Slalom Technique Analysis - Masters 2003 Heavenly Viva Italia Slalom Far West

All the images on this page are top open class masters slalom racers in the Far West Division. I want to illustrate the differences between techniques, and provide you with a place to analysis your own skiing from.

The First Image is Andreas Amaya. He won the slalom and here is why:

If you look at his body position, he is aligned in a somewhat upright position from the hips up. You can see his skis are equally pressured and tracking along the same parallel path. If you were to measure the distance between his skis it would be roughly the same as his hips-around 10 inches. He is taking the gate nicely exactly in the middle of his shin guard on the inside ski

If you were to align his upper body, you would find his nose is roughly centered above his belly button. This is a new buzz found among coaches this year. Here is the theory. As you enter into the turn, you drop in with your upper body leading the way. Think of it like this. If a person were standing straight up and completely still and just fell down.

It would be a slow motion type of fall. When you start the turn, the feeling is much like this. You start to fall into the turn, then as your skis begin to cross under you (at a fast rate) they will catch up with you and be under you giving you the position you need. The trick here is to be for an instance completely believing in your skis and your ability to catch your upper body as it falls into the turn.

Now getting back to the dead man fall. As the feet catch up, you need to drop the hip toward the ground and angulate hard with the knees. As you do the upper body will stop falling toward the ground and reverse away from the ground. this will give the force necessary for equal and opposite reaction.

Think of it. If you only have your hip and knees driving you will archive a little force, but if you have you upper body moving away, you force is greatly multiplied. This is the same principle behind counter rotation between upper and lower body in the turn. You know the feet and skis go one way and the upper body goes the other way.

Now what I'm talking about is all done in two planes of motion that is side to side and up and down. The next is fore aft.

As you can see in Andreas picture he is slightly forward in the upper body. This is important for charging and keeping yourself in the drivers seat instead of getting later and later in the line of the course. If you do it right, the run will seem like slow motion and easy. I believe the forward inclination with the upper body is the major difference between having a controlled run or an out of control run.

The main reason for this is the pressure is focused more on the tips and shovel of the skis, which give the ability to steer the skis through bending the arc. Where the inability to bend the ski and thus making the ski run long in the turn and thereby making you late in the turn.

Below is George Crown, 2nd place points holder for 2002 season long standings. You can clearly see a more inclined stance and even the ski off the ground. Keeping the skis on the ground is the most important thing in slalom racing. DO NOT lift the skis ever. If you do you will not have the same control. Think of it as two wheels of a train running down the track. If you were a train, would you want only one wheel on the track...Hell No, and neither does a skier. He needs two feet on the ground.

Below is Kurt Beldin, he is the No 1 point holder for 2002, as you can see by his bib number. If you look at his style, you will see his upper body is slightly back and thus his weight is not in the best position. Also if you look at his skis you will see the inside ski isn't parallel with the outside ski. This tells us two things. He is not tracking with both skis equally and thus, he is not as balanced as he could be. Don't get me wrong even the best blow a turn here or there, it's the person who made the least amount of mistakes who will win!