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Hinterstoder
Saturday, February 05, 2011

Hinterstoder, Austria - We’re here in Hinterstoder the site of the last GS before World Champs in two weeks. The last month of racing Europa Cup and FIS races was mighty painful for this guy. However, after Meribel we had three good days of training in Hinterreit. I found a new focus and went back to my old model GS ski. The last month I got pretty lost. It’s quite easy to do that as a GS skier in January when there aren’t any races that really matter and you’re constantly rotating thru different groups of athletes and coaches. I was convinced a different model of GS skis was better, but I was wrong. At least for me, they were fast, but not very forgiving. Oh well. The last few days, I watched a lot of video mostly of French guys that are killing GS right now and a little of me. They are skiing really open in their stance – especially at and after the gate – and are even skiing with some counter at the top of the turn. So that’s what I’m working on and it feels pretty good so far. It’s really nice to have a new focus and feel like I’m coming out of the woods.


This season my best results have come after bad training and races so I’m not too worried and just fired up to get after it tomorrow.


Tommy Ford had a career day today when he finished 11th in the SG here after starting in the 60s and Bode was on the podium for the second time this season so it was a good day for the Americans tech team. The race hill here is pretty flat with only one relatively steep pitch right out of the gate. It suits me so it should be a fun one.

Hope all is well. Time to make things happen. w

posted by Warner at 2/05/2011 02:50:00 PM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Way to put two runs together at Hinterstoder. I trust this will get you the starting nod for Garmisch.

It's great to see your analysis of current technique. About the stance, I wonder how much of it is because many of the French racers are "petit gabarit" - i.e. they have relatively small bodies. For racers like Fanara, a wide stance offers stability but also some insurance against getting flipped (as in Bad Kleinkirchheim 2007 and Beaver Creek 2009). The counter-rotation part is odd unless there is an efficient way to store and release the energy in the turn - would love your analysis of that.

Hank McKee had some nice words for you over at Ski Racing: http://skiracing.com/?q=node/9344 Much as I dislike the mouthpiece part of Ski Racing, the op-eds by McKee and previously by Greg Needell often offer an original perspective (though you might have a different take on Needell from his USST coaching days).

fx

As an aside, it is interesting that you found the slope at Hinterstoder quite flat apart from the start. That slope made the racing look the most boring of the year on TV. I guess that is because the slope is so wide, and straight and evenly steep in parts. Perhaps this limited the setters' imagination. The snow looked sleek to the point of shining like a mirror in places, though.

7:40 AM  

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