2022 was a pivotal season for me. Ended the season with multiple practice and tournament PBs and by the end of the season was running 32 off at 34mph nearly every set.
I skied my first 2023 set in Florida on 1/2/23 and managed to run a 32 off pass (after not missing 28 off 4X in a row before that) so I’d say that’s a solid start to the season. That set is in the video below as well as a few others from late 2022.
Major shoutout to @skoke for all the help as usual I’d be much further behind on this journey without his mentorship.
What differences do you see from previous years? How did your season go?
nice skiing Joel. I’m skiing at a similar level to you. So take my comments as you wish. One thing I see from you is that your legs are a little stiff coming into the wakes and are not fully absorbing them, which upsets your stack just a little. Result is coming off the wakes your shoulders are allowed to come forward to the inside, and induces separation with arms out and skiing more direct to the buoy as evidenced by the slight droop in the rope as you approach the turn ball. Rather than thinking of pulling or leaning harder to prevent your shoulders from coming forward, I think you could try to soften your legs as you come into into the wakes just a little. I had some coaching last year on this and it really was eye opening how much less i needed to load into the wakes and still be wide and early. Being able to maintain that stack with shoulders away and the rope loaded all the way thru edge change is a game changer. Take a few passes where your only goal is to get thru the wakes and finish your edge change with the handle in tight to your hip, elbows pinned, and shoulders staying very quiet and away the whole time. I work on this constantly when free skiing. pull out like a gate set up, and then aim to get as high as i can on the boat on the other side maintaining a tight line the whole time. Glide and then go the other way. I’ll give you hint. Loading harder into the wakes will not get you higher on the boat on the other side.
@dano good observation. I’ve never thought about softening knees but I’ve definitely been trying to work on not loading the rope for sure. I’ll give it a try!
Softening my knees was a queue that worked for me. you still want to be resisting with your legs. but you don’t want to lock them out. You are in a really good positon here
but by the first wake you’ve got the straight front leg and your weight has shifted back slightly.
