Best Bump Practices

[Gloria]

1) Squeeze your feet. Especially hard to do if you were taught during the Mahre era of wider stances and finished turns.
2) Squeeze you adductors. ( the muscles in your upper thighs )
3) Gape at the top of the run for a good zipper line, and commit.
Use the soles of your feet against the side of the bump for speed control, resist the urge to carve or throw your skis sideways to check your speed. Falline, falline,falline.

 

[RachelV]

You make it sound so easy.

I am just getting passable at bumps. I'll probably wait a season or two and then a lesson to get the details.

 

[Gloria]

You make it sound so easy.

I am just getting passable at bumps. I'll probably wait a season or two and then a lesson to get the details.

With the right form, it is so much easier than you think. Don't be afraid, you can do it, in some ways it's probably easier for you to get the correct form than the rest of us who ( at least I'm guilty ) have picked up bad habits from years of skiing them incorrectly. You are one up on us girl, go get em!

 

[bklyn]

Some things that work for me:

Staying completely relaxed, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. I find that I am able to respond better to the terrain from relaxed or neutral rather than from a tense or locked body.

Keeping arms forward, elbows ahead of torso. Whenever my arms are falling back or flailing I am soon on my arse wondering how I got there.

Keeping feet together, and working as one. In bumps and powder, I find that too much independent leg action leads to trouble. Yes, you are transferring your weight and doing other things, but there is much less going on than you would apply to a groomed run or race course.

Looking ahead to interpret and anticipate the terrain. Once it is underneath your feet, it's too late so there is no reason to look directly down at your feet.

Absorbing the terrain as it comes up toward you and reaching down for it when it falls away. This is an active and conscious action of pulling your legs up over the bumps and pushing down to the troughs.

Facing the fall line. Head, shoulders, torso all going downhill, not off to the sides...

Which goes along with planting the poles. Sorry I am not as good at explaining what has to be done here as I am when showing it.

 

[Kiragirl]

I've never been very good at bumps, but am getting better. I've been told by instructors to "KEEP TURNING." I can tell the difference now, ski them better.

 

[Gloria]

Some things that work for me:

Staying completely relaxed, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. I find that I am able to respond better to the terrain from relaxed or neutral rather than from a tense or locked body.

Keeping arms forward, elbows ahead of torso. Whenever my arms are falling back or flailing I am soon on my arse wondering how I got there.

Keeping feet together, and working as one. In bumps and powder, I find that too much independent leg action leads to trouble. Yes, you are transferring your weight and doing other things, but there is much less going on than you would apply to a groomed run or race course.

Looking ahead to interpret and anticipate the terrain. Once it is underneath your feet, it's too late so there is no reason to look directly down at your feet.

Absorbing the terrain as it comes up toward you and reaching down for it when it falls away. This is an active and conscious action of pulling your legs up over the bumps and pushing down to the troughs.

Facing the fall line. Head, shoulders, torso all going downhill, not off to the sides...

Which goes along with planting the poles. Sorry I am not as good at explaining what has to be done here as I am when showing it.

These are all really good points. One thing I thought of after reading this is many of us were taught to ski bumps by using the bump to turn the ski when the foot is on top of the bump and the tip and tail contact is lost. Well, yes this is one way to ski bumps, but not necesarily the best way to master them, nor insure that smooth less knee jarring ride. What I found with this technique is that you shop alot more looking for that magic moment or for the next turn. Looking where? Down. What this does is affects your rythmn, as well as your upper body alignment as you drop back down into the trough. One thing that mogul skiers are trained to do is to keep constant ski contact from tip to tail with the snow. So keeping that in mind, shorten the turn radius. Instead of flipping your skis around and against the fall line at the top of the bump, iniate the turn as you are driving into the bump, and shorten the radius so that your tips are in contact with the snow in the trough as you are coming off the bump. Essentially, eliminate that air time, and looking ahead four or five turns is alot easier as well as keeping your upper body in alignment. Not to be trite, but it is all downhill from there. Just keep your skis pointed more or less in that direction and the bumps combined with the absorbtion technique mentioned above slows you down and keeps you in control more than you think...You just have to trust it.

 

[ski now work later]

soft skis and soft snow helps

 

[pinto]

Oops ... I posted this in the wrong thread.

From yesterday:

I love skiing moguls. I have crap knees, but mogul skiing doesn't bother them.

I don't know how to tell anyone to do it, though, because I was never taught. When I think about what I do, I'd say to be light on your feet (don't "power" anything! that hurts!), as well as quick with your feet, and to bring your knees up and absorb the bump. Sometimes it looks like people go into them stiff-legged, and then have nowhere to go, so it's slam slam slam.

Just reeeeeeelaaaaaaax, get loosey goosey (so that slamming doesn't hurt), draw up your legs, and ski. It's like hopscotch or skipping or some other child's play.

 

[pinto]

...

Which goes along with planting the poles. Sorry I am not as good at explaining what has to be done here as I am when showing it.

Yeah, pole plants are important. Reach ahead and stab the mogul you're turning around. The important thing that does is keep your hands and weight forward. It's a little like pole planting in something steep ... you have to commit to it.

 

[abc]

Just reeeeeeelaaaaaaax, get loosey goosey (so that slamming doesn't hurt), draw up your legs, and ski. It's like hopscotch or skipping or some other child's play.

I think most people stiffen up when they're afraid. I know I used to.

For learning to get rid of that fear, the best (not always possible though) is to find a short section of small to medium size soft bumps and let go. Face downhill (towards the "end" of the mogul section) and try to FEEL the bumps.

 

[skigrl27]

Agree. Find small and less steep bumps and ride it all day. Keep going down, keep turning. All the other advice is perfect. But if you find a nice patch of bumps somewhere that aren't insane - keep riding them. By the end of the day, you'll have made big progress.

I LOVE the bumps.

 

[marta]

All these tips combined will build better bump skiers in all of us!

Wait for someone who skis bumps gracefully and smoothly (and not too fast ). Ski behind them and stare at them, not the snow. It keeps your head up and trains you to use your peripheral vision, rather than staring down. Everything else falls into balance as you pick up their rhythm. Try learning in the spring when the snow is the softest and slowest.

 

[liquidfeet]

Just keep your skis pointed more or less in that direction and the bumps combined with the absorbtion technique mentioned above slows you down and keeps you in control more than you think...You just have to trust it.

Gloria, is this what you mean: Point the skis more or less downhill, look 5 bumps ahead, relax, go, ski fall line to fall line, and absorb absorb absorb.

I can imagine that! Just point'em downhill, ski a narrow line, and absorb as the bumps appear? Does it really work that way? (Instead of shopping for turning spots either in the valleys or on the tops of bumps??)

 

[abc]

Keeping arms forward, elbows ahead of torso. Whenever my arms are falling back or flailing I am soon on my arse wondering how I got there.

That's me!

I've gotten stuck in the same rut for quite many years when it comes to skiing moguls. Pole being my down fall. My arms are like chicken wings, flapping all over the place, which upsets my balance in general.

So this season, I'll work on that first instead.

Mogul is a great equalizer. Any flaws in technique, it shows up on bumps big time.

 

[tcarey]

abc-try skiing the bumps with no poles-it is a challenge but it might help you keep your hands up and steady-

T

 

[abc]

On the groom, I ski better without poles. That's my problem. I know where my hands SHOULD BE and can even keep it there. But poles seem to get in the way.

I'm guessing I can ski (small) mogul better without pole also. But I'm at a dead end situation until I get good with poles. I need the poles for big bumps.