Knees touching / Pro Ski Coach Water Ski Forum

bruce emery · #1 Tue, Jul 21, 2009 8:31 PM

I have noticed that many top skiers ski with there knees touching ,or very close together. This is most obvious in pictures of onside turns. If you have the July/August issue of The Water Skier, look at the picture of Jamie B. A slight knee bend with knees glued together. When I do this it really helps me stay balanced on the ski, and stops me from rocking back. When I observe skiers that have a large seperation between their knees,sometmes the front leg is staight, and the back knee goes in front of the front knee. It seems to me that with the knees touching ,your feet would then be on the same plane. And therefore would not be workind against each other.Does any one have any thoughts on this?

h20dawg79 · #2 Tue, Jul 21, 2009 10:18 PM

I have nothing conclusive. But, I do strive to keep them tight and I feel it helps my suspension "feel" like a complete "unit" Connected and flowing in unison.

I've even experimented with turning my rear binding "in" slightly instead of out. Which DID NOT hurt my balance. But, helped Nail my knee's together and kinda "preloaded" my off-side turn while allowing a More comfortable and more complete counter turn as well!
Not conventional thinking by any means... -But then again I'm never afraid to think out of the Box and besides, I Suck at just being a Sheep!

EdJohnson · #3 Wed, Jul 22, 2009 1:29 AM

Some of the best advice I ever received was from Chet Raley, who told me, "YOU NEED TO SKI LIKE A ONE LEGGED SKIER." Simply put, make both legs work as one........ED

ChrisRossi · #4 Thu, Jul 23, 2009 3:10 PM

I like my feet really close together. It makes me feel more sporty while skiing. When my feet are more apart, I feel glued in one position. With my feet close together, my knees are touching.

antonio · #5 Fri, Sep 18, 2009 3:28 PM

I fell that, by rotating both bindings (hard shell) it is very dificult to keep both knees tight. is this ok?

ColinBuchanan · #6 Sun, Sep 20, 2009 1:01 AM

It is ok but make sure your bindings are'nt rotated so much that your heel isn't centered on the ski. this will ensure you are staying in a balanced position over the ski and allow your knees to touch.

emmyinge637 · #7 Mon, Nov 30, 2009 6:04 PM

h20dawg79 wrote:
I've even experimented with turning my rear binding "in" slightly instead of out. Which DID NOT hurt my balance.

this helped me out quite a bit too. I started working bringing my knees closer together a couple years back, and while it definitely took a while to get used to it eventually tightened up my turns alot.

WadeWilliams · #8 Mon, Nov 30, 2009 8:47 PM

... This is easy to see from the observer's seat. If there's a lot of room in between your knees, it's likely that your boots are spaced too far apart.

miski · #9 Mon, Nov 30, 2009 10:23 PM

I rotated my rear binding toe-out which helped a rear hip issue, but it took quite a while to get back to previous level of skiing - biggest change was that my rear knee wasn't automatically in the back of my front knee and it was harder to stay forward and to counter rotate.

I have been wanting to try moving my rear binding forward - this topic puts this change to the top of my set-up to-do list - THX.

h20dawg79 · #10 Fri, Dec 4, 2009 11:36 PM

miski wrote:
I rotated my rear binding toe-out which helped a rear hip issue, and it was harder to stay forward and to counter rotate.

.

With the rear toe's out, was it Harder to counter on both sides? -Or just on your Off-Side?

Last edited by h20dawg79 (Fri, Dec 4, 2009 11:37 PM)

Galejan · #11 Sat, Dec 5, 2009 11:01 PM

WadeWilliams wrote:
... This is easy to see from the observer's seat. If there's a lot of room in between your knees, it's likely that your boots are spaced too far apart.

It feels difficult for me to nail my knees together, and I blame my big feet wich makes the distance between the heels of the boots longer.

miski · #12 Sun, Dec 6, 2009 3:48 AM

H2odawg79 - it was more difficult to get/keep my knees together on my on-side, but on my off-side it was worse than just keeping my knees together as it was more difficult to counter rotate. One of the things that eventually help was to run my rear boot looser so my heal could come up. On my off-side, I think I till just have t try that much harder to counter & stay open.

h20dawg79 · #13 Sun, Dec 6, 2009 4:08 PM

miski wrote:
H2odawg79 - it was more difficult to get/keep my knees together on my on-side, but on my off-side it was worse than just keeping my knees together as it was more difficult to counter rotate. One of the things that eventually help was to run my rear boot looser so my heal could come up. On my off-side, I think I till just have t try that much harder to counter & stay open.

That's what I thought you meant. As that was the opposite of my findings in turning the rear "IN". It really helped my "Off-Side" counter and kinda "Preloaded" my back foot which does most of the steering on the Off-Side. But, seemed to possibly hamper my On-Side counter slightly. (I figured this to be a fairly Good trade off for me...)

I also started using a heel wedge or lift to help allow a better FWD. angle of my ankle/shin which seem to help the knee's touching thing and tip pres.. This also seemed to allow me to tighten up the rear laces again. As I too started running them looser to allow a little more movement and flexability...

Schnitz has done a lot of experimentation in this area and has a lot of good ski set up, -cause and effect stuff on his site.