This is the first of a series of articles focusing on building blocks of slalom skiing, and summarizes a few concepts in slalom skiing that I feel are extremely important for a slalom skier to understand if they want to continue to improve up the line. Experience has proven to me, time and time again, that natural raw talent will only take a person so far in any sport. Those athletes, who have made it to the top, have taken the time to understand their sport at the most fundamental level. In nearly every sports, these fundamentals equate identically, which is what allows us to look across to other sports disciplines for powerful incite on how to execute movements, accomplish tasks and overcome the challenge at hand. Let this be the start to your journey of learning something not only about slalom skiing, but perhaps a thing or two about all things you do on a day to day basis. Remember that energy is not created or lost, but rather transferred through one source to another and one form to the next.
As a skier, there are many factors that we are constantly fighting against in our attempt to successfully navigate a slalom course; things like drag, balance, and the boats power, etc. Many of these factors are givens and we have no ability to counteract them. A few of these factors, however, can be used to our advantage and make our job as a slalom skier much easier.
IMO, the most common thing that separates the smooth and consistent skier from the choppy struggling skier is a keen understanding of these critical components to slalom skiing.
Here, I will explain what I view as some of the most critical factors we are up against in slalom skiing: The Boat, Gravity, and torque. Please understand that in no way am I trying to discount the many addition skills and movements required to slalom ski. I believe that those additional skills will quickly develop as one begins to form a solid foundation to their knowledge of energy transformation within the world of slalom skiing.
THE BOAT
It is a known fact that the boat is going to pull you, and drag you down the lake. A skier is a very large mass, with a lot of drag and resistance against the direction the boat is traveling. It is inevitable that there will be line tension, and load from the boat. Your job as a skier shouldn’t be to try and increase the amount of line tension and load from the boat, but learn to harness the boats power in a manner that will transmit the energy of the 350 hp engine up through the pylon, down the rope, through the handle, through your body, and directly into the ski. This requires sound body position, dynamic movements and thorough understanding of the progression of events taking place. Without these, one is just putting themselves in a position against the boat that is just causing unnecessary line tension, load and drag, thus making their job on the water 10 times harder than it really needs to be. The boat is an enormous source of energy, and when properly harnessed will provide massive returns to your slalom skiing.
GRAVITY
This is a force that is always acting on every mass here on earth. I believe that one of the things that separate a great athlete from a mediocre one knows how to use gravity in a way that is beneficial to the outcome of the intended objective. If you don’t have gravity working for you, then it is working against you, and making your job harder. Think about it, would you lean back when trying to sprint uphill? This is a point that very few skiers I have encountered have even thought about, let alone optimizing the massive potential energy that gravity gives us on the water. Learning how to successfully harness this energy will take your skiing to new levels almost immediately. Harnessing the enormous power of gravity will give you true acceleration in the slalom course, in addition to the ability to maintain energy like never before.
TORQUE
Another force that people overlook is torque. You might have a questioning look on your face now, but it’s a real, very powerful force, that again, if you’re not making it work for you, then it is always working against you! The torque I am talking about is the equal and opposite force that we are applying to the handle. When our body is leveraged and loaded against the boat, in any fashion, were are in essence applying a force to the handle in a manner that produces torque against our body. Don’t forget that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so the torque you exert on the handle is being directed right back at you. Understanding how to utilize this force can maximize your ability to generate speed, angle and width in the course, and when executed properly in addition to using the boat and gravity to your advantage, amazing things will happen to your skiing, and life will be good!
Conclusion
Sometimes taking a new perspective on what appears to be such a simple chain of events, is all that we need to do to become a better skier. A new perspective can teach you great lessons that no amount of gym time and skiing would ever teach you. You don’t need to spend a thousand hours in the gym, or on the water to make progress, if you just take a new perspective on how your current actions and movements on the water are affecting you, and see if you can change the thought process, and execution of skills in order to optimize things like, gravity, the boats power, and torque from the rope. If you can harness energy of just one of these things, you will become a better skier. If you can harness any two of them, you will become a great skier, and when you master all three, well fill in the blank…….
If your reading this article, then I’m guessing that you have read countless articles talking about being efficient, dynamic and doing more with less, yet no matter how much you read, your still dealing with the same issues on the water. Begin to put energy into focusing on the topics I have discussed in this article for a little while, and really think about how you might begin to overcome these challenges on the water. I will soon provided more theory, and a great deal more of the ‘how to” information in the weeks to come. After you wrestle with these concepts in your mind, you will get a lot more out of the information that I will put up in the coming weeks.
Thanks and stay in touch and let me know how your skiing is coming!
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