Tom GellieBig Picture Skiing Pty Ltd · Coach/Director

Moguls and see saws/teeter totters

16 Jun 2020 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:20

In this instructional segment, the instructor explains how to think about mogul skiing using a seesaw (teeter‑totter) analogy. He defines a personal balance point at the middle of the foot and describes how squatting lowers the center of mass, causing the seesaw to tilt backward, making it easier to tip backward than forward. He then explains frontside‑heavy versus backside‑heavy positions by visualizing a line through the body’s balance point: if more mass lies behind the line, the skier is backside‑heavy; if more is in front, they are frontside‑heavy. The instructor connects these concepts to mogul descent, noting that a frontside‑heavy stance will cause the ski to spear the bump, while a backside‑heavy stance will cause the ski to flip up. He suggests a coaching cue: imagine the skier as a teeter‑totter and manipulate the tilt to control the ski’s reaction to the bump. Finally, he offers a practical drill—placing ski poles on flat terrain to feel the balance and reinforce the analogy.

Chapters

Like, my reference point is, say, up the middle of my foot. Like, that's the— my balance point. Like, if I was on a seesaw right now and I did a squat the seesaw is probably going to tilt backwards as I get lower, right? I can try and stay, keep the seesaw, the teeter-totter level, but as they get down, it's more likely going to go back. It's very easy to tip it back from this position, harder to tip it forward. Whereas here, see, I can now, I could, I could make the teeter-totter go forward. So frontside and backside heavy, I guess, is just Yeah, when you analyze someone and their posture and you draw a line up the side of their body through their balance point, you can just use your eyes, you'll be able to tell. It's like, oh yeah, I see there's more of the body behind that line, less in front. It's a backside heavy position. They're balanced, they're not falling over, but the backside of that line is heavier in weight then the front side of that line is heavier in weight. And, and if you're thinking about coming down the mogul in a frontside heavy position, which is like you standing on a teeter-totter with the teeter-totter facing— like you've manipulated it so it's falling down that way, so you're on that teeter-totter this way— then you're going to get it to spear the bump If you're riding down it, down the back of it, and you are centered on that teeter-totter, as soon as you hit something, it's just going to flip up like this. But if you're riding that teeter-totter on this point so it's forced down, now it's going to flex. That could be a cool cue, coaching cue, to think of. And you could even— you can get your ski poles out Put them on a flat piece of terrain, right, like this.