Ask Marta Simoes if she knows much about bio-mechanics and
she smiles and shakes her head. It’s not her English comprehension of the
question. While Portuguese, her English
is excellent.
Yet the physics of what she can do are mind bending.
Let’s start with some pictures first – because this topic
can be a little dry without them.
 |
| Marta Simoes - in action on the lake at Clube Quinta Grande - Coruche, Portugal (note: no ducks were harmed in the making of this post) |
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Your turn
Here’s a little test for you. You have 16 seconds to read the following and
comprehend it.
·
A ski boat (in this case a 409 horse power V8)
goes in a straight line down a 259 metre course.
·
on each side of the course are 3 buoys, six in
total that the skier must successfully ski around the outside of
·
There are start and finish gates at each end
that the skier must pass through to have successfully completed their run
·
The width of the start and end entrance and exit
gates is 1.25m
·
The width between the buoys is 23m in total
(11.5m from the buoy to the centre line of the boat)
·
The “down course” distance between the buoys on
the course is 41m
·
The boat is travelling down the course at a
consistent 55 kph (in Marta’s case)
·
It tows a
skier on a tow-line that starts at 18.25
meters long and is progressively shortened each time the skier successfully negotiates
the course
·
The shorter lengths of the rope barely stretch
from the boat to the buoy (in the case of her personal best of 2 buoys on the
11.25m line it doesn’t even do that!)
·
With the boat pulling her straight down the
course, she needs to accelerate to speeds 1.5 – 2x the speed of the boat to
make it to the next buoy on the course, decelerate to turn then accelerate
across the wake again before repeating the manoeuvre.
The speeds, distances and times
go something like this.
·
Decelerate to around 30kph to turn at the buoy.
·
Set herself up at an angle that’s around 60
degrees to the boat
·
Accelerate from 30kph to around 85-90kph+ in the
11.5m from the buoy to the centreline of the course (that takes under 0.75 of a
second to do)
·
At the peak of acceleration, she is pulling
about 4Gs
·
Then decelerates to make the next turn
There is no other sport (including Formula 1 motor racing) where
the acceleration is that fast.
Her arm is an extension of the rope – it’s the only way she
can reach out wide enough to get the ski around the buoy.
Why the 16 second time limit to this little comprehension
test? - Because that’s the amount of
time it takes the boat to get through the entire course from the start gate to
the finish gate at that speed. Marta has
repeated this marvel of physics and endurance 6 times in that 16 seconds. She then has 60 seconds to recover and repeat
it again. This time with a shorter rope
…and she makes it look easy.
But then again she should.
Marta, at 17 years old, was the 2013 European under 21 Women’s slalom
champion. You can read more about Marta at
http://www.martasimoes.com/
While strong and fit – she’s certainly no gorilla. Her secret is perfect form and perfect timing
(and the requisite 10,000 hours plus to be an expert). Marta has been skiing since the age of 2 and slalom
skiing since the age of 7.
Her coach and father, Franciso looks up as Marta finishes
her set and he brings the boat into the dock. While
I am at the opposite end of the ability continuum (in fact not even on the same
page), I am next up. No pressure!
This is Clube Quinta Grande in Coruche Portugal (50 minutes
out of Lisbon). It is a water ski school that breeds champions. I am privileged enough to be here for a week for a coaching session with Francisco. I am at the opposite end of the spectrum to those he usually trains. Yet his style and ability means he can translate and relate to all levels.
It also turns out, fortuitously, that there is a European Tournament at the club on Saturday, the day after my coaching finishes. A chance to hang around, see some fantastic skiing and play unofficial photographer.
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