Good post doby, not sure I fully agree regarding hip dumping? Yes, it’s certainly a timing thing (putting “it” in all at once) and, because of that timing issue, the femur/lower leg (even the pelvis to a degree) can twist around the STJ in somewhat a different direction...it’s partly related to the direction the feet are pointing to start a turn methinks...
Perhaps we need a hip dump thread...?
zenny
I think I see what you mean and cannot disagree per se. With all the variables that go into a two person discussion of an alpine technique concept, agreeing by 51% is a victory - as if we were in Congress. My rationale is that if all the movements were correct but only the timing were adjusted for hip dumping, then we’d have hip dumping. So, we can see hip dumping in just about any mechanical status/condition we are able to produce and regardless of the direction of the feet. That said, the state of hip dump timing brings with it other issues such as the bottom out phase of hip dumping where the hips do tend to continue rotation to the state of being over countered and, granted, a mechanical issue and something initiated and exacerbated by the results of hip dump timing. There’s nowhere for your CoM to go after you dump it and, consequently, there is no more momentum to carry into the next turn. Counter action/counter rotation/counter are good in small doses, but too much ruins the entire turn causing the loss of dynamic pressure over the ski before the end of the turn and thus the end of a good turn set. This is why the concept of “steering into counter” is so helpful to some who are, instead, using the upper body for their frame of reference regarding rotary. What a mess! The feet will always be the primary frame of reference for those work the ski from the foot. The further away from the ski a skier's primary focus is, the longer, slower and more complicated is the pathway of kinetic directive.
Because the failure of good timing often precipitates bad mechanics, it may be the timing we should look at rather than the direct mechanics themselves. Because alpine technique is so highly systemic, there are very few “direct fixes” we can make such as directly switching out one mechanical input for another. If the skier is made out of Legos, then that may help. But, like medicine compared to surgery, the knife has its limitations.
A typical hip dumping parameter is that they can only be performed in large/er radius turns because there is no time or space to dump a hip and recover from it within a short radius, well carved turn. Skiers that hip dump cannot perform short radius edge lock turns. Even though they are performing their flexion/rotation/angulation very quickly, too quickly, they bottom out with over counteracting and counterbalancing in the remaining “empty space” of what remains in the turn which is slow and laborious to get up and out of. And, yes, mechanically, like standing in mud at the starting line. One way for an individual to train out their hip dumping in a positive way is to learn to carve short/shorter edge locked turns simply because short carved turns and hip dumping are mutually exclusive of one another. That is if they can’t look at the logistics of time and space and adjust their timing to spread their movement throughout the space of the entire turn cycle. Sort of as if they were training Tai Chi.
How about these for a hip dumping thread title?:
“Hip Dumping: Not as “hip” as you think”
“Hip Dumping: Good for the couch - bad for the skis”
“Hip Dumping: Nothing you will find in a Kamasutra tip guide”
“Those Hippy Dumpsters!: Why both hippies and dumpsters smell bad”
“Hip dumping: Don’t hurt Santa’s lap unless you want a bad turn for Christmas”
“What is hip dumping and why are you doing it? What is the matter with you anyway?“
“When has the term “dump” ever cannoted anything good?: trash/garbage, a bad relationship, disposal of just about anything, something you flush down the toilet, a crappy house, erasing incriminating data and, of course, poor skiing”