My Personal Ski Tips as an Infrequent Skier

[Tominator]

I'm an advanced old-school skier with modern equipment who's pretty much modernized his technique, but I'm sort of perpetually rusty as I ski about once every 2 weeks at best. Skiing only 8-10 days a season, when I do ski I sometimes feel as if I have to quickly relearn what I already know. I always ski better as the day progresses until fatigue sets in. I've never seen myself ski, but I know that I can be lazy and slip into the back seat, incline instead of angulate, and allow my upper body to rotate when it shouldn't. So, I came up with a few critical tips to insert into my head right before skiing. They seem to work pretty well for me - if I just think of these 3, everything else seems to fall into place naturally:

1. Bend at the ankles

Staying forward by pressuring the tongues of your boots with your shins while keeping your weight on the balls of your feet. (If you only think of bending your knees, you can still be sitting back and/or on your heels.)

2. Upper body facing downhill

A simplistic way of fostering counter-rotation.

3. Hip angulation

Keeps the weight over the skis instead of leaning into the hill. It seems as if the knees follow automatically, so I don't have to explicitly think about them.

A secondary thought that my 2015 Progressor 900’s really seem to like: Seek high edge angles (when the terrain is steep enough).

Finally, an unexpected benefit of staying forward (and possibly of focusing on hip angulation rather than knee angulation): My quads hold up much better throughout the day!

Comments?

 

[Kneale Brownson]

If you're staying forward, you most likely are keeping your knee joints more open than in the past, which means the forces are applied more to the bones in the legs than to the quad muscles.

I'd rather think of upper/lower body separation resulting in facing where you are going next rather than facing totally downhill.

I'd rather think of angles beginning from what I do with my feet than from moving my pelvis.

 

[Tominator]

Thanks, Kneale - those are very helpful comments!

 

[James]

Consider getting off the balls of your feet. Load the arch of your foot. Ball to heel is line of support.

 

[Tominator]

Hmm ... ? Yeah, OK, I get it! Thanks!

 

[Philpug]

Make every other turn to the right (@Bob Barnes-ism)

 

[Crank]

Make every other turn to the right (@Bob Barnes-ism)

I'm gonna file this one away for the next time someone asks me for on slope advice.

I will usually stab my pole at the asker's ski's shovels and say, "this is where you weight should be. This is where the money is. Then point to their ski's tails and say, "Ain't no money back here."

Line stolen from a locally famous banjo picker and teacher.

 

[James]

I'm gonna file this one away for the next time someone asks me for on slope advice.

I will usually stab my pole at the asker's ski's shovels and say, "this is where you weight should be. This is where the money is. Then point to their ski's tails and say, "Ain't no money back here."

Line stolen from a locally famous banjo picker and teacher.

Well if you can work the tail and not get stuck there it's a lot of fun. Also way faster.
Prove it to yourself skiing slush type snow where you can feel it.

 

[Crank]

Well if you can work the tail and not get stuck there it's a lot of fun. Also way faster.
Prove it to yourself skiing slush type snow where you can feel it.

Yes and when playing banjo or guitar you can play the higher frets. Different advice for different levels. I like to sit back and surf in low angle powder. I still like to do the occasional jet turns. and when skiing bumps zipperline I pressure the tails as I slide them around to slow my speed a bit.

When people (instructors) talk about pressure on the boot tongue with one's shins I assume the reason is to get students to keep their weight forward. No? I believe that if you tell them to focus on keeping pressure on their ski's shovels it accomplishes the same thing, but, I feel it better explains the reasons for doing so.

Obviously I am not an instructor....just a skier.

 

[Monique]

When people (instructors) talk about pressure on the boot tongue with one's shins I assume the reason is to get students to keep their weight forward. No? I believe that if you tell them to focus on keeping pressure on their ski's shovels it accomplishes the same thing, but, I feel it better explains the reasons for doing so.

My latest iteration of understanding is that instructors talk about pressuring the boot tongue and keeping weight forward to counteract the near-universal tendency to get into the backseat, especially as terrain gets scarier (per individual's sense of scary). However, the actual objective goal is to be centered and apply pressure as appropriate. I know a couple of very high level instructors who say their personal bad habit is to be too far forward - basically over-reliance on the tongue for support. But most aspiring skiers should be so lucky as to have that issue.

 

[KevinF]

Cue another round of discussion on the Infinity Move and what "moving forwards" is all about...

I don't view leaning against the boot tongues or leaning back against the cuffs to be inherently bad -- or good -- in and of itself. I think of those two extremes in fore-aft positioning as producing very different outcomes. If the outcome doesn't match your desired intent, well, that was a bad place to be.

 

[Monique]

I don't view leaning against the boot tongues or leaning back against the cuffs to be inherently bad -- or good -- in and of itself. I think of those two extremes in fore-aft positioning as producing very different outcomes. If the outcome doesn't match your desired intent, well, that was a bad place to be.

This became very clear to me skiing a narrow tree run (more like a one bump line down between thick trees) with an instructor. He'd been working with me on tactics and flow all day. At the precise moment that he said, "Picture perfect!" - I could feel the pressure of the back of my cuff against my calves, and I could tell I was banking. But I was keeping the flow going and skiing it way better than I usually do when I'm trying to exhibit proper technique. It really drove home for me that skiing is about recovery and flow. And that it's an "ing" sport, as another instructor likes to say.

 

[James]

Try centered in the cuff. You'll end up well in it when forces are large.

Using the tail is not "sitting back" though it is if you stay there. You have to move quite definitely down into the new turn. If you launch you pull the heels up, feet get too far pull them back. Do it just right you end up centered to forward on the ski in the new turn. Throwing in a pivot will also make you more on the front. Ted does that to an extreme degree at times.

Racers use the tail all the time in gs.

I almost never think about "loading the shovels" or tips but it may be perspective. I just think about getting into the new turn. I will think about loading the tails if i'm going to because it has consequences that need planning.

 

[David Chaus]

Another tip: hands where you see can them, in your peripheral vision at least. I see people drop their hands too low or let their arm drag a bit after a pole plant, which drags the shoulders and hence the upper torso backwards a bit.

 

[Ken_R]

I was told that the first turn is always the most difficult one so on a steep slope concentrate on the first and continue to the next turn and try not to stop otherwise you will be making a lot of "first" turns and make it all harder than it should.

A lot of good tips mentioned already.

I would say hands in front and upper body facing downhill are key. The steeper the slope the more critical this is. Most beginners and intermediates shy away from the steeps and are afraid to face downhill and make it much harder for themselves.

Also when skiing powder (specially in the backcountry) I find that a more balanced stance is key again, rookies in the pow sometimes unload their inside ski too much and dig in their outside ski and eat it. This balance is also helpful in the moguls.

Im no expert but those things have worked great for me so far. Still learning, it never ends!

 

[markojp]

You know, this ski school section is doing really well... absolutely amazing that nothing has headed into analysis oblivion common to most web sites.

 

[jimmy]

An observation i got from the Wiz couple of weeks ago regarding my bracing in steeper terrain; "your outside leg is too long for too long".

Regarding the ankles, I like to think that generally keeping your ankles flexed helps to maintain your base of support under your center of mass.

 

[tch]

I had a epiphany this year when I suddenly realized I wanted my body to generally be perpendicular (90*) to the slope, not perpendicular to gravity (flat ground).

 

[JSDOS]

And that it's an "ing" sport, as another instructor likes to say.

Had a similar experience many years ago in a clinic: always stuck between my ears.

Roll (tip) your skis like you steer a car through a corner: a little bit at entry, the most at apex, and gradually open the wheel (untip ski) at the exit.

You can't expect anything good to happen by turning the wheel (ski) to one ("magic or perfect") place and holding it there through an entire corner. Eventually the forces will catch you out and you will slide. Or slowdown. Or crash. Steering (tipping the ski) must be dynamic throughout the turn. Always in motion. The breakthrough for me, was when the teacher put as much emphasis on controlling the untipping ski at the end of the turn as rolling on edge at entry.

 

[crgildart]

Make every other turn to the right (@Bob Barnes-ism)

Unless you're skiing switch, then make every other turn to the left..