How To Learn To Cross Your Skis Midair?

F

FouDuVillage

Member
I'm training a lot and I'm trying to "master" as many different grabs as possible and I'm even at a point where I'm trying to create my own grabs (more as a challenge than for style). Nevertheless, I can't cross my skis inwards in the air. Even if I grip the nose of my opposite ski (like a "Mute"/"High Mute") and try to pull my ski as hard as I can, I litterally lose my ski midair (because of the "pulling" force on the edge of the ski) before my skis even start to cross.

Those of you who can cross their skis inward, did you have to do some kind of knees streching exercices before it actually worked or did you just cross your ski without any problem, just "naturally"?

And for the "physiotherapy nerds" out there, can I actually "stretch" my knees to be able to cross my skis or am I just going to completly destroy my ligaments?

Is there some steps or exercices I could follow to learn how to cross my skis midair?

Thank you very much!
 
I am an inflexible bastard so I think stretching can help alot for grabs. Also some rotations and tricks make it easier to get your body in position to grab and hold it
 
yeah crank up your dins if youre trynna tweak, shop set mine at 7 and I ripped my ski right off first mute grab of the season, bumped it up to 8 no problems
 
Thanks for the tips! I'm gonna try stretching and also cranking my dins up.

Should I be able to cross my skis without any grab (iron cross) or is this considered more "advanced" than say a mute grab?

**This post was edited on Mar 8th 2021 at 6:11:18pm
 
14255491:FouDuVillage said:
Thanks for the tips! I'm gonna try stretching and also cranking my dins up.

Should I be able to cross my skis without any grab (iron cross) or is this considered more "advanced" than say a mute grab?

**This post was edited on Mar 8th 2021 at 6:11:18pm
Click to expand...

In a mute grab, my hand helps me cross them. In a blunt, you have to actually move your legs to cross them well. Also the rotation and whether I'm doing lead/trailing affects how easy or hard it is too.
 
I'm just wondering what steps I should aim. Example :

1. Cross Skis midair (Plough Style)

2. Iron Cross

3. Mute Grab

4. Venom Grab

Etc.
 
Do you think I should focus on crossing skis in a 360 before trying in a simple "air"?

14255496:ReturnToMonkey said:
In a mute grab, my hand helps me cross them. In a blunt, you have to actually move your legs to cross them well. Also the rotation and whether I'm doing lead/trailing affects how easy or hard it is too.
Click to expand...
 
14255500:FouDuVillage said:
Do you think I should focus on crossing skis in a 360 before trying in a simple "air"?
Click to expand...

Eh, I learned basically both at the same time. Like on the small jump I'd straight air and try to get the grab and then the next bigger jump do a 3 with the same grab. Then you sort of get the feel for it with different kinds of easy sets
 
I’m not super flexible and I’m whatever the opposite of being pigeon toed is called, so a lot of that crossing action and tweaking comes just from my hand pulling the ski to where I want it. For me it also helps to really bend my knees/pull my legs back behind me, depending on the grab. Sounds like you’re really overthinking it. Just tighten those fins as others have said, and just tweak harder.
 
Cross your skis first, then grab. Just point your toes inward as if doing a snowplow. You may have to lift one foot slightly higher than the other.
 
grab your mute and really pull on that hand and twist your knees in. Tweaking mutes is hella easy if you commit to the pull and let your grabbed ski touch your other boot.
 
I think grabs come at a different pace for everyone, for example I learned tail and blunt super early and yet I still have a hard time doing straight airs grabbing safety. Stretching helps and I've seen a few people at the top of the park practicing while laying on their backs... something off youtube i guess, maybe give that a try!
 
UPDATE

Apparently, I cannot tight my binding any harder than they are right now.

996744.jpeg

Nevertheless, I first tried to do a Mute grab to be able to cross my skis.


Sometimes it kinda work (the camera angle helps thinking the mute is ok but in reality there's like only a 45 degrees angle between them). Sometimes, my ski goes off. As you can see, only one of my ski seems to "turn inward". I'm not able to turn the "ungripped ski" inward.

So... Well... I thought that maybe by pulling my both skis apart, I could achieve to cross my skis at an angle closer to 90 degrees.


It kinda worked, but you know... I would like to be able to cross my skis without having to pull off a Venom Grab.

So I decided to add rotation. Maybe it could help?

It seems I have the same problems as when I'm not spinning. One thing though, is that I realized that I'm not constant in my left boot placement. Sometimes, my boot goes over the binding. Sometimes, my boot goes over the other boot. And sometimes, my boot goes just waaay higher (like in the video). I'm not sure what's the best "boot position" in a mute, but I thought that going just right over the other boot looked promising.


And yeah. It kinda worked! So having in mind that my boot has to go over the other boot and also that my grip must be closer to the binding (otherwise my ski just falls), I decided to try it without spinning.

[video]https://youtu.be/9f72J6nHe_Q[/video]I think my mute grab improved! So having all of this in mind, I tried to do an Iron Cross.

Oh my. It worked.

So basically, if anyone has the same problem as me, I think that (even if it's totally obvious for some), it's really important to put your foot over your other foot (not over the tip of the ski, not over the binding, not over your leg and not over your knee). Also, it's important to spread your legs a bit when you're launching off the jump. This way, it's easier to cross your skis and place your feet.

So that's it. Overall, my mute grab still needs improvements and my ski is still going off half of the time, but I think I'm going the right way.
 
100% your problem is the tiny ass jump lol. You can't really get any grab good with less than a second of air time no matter who you are. Most of those seemed fine actually and when you take it to a bigger jump you'll have no issue. If you're still ripping your skis off, maybe pull less hard and just try to get more flexible and make those leg/hip muscles stronger. How are your boots? Are they super worn down at the toe and heel? That could be a cause for your bindings releasing even at 10 din.
 
Oh I misread what you said. Yeah seems like you've got it figured out. Simplifying it to putting your foot over the other one is a good way of describing it. Sometimes it takes the beginner (to a certain skill, in this case mute grabs) figuring it out on their own to come up with the best way to teach something. Well done!
 
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