Binding Position Hindering Stance / Pro Ski Coach Water Ski Forum

GarrettGroller · #1 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 1:11 PM

Hey Everybody,

I have a bad habit of not being in an athletic stance on the water. My knees are not glued together, my hips are not forward, knees not bent, etc. When I stand on land in my sneakers I have no problem being in an athletic stance with my hips over my feet and my knees and ankles bent. The stance feels comfortable and I feel balanced and like I could stand like that all day long. That got me to thinking that maybe my bindings are hindering me from being able to be in the right body position on the water. I'm using Connelley Draft.

Your thoughts?

Last edited by Garrett Groller (Fri, Sep 4, 2009 1:12 PM)

ColinBuchanan · #2 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 2:21 PM

The draft bindings are pretty hindering in my experience with them. I switched to fogman but now have to run the back boot pretty loose and the front one cranked to get a good stance over the ski. The draft is going to push your front forward but the rear wont really let the heel lift. Try running a rubber back binding or loosen up the back to make you more dependent on the front foot. This will force you to be in a more forward position to compensate for the movement in the back binding.

GarrettGroller · #3 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 2:34 PM

Colin,

By rubber do you mean something like a wileys or do you mean just a toe plate?

AndersonSkiTeam · #4 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 3:05 PM

I loosen my back Draft a bit to get more movement and be able to get a more "athletic stance". When I originally got them I cinched the back to tight and could not get any forward stance in the back binding. However, I don't loosen the back to much because there is no way my front foot is coming out so I don't want my back coming out either. I can get a little heal lift but will still stay in the boots. As I am of the theory you need to be either all in or all out on a fall if your drafts are like mine and you don't come out of them I would be nervous putting a rubber rear where you will come out of the back and not the front draft.

HO410 · #5 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 4:35 PM

All I can tell you is that without modifying the plates, Wiley's give a pretty wide stance.
When I started skiing RS-1 boots, I tried them heel to toe and could not find my center over the ski.

GarrettGroller · #6 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 5:01 PM

HO 410,

I don't follow your post. Are you saying you like the RS1's?

WadeWilliams · #7 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 5:15 PM

Spacing between your feet makes a really big difference. I think 410 was saying that the wileys will position your feet pretty far apart from each other unless you push them closer together. The rs1s come with the toe and heel virtually touching, which was a big difference at first.

As a general rule, run your boots as close together as possible. The bigger/taller you are, you'll need a little bit more spacing to balance your frame.

GarrettGroller · #8 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 6:17 PM

Wade,

Yup. I got that part. But is he saying that the bindings being close together affected his ability to find the center of the ski?

HO410 · #9 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 7:44 PM

My apologies, I offered an incomplete thought there. Rereading the thread, I'm not really sure what I was trying to add. Your question was about boot type, and I was offering my experience with boot placement. With the boots heel-to-toe my balance on the ski was very inconsistent. I think it was a learning curve that I just didn't have time to work on when I started on the RS-1's. At least for now, I have the rear boot moved back one hole. This more closely matches the spacing I had when I was skiing Wiley's. With tournaments over and more time to practice I'll work getting the boots back up close again. That statement was about my skiing, not negative critique of the boots.

Let me see If I can be a little more on topic this time. When compared to more traditional rubber boots like animals, Drafts force fairly aggressive forward ankle deflection. In order to turn with this style of boot, you need to effectively counter. If you don't counter enough, you will have too much weight too far forward and the ski will tend to go flat and run away from you (my experience, might not be universal). The closer together you can get your boots, the easier it will be to counter, but the trade is that your base is not as stable.

Last edited by HO 410 (Fri, Sep 4, 2009 7:46 PM)

ColinBuchanan · #10 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 8:44 PM

Garret, Wiley's if you want but previous posts will tell you about some drawbacks there. Maybe the HO Animal binding might be closer to your liking. Try out a few different things and find what makes you depend on your front foot more without thinking about it. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

GarrettGroller · #11 Fri, Sep 4, 2009 8:44 PM

HO 410 wrote:
Drafts force fairly aggressive forward ankle deflection. .

I'm thinking the opposite to be true. The drafts seem to keep my ankles very rigid so I can not bend them in order to be in the proper body position and have weight evenly distributed over both feet. i think I'm going to try running them a little loose tomorrow and see if it helps.

GarrettGroller · #12 Sun, Sep 6, 2009 11:34 AM

UPDATE

I ran my back binding loose yesterday. Bingo. Huge improvement. I was able to bend my ankles and knees and tuck my back knee into my front knee comfortably and stay that way.