Skeleton lesson: runners and balance

After race 1, when I couldn't figure out at first how I'd lost time the whole way down the track when my runs both felt solid if not amazing, I double checked my sled balance point and realized that, oops! I did it to myself.

Well, lesson learned. For those skeleton athletes reading this, ROOKIE mistake, I know, and for race 2 it won't happen again. ;)

But for those of you not in the skeleton world and hip to the lingo, you're probably wondering: how does one balance a sled and what is a balance point? Well.....

The runners are designed with a round part (trust me this is shiny, carefully sanded with high grit paper through a lengthy process for another lesson, but the flash makes it look weird):


And a grooved part, a groove / spine combo that acts like the tail of a kite and helps keep you straight. This part gives you the ability to steer by body motion, subtly changing which part of the runner touches the ice (also nicely sanded, but doesn't look like it here):


You balance by placing the weights inside the sled (and that's a whole other lesson, allowable weight maximums and minimums and so on) at a point where you can balance on or near the junction of the "spine" and the "round." Some spines are wide, short, narrow, long; grooves can be shallow, deep, wide, narrow, steeply angled, shallowly angled......etc.


The result of a balance point: you're sliding down the track on only a portion of the runner at any time. Balance is important......

• Too far forward and your weight is on the rounds only, meaning you can break into a skid more easily and have much less control.
  
• Too far back and your weight is on the spines and, depending on the hardness of the ice you either
  
• a) also increase skidding (picture a speedboat nose up in the water on step and apply the image to a sled), or
• b) have too much control and shave ice the whole way down the track. (This is slow btw!)
  

To test, you use a round stick, wooden to keep from hurting the runners, and lay the sled on top of it. In a pinch, a broom or shovel at the track start serves well. But Brad brought a nice short stick with him, so I borrowed it.

Then, you make sure the stick is at the right point either on or near the junction point, depending on the runner. First go by feel, feeling for the junction.


Then, for this set of runners, a mark. I marked the correct spot on the side of the runners with a sharpie, but then the marks ended up on the inside so here I am with a flashlight looking for the markers. Oops.




Fine tune it.




Then hop on. (Well, actually, please don't hop or you'll knock it off the right point, heh.)

Adjust back if needed.


The goal: make sure that the place you lay on the sled will result in balancing evenly on that spot. With a "saddle" as fitted to my body as mine is, I can't move very far forward or back on the sled, so I have to move weights inside the sled instead. And, different runner cuts can balance differently, so you need to keep aware of which cuts balance where and in what position. Aargh!

But here, Viola!

My roommate tested hers later that day on a broom handle:

Adjusting.

She had to move her weights, which meant opening up her sled. A pain...removing tape...

And opening the yoga mat padding/covering....

And I can't show you more since sled interiors are proprietary....but there were more steps than that!

Either way, once you find your balance point, memorize that position so when you load the sled, you can immediately get into the right place before the first curve.