A critical self-analysis

By Gary Dranow

This run is flawed. As a coach it is my responsibility to evaluate the performance, for my students as well as for myself. Here is my evaluation. It is not a turn-by-turn analysis, rather exploring what happened to me on the run as whole.

Before I begin, let me just say that I believe there is something to learn in everything, even mistakes or bad runs that others make (and sometimes mistakes can be especially instructional!)

That said, let me explain my approach for this race.

A ski racer must adapt their tactics to their ability to the environment. In this case I was facing a one run dash for the podium at the Nastar “Race of Champions.”

First I had to do my inspection. I could easily see this course was unlike any other we had run the entire competition. It was a very rhythmical GS with turns approximately 25 meters in vertical distance. Based on what I knew about the snow conditions I suspected the course would deteriorate but I made by first and fatal error right after my inspection.

I believe that since this was the “ROC” we’d have fairly good grooves (ruts) and that they may be “useable”. I came to this conclusion, even though I was running third to last (seed order was lowest handicap went last in this race) and had my best seed of the weekend, about 50th after competitors and pacesetters. (As a sidebar, the number one seed did not make the podium.)

Based on this conclusion I decided how I would apply tactics* to effect what line I intended to ski. I intended to drive my apex lower towards the gate, in other words, run a low-rise line or a more direct line. Mistake number 1.

The next decision I made was to not receive a course report before I ran. Mistake number 2. From the start wand I could not see down the course to determine how the course was holding up. My wife and I have developed a pretty good “Course Report” between us using radios. Liz has developed a good eye to tell me how a course is running (in Masters), and can identify any particular sections that are giving racers problems (such as holes, combinations, transitions or consistent line errors for previous seeds). I made the call to turn off the radio as I thought I could see what was going on well enough to make any adjustments based on what I saw prior to my run!

The course deteriorated from mid-course down worse than I had expected.

In the deteriorated conditions (running third to last), I had more to deal with than others, including the pacesetters. I had non-useable grooves AND soft snow which inflicted more challenges on me than my ability could handle while still employing my strategy (using waist steering while going deep into the turn). In other words, my tactics were in conflict with my strategy, and both were in conflict with my ability on that particular day.

Waist Steering?

No, not consistently.

And here’s a challenge to those who want to take a whack at my run: I made three good to excellent turns and two with very obvious waist steering. Where are they??

Anyway, back to my tactics. I wanted to run a low-rise line or taking it deep into the turn.

By taking it deep into the turn, I mean that I was trying to ski a straighter/lower line and condense the zone I pressured my ski (thereby lower the apex nearer the gate). Look at the overlay between Casey Puckett and me. He clearly skied cleaner transitions (with useable groves) but he skied a more conservative line, less direct. His apex was about 1 to 2 meters above mine in most of the turns in the overlay. You can see the overlay in Bill Madsen’s ISA Lesson at this URL

This file is only about 3 megs so it should launch quickly.

I believe in a race this short that once you've committed to a specific tactical approach, it is a bit tough to change during the run - my fate was sealed by mid-course when my problems started (again due to the non-useable grooves, which are very clear if you play the video at slow speed) and my inability to bring my outside ski around (lack of waist steering deep enough into the turn). In short, my timing was simply off, I was trying to get to my uphill ski and into the fall line as fast as possible - faster than it was possible for me to do on that day.

Being early-late-and-low, I was rushed or behind the course and used a fall-back technique to make my linked recoveries: releasing off my uphill ski and using very active hands to get through my cross-over (vestiges of my old pro racing days).

To analyze this properly I have to put the run in context with our developing system and how I approach coaching.

We are not just about technique. We treat technique (and more importantly the fundamentals - our first DVD) as the base of a progression to becoming a more effective ski racer. You cannot simply learn a particular technique and expect that to be the "magic dust" that will make you as fast as Bode (or anybody else you wish to emulate, beat or compete with). The need to apply all the elements that impact a ski racer’s performance at the right time in the right situation is paramount if you want to win. And winning is what we are about.

Based on that statement, we are concerned with several facets of ski racing: 1) how a person learns (the four elements of learning), 2) technique, 3) tactics, and eventually the highest element, 4) strategy on the day of the competition. We have only scratched the surface with our fundamentals DVD, The MSRP Level 1. We start discussing all of these elements right away preparing the racer to meet "their" responsibility within the framework of our program. And make no mistake, the racer has as much responsibility as the coach; he or she must recognize, learn and implement all the elements and put them in an environment where they can practice and apply each of these elements in concert.

So, I failed to adjust for the course conditions and once I was in the course and was chasing it, I simply did not have the ability to affect my best technical skiing.

What would I do differently today? I would move my apex up a tad and make sure that I applied pressure in the fall line and use my waist skills to make sure my outside ski matched my inside ski through the cross-over zone. That, I believe, would have produced not only a prettier run but I would have carried my speed from turn to turn instead of dissipating my speed when I was losing my outside ski in the soft stuff. I would have been able to apply pressure to my skis higher up in the turn and result in a more powerful release of the energy to the next turn.

That’s my evaluation of the run you see here. Thanks for all the feedback and questions as to why the technique we are presenting appeared to be mostly absent in this run.

The Excuse Zone.

I’m a coach first and a racer second – in a controlled environment, I can demonstrate the concepts I want my students to learn. A race course that has already seen 49 skiers is not an optimal arena for demonstrations of technique. Also, I’m a 51-year-old broken-down truck (notice I didn’t say sports car) still trying to recover from having the Al Quaeda head removal and reattachment surgery last April. So give me a break ;

-D

*I am attempting to employ the USSA vocabulary whenever relevant, as I think that a consistent and common vocabulary will facilitate discussions and comprehension across different approaches to ski racing."