{"id":6105,"date":"2014-10-27T10:09:47","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T17:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/?p=6105"},"modified":"2014-10-27T10:09:47","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T17:09:47","slug":"good-skiing-fast-skiing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/good-skiing-fast-skiing\/","title":{"rendered":"From Good Skiing to Fast Skiing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cody9209\"<\/a>I saw a very different Mikaela Shiffrin win (in a tie with Anna Fenninger) the first World Cup race of the 2014-15 season and claim her first World Cup GS victory. What I saw in Mikaela\u2019s skiing was not good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?,\u201d you say, \u201cShe just won a World Cup race and you\u2019re saying that it wasn\u2019t good skiing.\u201d Well, yes, but give me a little space to explain myself.<\/p>\n

I have seen Mikaela train many times since her first year at Burke Mountain Academy when she was 13 years old. I also saw her train for several days in Loveland, CO last May while I was there working with another athlete. One thing that I have always been amazed at is how rock solid she is. I can\u2019t remember her ever skiing out of a course (though I assume she has). Not only that, but I have rarely seen her even out of balance or make a major mistake (which, again, I assume she has).<\/p>\n

Mikaela is obviously rip-roaring fast as a slalom skier, having won two World Cup globes in the discipline and Olympic and World Championship gold medals. At the same time, I think that, by her incredibly high standards, she was only doing, yes, you hear me say it again, \u201cgood skiing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is where the new and improved Mikaela arrived in Soelden. What I saw in her two GS runs was not good skiing, but fast skiing. She was stivoting all over the place, off balance constantly, and on the edge the entire run. It reminded me of what I consider to be one of the great GS races of all time, namely, Ted Ligety\u2019s gold medal performance at the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, another two runs of stivoting and reckless abandon.<\/p>\n

This shift in Mikaela\u2019s skiing is why I think that, though she has dominated in slalom for the last two years, she may be even more dominant in slalom this winter if she makes the same transition in her GS from good skiing to fast skiing in slalom as well.<\/p>\n

Good Skiing<\/strong><\/p>\n

This difference between good skiing and fast skiing is a huge distinction for me and one that I work with racers on constantly. Over my many years in ski racing, first as a racer and then as a sport psych consultant, I have seen many good skiers. They were technically and tactically sound and made really nice turns. These good skiers were solid and consistent. Only one problem. They weren\u2019t usually on the podium. Why? Because they were more focused on skiing well than skiing fast.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the problem. Good skiing doesn\u2019t necessarily translate into fast skiing. I\u2019m on the hill with young racers constantly each winter and summer and I see a misguided emphasis on good skiing among both racers and coaches. Of course, solid technique and tactics are necessary to ski fast, but they are not sufficient. And, the last I checked, they don\u2019t give style points in ski racing. All that matters is the time that accumulates between the start and the finish. You can have a beautiful run and be slow, and you can have a truly ugly run and be fast. In fact, thinking back to my racing days, the races in which I thought I had skied great were inevitably slow and the races where I hacked my way down the course were almost always fast.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I think about good skiing:<\/p>\n