Freestyle Skiing Aerials

Freestyle Skiing Aerials is the springboard diving of the Winter Olympics. Athletes complete huge back flips and twists after taking off from a ramp with takeoff angles ranging from 60 to 70 degrees.

Athletes are judged on their take off, the height attained during their trick, the control, form and body position during the trick, and how they land and ski out.

Some male athletes such as the World Champion, Anton Kushnir from Belarus can attain heights of 50 feet or 5 stories during a trick. In comparison the highest jump height in a half pipe was achieved in 2010 by Peter Olenick at 24 feet 11 inches.

Below we have some video of Anton Kushnir, favored to win the gold medal for Free Style Skiing Aerials in the Vancouver Olympics 2010.



Here Anton is performing a near flawless trick with 3 back flips and 4 twists.

Analyze the video closely and you will see that Anton completes his first twist in his first flip on his way up. He then completes 2 twists in his second flip and the last of his 4 twists in the third flip.

The slow motion video also allows us to analyze and understand how Anton maintains good form and is able to land so smoothly out of the trick.

After each flip notice how he ends with his body in an upright position and how he slows down his twist. He even opens out his arms to help him slow down his twist.
He does this so that he can review his position and height in the air before moving into the next part of his trick.

Being aware of your body and spatial positioning in a big complicated trick like the one performed above is essential. If Anton began to twist off axis or drift laterally (to the side) during the trick, he would find it much more difficult to complete.

By "spotting" his position between each flip he is able to make any small corrections prior to the next flip, or in an extreme case to abort the trick and try to land safely.

We also see in the slow motion replay how Anton uses his arms and head during the second flip with the 2 twists to speed up his twisting motion. In the first and last flip he is only completing one twist and uses his arms minimally. In the second flip, by turning his head in the direction of his twist and bring his arms into his chest he is able to spin faster and complete 2 twists.

Form and landing are also critical components of the Aerial trick. We can see that Anton keeps his legs tightly together and his body straight during his flips and twists, for perfect form.

On landing he brings his arms forward and together in front of him and bends his knees into the land. When landing from 50 feet or more on snow or any hard surface your knees have to bend quite a bit to absorb the impact of landing.

Keeping his arms out in front and his head still and looking forward as he lands, he is also able to ensure he does not fall back on landing and can ski out of the trick.

So what's the biggest aerial trick we may see at the Olympics in 2010. US aerialist Jeret Peterson plans to attempt his "Hurricane", which consists of 3 flips and 5 twists (one more twist than in the video above). We also may see some other big tricks from Anton and other contenders.

Please contact us if you have any questions or are interested in analyzing your performance. Video Analysis is not only for the pros. It is great for any sport in which mechanics, form and technique are important. This covers just about all sports, except Poker :).

Analyzing Ski Jumping Video

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics starts February 12.

One of my favorite events to watch is the ski jump. The athlete takes off down a long steep ramp and launches off the end off the ramp in attempt to gain maximum distance. Athlete's are also scored on their style on take-off, through the air and on final landing.

What I enjoy most about watching ski jumping is the ease with which this sport can be analyzed and technique improved using simple video analysis. Most of the analysis of pro athletes can even come directly from TV broadcasts, because the best views to watch the sport are often also the best angles to analyze it.

Below we have some video of Janne Ahonen, of Finland jumping a huge jump at World Cup in 2009.


Note particularly in the replay that the broadcast uses a front on view of the jumper. We Can see how he pushes off for the take off and how he corrects his body position through the air, both for style and to obtain maximum jumping distance. Finally we can see him prepare for the Telemark landing. The Telemark is a landing style with one foot in front of the other and scores higher style points for the jumper.

We look forward to a great year of sports and video sports analysis in 2010. Look out for more features during the Winter Olympics.

The Snowboard Ollie

Winter is definitely here and many of us will be heading to the slopes this season for some skiing or snowboarding. When heading out, it is a great idea to have a trick or skill in mind that you plan on learning. Anything from slaloming on skis to riding your first rail on a snowboard will help to motivate your sessions on the slopes and ensure you do not get too frustrated with crowds.

Whatever trick it is that you plan on learning, see if you can find some video of it being done. Study the video carefully and keep it in your mind as you try the skill once you get out on the snow

We will keep it basic this time and take a look at the snowboard ollie. We have discussed the ollie in skateboarding in a previous post. On snow and a snowboard the trick is performed similarly. As in skateboarding, the ollie is the basis for most aerial tricks on a snowboard and therefore it is important to learn how to do a great one.

1. Try the ollie from a standing position first. Get used to the mechanics of the movement before you try the jump while moving.
2. Start with your knees bent and body upright. You do not want to bend at the hips and lean forward or backward. If you do you will have difficulty landing your ollie as you will have started the trick off balance. Bend at your knees a little though to give you some spring.
3. To start the trick, push down on your back foot moving your center of mass backward over your back foot. This will allow you to pull the front of your snowboard up and prepare you to jump off your back foot. Remember that a snowboard is also pretty flexible so pushing down on your tail will bend the board giving you some spring into the air.
4. As the nose of your board begins to pull up into the air, jump off your back foot so that your back foot comes as high as your front foot. To get higher into the air, pull your front leg higher up and jump higher off your back foot to allow your back leg to catch up in the air.
5. Once your back foot and front foot are at the same height position yourself over the center of the board and stabilize yourself for landing. Your center of mass should now be in between your feet.
6. Land on both feet evenly, so that you do not slide out once you hit the ground. Once again do not bend at the hips. Bend your knees slightly to absorb the landing.

Take a look at this video of a small ollie on a snowboard.


Watch lots of videos of the pros and film yourself to see if you can improve your style or get higher in your ollie or any other trick you try this winter.

Have fun in the snow.

Carving Time for a Ski Slalom Analysis

Based in southern California, it's sometimes easy to focus our attention solely on sports that take place in the yearlong sunshine we are lucky to enjoy. However, there are some amazing locations not too far from here that offer top-notch conditions for winter sport lovers. And with the 2010 Winter Olympics just around the corner (Feb 2010 in Vancouver), we'd like to take a closer look at what some athletes are doing to prepare for their events.

The Ski Slalom event is a test of an athlete's ability to control their speed and agility, as they navigate their way around flexible poles/flags placed along a downhill course. Lowering one's center of mass through a turn allows the skier to change his/her direction quickly, while keeping their balance (and reducing their wind resistance). As it's a timed event, the skier needs to come out of each turn quickly, and immediately make their way towards the next flag. Using proper form as they enter and come out of each turn is critical to recording a competitive time.

Professional athletes and their coaches use video to closely examine the athlete's form throughout a race. An option featured in some software packages allows the user to create freeze-frame shots at multiple points during the video, allowing us to see how the athletes positioned themselves at critical points of an event. This option was featured heavily during the gymnastics and diving portions of the 2008 Summer Olympics (note: although it's used by almost all professional and college teams, many software packages offer this feature at a price that's affordable to most weekend warriors). The video below shows how the feature can be applied to a skier weaving their way through a slalom course.


As you can see, the skier gets quite low to the ground as he rounds each turn. Freezing all these shots along the entire race gives us the opportunity to look at his form as he progresses through the course. Playing the video and seeing these frames frozen and overlaid on the video is also very entertaining, besides being useful for detailed analysis by the coach and athlete.

If you have any questions on this feature, the software it's available through, or how it can be used to analyze a sporting event, just let us know and we'll be happy to point you in the right direction.