V-style
Encyclopedia
Szklarska Poreba
Szklarska Poręba is a town in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. The town has a population of around 7,000...
. As early as 1969 Graf discovered the style as a kid, but later his colleagues were laughing at his jumps.
In the 80s, this style of jumping was considered inappropriate by the jury, and although it enabled very long jumps, judges awarded poor marks to those who used the style. The first who did this on international stage were Czech ski jumper Jiří Malec
Jirí Malec
Jiři Malec is a former Czechoslovak ski jumper who competed from 1985 to 1990.At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, he earned a bronze in the individual normal hill.- External links :...
and Jan Boklov
Jan Boklöv
Jan Mauritz Boklöv is one of the most successful Swedish ski jumpers of all time, probably only rivaled by Sven Selånger. He won the World Cup in 1988/89, and dominated the Swedish championships in the late 1980s. He is however most known for inventing the V-style, which has been the standard...
from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, in the mid 80s.
Graf was fully aware that the "V" style was better than the previous one, because his jumps became considerably longer. It was only recognized by the judges in the early 90s after wins and high rankings by Jan Boklöv
Jan Boklöv
Jan Mauritz Boklöv is one of the most successful Swedish ski jumpers of all time, probably only rivaled by Sven Selånger. He won the World Cup in 1988/89, and dominated the Swedish championships in the late 1980s. He is however most known for inventing the V-style, which has been the standard...
and Jiří Malec
Jirí Malec
Jiři Malec is a former Czechoslovak ski jumper who competed from 1985 to 1990.At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, he earned a bronze in the individual normal hill.- External links :...
despite low marks. Already in early 90s it was the most dominant style, not any more penalized as it has proven to be both safer and better than the previous style.
The style is a modification of the Daescher technique
Daescher technique
The Daescher technique is a ski jumping technique that was created by Andreas Daescher of Switzerland. This technique was created in the 1950s as a modification of the Kongsberger technique where the arms are placed backward toward the hips for a closer lean...
. In this technique the skis are held during the jump alongside the upper torso in a V-like shape. In the Daescher technique, the skis were kept parallel to each other. This new technique increases the ski jumping distance by 10 percent.
The style is sometimes called Graf-Boklov , but western journalists sometimes marginalize Polish inventor Graf or Czech contemporary and pioneer on international stage Jiří and credit Boklöv alone with V-style.
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...
has become increasingly important in modern ski jumping, with recent rules addressing the regulation of ski jumping suits. This follows a period when loopholes in the rules seemed to favor skinny jumpers in stiff, airfoil
Airfoil
An airfoil or aerofoil is the shape of a wing or blade or sail as seen in cross-section....
-like suits. This technique is part of this trend.