is not a "pose" but rather a "move."
Deke

Steven, I hear ya.  Maybe try not to think about your COM as where your weight is.  You can have pressure or drive coming from either foot but still be "leading" with your COM.  I think the rope is what really messes everyone up since you have a tendency to want to lean back on it rather than use it as a constant (like gravity).  I've been skiing and skating a bunch lately and it is really driving this point home for me. 

One thing I played with a lot last summer was... when just skiing behind the boat, I would try and see how much pressure I could put on either my front or back foot without changing anything to my upper body posture.  Just freeze your upper body with a solid core and alternately push on either foot to see what it feels like.  It's just one more thing to do when you get stood up at two ball and you have to ride to the end.
Deke

I think one thing to think about here is important - if you are on your front foot and make a move, it very easy to end up on your back foot, and I think the opposite is also true, that if you're mass biased to your rear foot, it is easy to move off that foot and transfer load to your front foot.

I was trying to get hips forward and weight on my front foot from the start of my pullout through the gate turn (and hopefully the full pass), but it was really difficult to stay there through the turn in and beyond.  Then I tried to get balanced front-to-rear at the end of the pull-out, and then continue forward onto front foot for turn in, and it was much easier to get a good amount weight onto my front foot and keep it there... Maybe Chris is finding it that much easier to get weight forward for the turn-in having started w/ a more rearward bias.

Deke makes a good recommendation too – a lot of time skiing straight before or after pass, I just step from front to rear and back repeatedly. It raises your consciousness of load on both feet and how the ski attitude changes with weight distribution. You can shift the weight slower and faster to feel the dynamics - you can get way more load on either foot the faster you change load - all w/o really moving your upper body. I think this helps me get a better feel for the weight shift from the edge change to the buoy too.

Also, I think if you're legs are compressed and rear biased, and then stepping rear to front and standing up really puts you up on the front. I think I caught something like this in one of the pro’s articles this year. If you stand up, the distance between your CG and your ski increases which means the drag on your ski produces additional forward pitching moment helping you get forward.

In the end, when I have skied my best, the weight shift was pretty small and I felt like I was balanced evenly the whole pass, but having a good feel for the weight transfer seemed to help me.

Chris,
Thanks for all of your thoughts on your gates.  I started the initial question because it seemed like you were doing something a little different than you had been.  It is nice to hear your thoughts behind what you are doing, because it helps me think more about what I am trying to do and hopefully put it to good use when it warms up in the spring.

Tony