Tom Gellie teaches ankle drills that improve ski performance, from narrow-stance squats to Maasai-style jumps. A slant board shifts load between ankles and hips, and ankle flex naturally tips the downhill leg to initiate turns without forcing edge pressure.
The Maasai welcoming dance. So this video on ankle movement for skiing is inspired by these cool dudes from Africa who welcome people with that jumping, springy dance, which is just amazing how much bounce they have in their muscular system. So to warm up, you're just going to make little squats focusing on flexing through the ankles. And I've changed the width of my stance a couple of times here, from narrow to wide. I'd encourage you to stick more with narrow squats, as this is far more applicable to skiing. You can then start having a go at the Maasai welcome dance jump, trying to see how high you can spring off your feet using mostly your ankles, so you're not really using your hips or knees as much. So the difference between a wide stance and a narrow stance is pretty obvious. So you can see when I get in narrow like the other guys, I get far more spring as I'm able to load up my ankle and foot in a more direct line. Again, more applicable to us skiing. Now, as a balance exercise, you're then going to work on a single leg hop, trying to balance right in the center of your foot with a narrow stance after hopping. So for me, one cue I use is to try and land with my nose right over the second toe, so in line with that. That'll help me balance really well. So then you're going to start varying the platform that you flex your ankles on. So here I've got a 10-degree board, and I'm going to be flexing down through my ankles like a ski stance. And with the board sloping this way, you're actually going to emphasize less in the ankles, and it's going to work more your quadriceps and your hips, whereas a board slanting the other way is actually going to increase how much you have to use your ankles. Now this would be more applicable to something like a mogul turn, or even the end of a turn where you really, the ski tip would be flexing back up towards you, so you'd need that extra flexion through the ankles, and the feeling of being pushed up from the front of your foot more. So you're now going to bring in some rotational movement with flexing your ankles. So I've got my hands on my hips because I'm trying to isolate, only bring the movement through my ankles, knees, and hip joints. So if I go further than what I'm doing here, my pelvis is going to start rotating. So I think I'd show that right here. So if I roll, there I go. So if I roll any further, the ability for me to separate my legs turning without my pelvis turning diminishes and it all starts to go as one, only because that's how much rotation you have with that much flex in your ankles and knees. So it's really good to become aware of how much motion you've got using your ankles to drive some rotation through your legs before your pelvis rotates. Now notice if you stand on a slant board sideways and you just let go when you flex your ankles, your knees and ankles will want to roll down the hill. So here, bouncing on my uphill leg, if I've shifted my weight onto my uphill leg at the appropriate time and I start letting my ankle flex, the cool thing is with the slope down this way, you'll see my knee doesn't want to track inwards here, it wants to track straighter, even slightly out, which is exactly the way you want to go to initiate a turn. So you want to get comfortable with the fact of when you flex your ankles, being able to be aware of letting go through the inside half. So that will actually help drive a very efficient, smooth turn initiation. The slope should actually help you rather than you trying to drive the start of a turn. You just balancing on your feet, letting your feet find the slope angle like I am here as I flex, drives a rotation through my legs and starts a turn very efficiently. So here it is, just flexing my ankles and knees and hips, but letting the slope tip and rotate my leg into the start of the turn. So practice it with one leg. It's exactly what I feel like when I initiate a turn. It's not much effort involved, it is actually more of a letting go feeling. So the downhill foot flexes and lets go and tips towards the little toe. Purely because my body's trying to find balance over the whole foot. With the slope at an angle like this, it naturally wants to tip it. Now there's going to be a need for you to feel an effort with the ankles to get the skis to come on edge if you were to traverse or finish a turn. So you're now going to work on effortful feeling, or slightly more effort, to roll the ankles and knees up into the hill, and then effortless, where you just flex and let your feet find a flat surface against what would be the downhill of the slope. So this requires a bit of effort, and I feel that I actually have to put a lot more pressure towards my big toe, whereas when I just flex with the slope My foot and my knees naturally want to roll down the hill to start a turn. So you're going to alternate between flexing and keeping the ankles and knees up the hill and then down the hill. Engaging the edges, releasing the edges. And then to finish, finish with a bit of Maasai welcome dance bouncing. Trying to get as high as you can and really quickly spring from your feet. Hope you guys enjoyed that, and good luck putting it into your skiing.
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