Strategy #1: Use movement to create structure

In our previous installment of SkiFlow(tm), I outlined in a video clip the idea of developing a paradigm for skiing using the elements of Doctrine, Strategy, Tactics and Technique. This arrangement is a hierarchy and one element flows from the previous one. Here is a quick overview of the first two elements in my paradigm.

Doctrine: Skiing should be effortless, fun and efficient.

Strategy: Understand and apply a small number of simple and universal principles. Which are...

1. Use movement to create structure.
2. Play your angles.
3. Joint mass center.

Following is a clip explaining the idea of using movement to create structure, the first of our three broad strategies. One of my oft repeated tenets is, use structure to hold you up and use your muscles to hold your structure in place. In other words, if you feel like your muscles are holding you up, you are far from your SkiFlow(tm) zone. You know when you are using your structure when you feel that the superfluous tension in your body is "zeroed-out" and you are using the least amount of muscular effort possible to fully achieve the task that you have in front of you. This does not mean that you necessarily are not exerting great effort at any given time. It means you are exerting exactly the effort you need to succeed and no more.

The following quotation from Eric Dalton, PhD, is an interesting take on the "purpose" of structure in relation to gravity. Mr. Dalton is a bodyworker, but the principles are easy to apply to skiing if you give it some thought.

If, for a moment, we assume that posture is the result of the dynamic interaction of two groups of forces acting on the human body—the environmental force of gravity on one hand and the strength of the individual on the other—then posture could be considered as the ideal expression of balance between these two groups of forces. Therefore, any deterioration of posture indicates that the individual is losing ground in the contest with gravity’s unrelenting power.

In Skiing, to gravity we must add the inertial forces of the turn. This increases exponentially the importance of stacking the structure to deal with the forces which "oppose" it. The clip lays the groundwork for understanding how movement informs structure. Future installments of SkiFlow(tm) will explore specific exercises for building this quality in your skiing.



[Video has been moved to the SkiFlow Inner Circle member's area on SkiFlow.com]