Tom Gellie breaks down short-turn technique by comparing two skiers: MC, who uses precise timing and pelvis alignment to make smooth turns with minimal strength, and JS, whose upper body lags behind his legs, forcing him to muscle through turns. MC's approach, influenced by coach Takao Maruyama, keeps the pelvis square to the ski tips for fluid transitions.
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I was asked to make an analysis video of two skiers that I know. I know this is MC, this is JS. JS has worked at Threadbo in the past. We don't know each other that well, but we know each other. I've worked with MC quite a bit in New Zealand with the Rookie Academy, and they made a really cool video of them talking about short turns in the whole video. There's 3 of them, another guy named Guy, and they're talking about just working on short turns and the struggles with it. And I commented and I said I like MC's skiing in this video more, like I enjoy the turns more. And that's not to say JS is not a great skier, but this video is about why I am appreciating what MC is doing. And yeah, and JS, like, if you're interested, here's some thoughts on just what I see and maybe what you would change. I'll let the video just play for a second to show that they're doing different short terms. Worse and worse. And so much shorter rhythm JS is doing and longer rhythm MC is doing. So even when you sort of sync them up, say back here, sort of edge set, similar time, you can see JS is already finishing his next turn before MC's just coming into finishing it now. So definitely different rhythm, but I still think what I talk about here, JS could incorporate and perhaps make some more impressive, more fluid short turns. So the first thing I would say that stands out to my eye, okay, is this completion phase. What I see here is like JS's upper body mass is sort of like still continuing to drop down against, like, in this direction where it's come from, from the previous turn. And it hasn't been like he hasn't caught his upper body with the redirection, caught it and sent it this way. The legs catch and go that way, but you see, like, his body keeps going. If I go in these, these frames here, his body keeps going down, down down. Okay, so there's like a mismatch of timing. The legs are already kind of going up and across finishing this turn, and the upper body is still coming down. There's like another impact, and then so then you, you get this like bounce up effect where he's like a lot off the snow, and his body has gone from being really compressed to sort of stretching out, and he has to wait, wait, wait, wait, and then becomes again late on the edges. Back down again. And here's that. This is what, what I see is sort of upper body compressing down behind the feet instead of waiting, like being a bit more resistant, waiting for a direction change and the mass to move a little bit this way. Then the legs make this movement to help the transition. So if we go up to MC, something I like, if we just sync up like 2 turns here, okay, is see how like MC, you can even see the snow, there's this lovely like gradual buildup and her center of mass, see it's this moment here, MC, center of mass, goes from this direction to this direction before she sort of really flexes the leg. So there the knees, hips, ankles flex a lot to help the transition finish. But it's timing-wise a little bit, boom, boom, there you go, you can see the redirect of the upper body. So upper body has been going like in this direction, ready, and then now, catches with the feet, goes in this direction, then this starts moving. Okay, whereas JS, body is going in this direction, going, going, going, feet catch, go, upper body's still coming down, down, down, squashed. So it's like complete opposite kind of timing. Which spits him up. Okay, now the other thing I would say that stood out to me that I liked, and MC I know has worked on this because we got some coaching from Takao Maruyama, is allowing the pelvis to be a little bit squarer, so not as countered in the turn, so facing more the direction of where the ski tips are. And she talks about in the video, and that allows her to develop this, uh, alignment of her leg, outside leg, at the start of the turn, whereas JS at a similar moment can't do that. So because of how he finished, his pelvis is a little bit more countered or caught behind, and so his leg is rotated out this way, and there's more just a rotation of the whole entire leg So whole entire leg is one instead of MC's able to rotate the upper thigh but allow the skis to track out wider to make it like a more round loopier short turn. Okay, and then that puts her in a better position here where the forces build to get her mass, which has been upper body mass, been traveling in this direction to catch against the feet gets sent in this direction and then allow the legs to flex. So you can see it, catch, catch, mass is redirecting, and then now you see the legs come through. JS, mass is still coming down, legs are flexing up, but he's still coming down with a heap of this upper body. So you have to be way stronger if you ski like JS. You don't have to be as strong because your timing is a little bit better with MC. And look at this, if I just go back and forth, hopefully, I mean, other people appreciate this smooth transition right here versus this kind of abrupt compressing down and squashing yourself, popping back up. Okay, I'll finish finally by saying, again, both good skiers. JS is, uh, like, very exciting to watch in the bumps, and he's very athletic, and so he can utilize that to his advantage. But I would say it would be interesting if he could take a little bit of what MC is doing here with the fluidity and even just the way the snow looks like through that turn. Like, you pause here and you see this lovely, like, plume being developed like that, as opposed to just this big explosion in one, one point. So, uh, yeah, anyway, I hope people enjoyed that. I really hope I haven't, uh, offended anyone. Here's a better turn that JS makes, by the way, right here. So this one, he's got the timing, the mask redirects, see, mass is, upper body mass has gone from here a little bit across, then the legs come up underneath. But still there's a little bit of a pop-up because this is just too forcefully trying to come down and hammer the edges here instead of ride the edges, get the centre of mass deflected, and then get the legs to move into the next turn. Alright, hope everyone enjoyed that. Thanks.
