The first step in fore/aft balance isn't in the gear. When you are to the point where gear is a consideration in fore/aft management, you'll be at the level where you won't have to ask... you'll know. I only know two skiers other than myself who are able to identify this... one is Harald and the other is a FIS coach who I collaborate with. There may be one other, but he and I have not discussed his setup in that level of detail.
Harald's sensitivity to fore/aft balance is incredible. I had never met a skier who described fore/aft balance in a way I could relate to until I met Harald. If you reach that level you won't have to post about it on the internet.
Hmmm....I'm not quite sure what to make of those comments. Greg, adjusting forward lean, ramp and binding position are pretty basic setup parameters for most skiers above intermediate level. I'm certainly not the only one here to have posted about it, or to have spent time working to get these set up right. And believe me when I tell you that I notice a significant difference every time I play with any one of those variables. And I'm no expert skier. OTOH, when Mike talks about feeling pressure changes on the bottom of his feet, then that's way beyond my crude senses.
Re. my own experiences, I think that one of the reasons this was so noticeable to me, was that the ski I was having trouble with (Progressor 9) has a much smaller sweet spot than my other two pairs, the Nordicas and Dynastars. Both of those have a huge sweet spot, and I never feel off balance. They are very forgiving of mistakes and stance problems, and I have never felt the need to adjust anything on those other than binding position. The Progressor 9's, on the other hand, are quite different, and small changes in these variables clearly made big differences in how the skis behaved. That behaviour was pretty obvious, and any decent skier would not fail to notice it: bindings too far forward = tails washing out; not enough forward lean = get way forward to engage the shovels; too much heel lift = disconnection from tails. I think you get the picture.
And, in contrast to Mike's bottom of foot pressure, when you get these things set up right, you can feel it in your entire body. You simply feel more centered, balanced, harder to knock off center when hitting rough terrain.
My basic point to Mike was more than that, however. My thinking is that the gear has to be set up correctly
first, before fine tuning of technique begins. Otherwise the skier in his technique is always compensating for equipment setup problems, which, it seems to me, is particularly pertinent in the fore-aft balance discussion. Eg. why fight to get forward if all that is missing is a little forward lean shim?
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