Ski Jumping awards points for style. (Grrr! I’m not into ‘style points’. Too subjective.) It used to be that jumpers would hold their skis parallel, until Jan Boklöv changed that 25 years ago by pioneering the V-technique.
Now, the V-technique makes sense. More drag, but also more lift; thus, farther jumps. But what if someone wanted to use the parallel-ski technique anyway? Would he or she be docked style points?
A quick Wiki search reveals that jumpers are scored based on keeping the skis steady during flight, balance, good body position and landing. Nothing really specific about parallel style vs. V-style.
The V-style adds about 10% distance to a jump, so I would imagine a skier using the parallel style would be leaving a significant distance score on the table.
No doubt. But a link within your link indicates that Boklöv’s scores were reduced for style. So I was wondering whether someone who decided to use the older style would have style points deducted since it varies from the now-accepted norm.
There’s a PDF file here detailing the International Competition Rules. (It’s the first link.) Pages 60 and 61 of the PDF mention “utilization of the aerodynamic efficiency of body and ski,” and “combination of body and ski to build an entire flying system.”
So perhaps a parallel-style jumper would have style points deducted, as the parallel-style seems less aerodynamically efficient."