Rodion 6–Rodion’s Victory

Cold front brought low temperatures and wind today but also some stunning views…

 

We skied off piste to take advantage of the fresh snow and to help Liliana develop confidence. I explained to Liliana to bend at the knees and hips to get the feet further ahead for off piste and to try to hold her body inside the turn to avoid being ejected downhill in the deeper snow. Later in the day I mentioned how I see my skis in my peripheral vision and place my body always to the inside of the turn relative to the skis seen at the bottom of my field of vision. 

 

 

Rodion’s Victory – 24.73 secs (Gold 25.56 secs )

My goal today for Rodion was to finally have his problems resolved. It was necessary to explain dynamics again from the start, with him doing the static exercises pressing his shoulder up against mine. This time however he was not given the chance to misinterpret – he understood that the pressure on the outside ski came from the lateral movement into the turn. In addition he knew not to twist anything. I added the fact that it’s not just “falling” into the turn it’s a very aggressive dropping the centre of mass down into the turn to then be met with strong pressure as a result. There is no pressure as the body starts to drop so people are usually afraid to try to do this and never discover it. Rodion understood and so by eliminating his rotation and making his movements lateral to the skis and forceful he immediately became strong on his skis – not needing to wait and twist at the start of the turn, rush the middle, drop the hips in and fall backwards onto his inside ski – all of which he had previously been doing. In the slalom this translated to a massive improvement immediately. With the correct basic mechanics of movement Rodion was then able to successfully able to alter his timing to deal with the speed in the race course. Throwing yourself down at the start of the turn means that maximum pressure can be attained at the apex of the turn. This allows the skier to exit the turn quickly and be ready for the next one. If the maximum pressure is placed below the gate then it’s very hard to get out of the the turn quickly (except through the use of active leg retraction) and so the skier gets later on each turn until a lot of speed is lost. In the video Rodion shows excellent timing and achieves a 24.73 seconds – two seconds faster than his previous personal best from a few years ago and five seconds faster than five days previously.

 

 

 

Mission accomplished the whole family went off piste with Rodion now focussed on trying to eliminate any twisting rotary movements and to keep everything lateral to the skis.

 

 

 

 

Timothy remained glued to the back of his skis but had no hesitation pointing himself downhill. Liliana managed to feel some rhythm and to keep her feet together instead of stemming and Victor had his toes frozen so was desperate to get inside for a warm up.

 

 

George’s spectacular moment…