Lilienfeld v Alberg

[Mike Childers]

I am writing a brief (very) paragraph on the evolution of modern skiing for my dissertation, and have stummble across a problem in my notes I hope someone can help with. What was the difference between the Lilienfield and the Alberg Technique?

[Seth]

Big difference. Matthias Zdarsky began working out his Lilienfelder Technik in 1890. He focused on no-fall, controlled descent in any terrain, and his bombproof turn was based on the stem and dependence on a single pole which could be dragged in the snow for braking, balance and leverage. See http://skiinghistory.org/zdarsky.html

Hannes Schneider was interested in speed, and encouraged students to move beyond the Zdarsky stem to a parallel position at the end of the turn; the key move was the stem christie, which he worked out around 1910. It started with a stem and ended with a skidding parallel. Eventually, after introduction of steel edges and the Kandahar binding, his Arlberg technique was extended to gradually eliminate the stem in favor of a pure parallel at the expert level (see Seelos etc). Arlberg technique used two poles but these were not used for braking or balance. Schneider developed the progression to teach thousands of Austrian Army recruits to ski during WWI, and then adapted it for wealthy guests at the Hotel Post in St. Anton. See http://skiinghistory.org/history.html and http://skiinghistory.org/historicdates.html

Seth

[Skipper]

There is very useful article: Horst Tiwald, "Auf den Spuren von Mathias Zdarsky", Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-936212-13-9, www.bewegen.org
Next look here: www.zdarsky-ski-museum.at