The question is, what separates a good skier from a beginner or intermediate? The simple answer is, how they create their platform to balance on. So, what does that mean? I'm not into complicated medical terms and physics lessons, most people aren't. They don't want to hear about dorsi-flexion and a bunch of super technical terms. They simply ask, "how can I get better"? I'm certainly not the be-all-end-all answer to that question. This is a general ski forum and without seeing how any individual skis, it's virtually impossible to fix what ails them. 2 of the biggest problems are, skiing in the back seat, or banking/leaning into the new turn and tossing in a 3rd possibility, twisting their upper body in order to get their skis to turn the corner. All of these things I mentioned create problems, and loss of balance.
The 1st, skiing in the back seat. What is happening? Your calves are resting against the back of your boots. If you think about it, it kinda makes sense. When we first learned to ski and wanted to go faster without really learning to ski, we all learned the snow plow/pizza stance. We quickly discovered we could BRACE against that downhill/outside ski and could increase our speed and maintain some semblance of safety and control without ever having to make a REAL turn. When the one leg got tired and started to burn, we'd make some half assed attempt at switching legs. Wild guess...30-40 percent ended in a yard sale because we were going too fast and or the snow conditions were a bit more than we could handle... ie bumps, ice or steeper pitch. The back of the boot is higher and stiffer than the front of the boot and creates an easier platform to balance against, so it's natural to default to whatever offers the most support to balance or brace against. The problem is, once we fall in love with the back of the boot, our weight is also back there, and we give up control over the front of our skis, and lose the ability to make turns and control our speed. In other words, if the front of our skis are barely in contact with the snow, it's pretty difficult to dig the shovels of our skis in and make a turn. We've all probably heard someone say, "GET FORWARD." AH HA!!! I'll flex forward at the waist and all my trouble will disappear. Nope. Your calves are still resting against the back of your boots and you're artificially trying to create forward pressure, but you're still in the back seat. If you hit a small bump, you will get tossed forward over the front of your skis and eat shit. Ok, so how do we "GET FORWARD?' We have 3 joints to work with...ANKLES, KNEES and HIPS/WAIST. The primary means of getting forward is the ankle joint. I think of it like this (and this doesn't mean I don't flex my knees and hips, it's an example of how to find forward or more accurately, center balance) ... without flexing your knees or hips, meaning DO NOT bend them at all, simply lean forward against the front of your boots. Here's what's happening in my boots... I feel a lot of pressure with my shins against the front of my boots. Since I'm not flexing my knees or hips, I feel my heels being pressed into the heel cup of my boots. My upper body feels like it's hanging over a set of bicycle handlebars. My hips are now OVER MY FEET. Again, MY HIPS ARE OVER MY FEET. This is primarily where I want to be. Ok smart ass, so why should I ever be concerned about my knee and hip joints and why do I ever need to flex them? To me, these joints are what I use to absorb terrain. This is a bit oversimplified, but everything I do with my skiing stems from keeping my hips over my feet. This includes steeps, moguls, pow, hucking off of kickers and side hits, skiing trees, cliff dropping and skiing switch. Hips over the feet. Does this mean I exclusively keep my hips over my feet? No...but it's the ability to get my hips back over my feet that matters. Paramount to all of this is having properly fitted boots and keeping my upper boot buckles and power strap as tight as I can make them. If it's 0 degrees or colder, I do loosen my buckles a bit so I can flex my boots a bit more, simply due to the cold and the stiffness the colder temps create. In case anyone is wondering, I barely buckle my lower buckles. I don't feel the need to squeeze the B-Jesus out of my foot. It makes for poor circulation and cold feet. Opinions may vary. Like everything I write, this is just my opinion. If what I write helps someone...great. If not, I'm sorry I couldn't help.
Moving on...Banking/Leaning into the turn. This is a lateral balance issue. What I see most often is new or intermediate skiers wanting to make a turn, but don't know how to transition. They have the right idea by projecting their body down the hill in an attempt to find their new edges, by leaning into their new turn. Unfortunately, they haven't established balance on their new outside ski, so they end up on the inside edge of the inside ski. In their mind, they're waiting or hoping for the outside ski to engage and bring them around to finish their new turn. The problem is, all of their weight is on the inside ski, so they never have the chance to establish a balance platform on the outside ski, because their weight isn't where it needs to be. Typically, this is a very uncomfortable feeling that leads to an immediate loss of balance and subsequent crash. Granted, the White Pass Lean proved to be an effective tactic for one of the Maher brothers back in the 1980's and is still used by ski racers and freestyle skiers as a tactic to accomplish a particular turn, or simply to establish a comfort zone when they do get out of balance so they can recover from an out of balance state. Or maybe someone wants to show off their Christie Royale... I love watching people do those. The best advice I can offer comes in the form of drills if you are leaning into your turns. 1, shuffle your feet at transition. If you are favoring or can't get off your old edges...traverse across the hill and shuffle your feet. This will bring you back to a neutral state of balance. 2, when starting your new turn, lean your upper body toward your outside ski and reach down and touch the outside of your outside ski boot. This will definitely establish lateral balance over your outside ski, and it will be impossible to lean into your turn. Your body will create a nice "C" shape over your outside ski.
Lastly, twisting your upper body. Again, mostly newer skiers will twist their upper body in order to get their skis to turn. Sometimes the twist is the direction they want to turn, other times they twist their upper body counter to the direction they want to turn. Either way they do the twisting, one big problem surfaces. One or both hands end up behind them, which puts them out of balance and in the back seat. From there, and since they're out of balance, their turns get bigger and their speed increases and pretty soon they're in trouble. It's probably easier said than done, but try not to twist your upper body. Modern skis are designed to turn. Let the skis do the work and save your energy.
One final note... If you can, take a lesson. Whatever the instructor teaches you during the lesson, continue to practice it. They won't be able to make you an expert in a single day. They will give you 1 or 2 things to work on to improve your skiing. After that, it's up to the individual to continue working on what they learned and refine the skill. When you feel like you've mastered the skill, take another lesson and learn an additional skill or 2. If you have a friend that knows how to teach you, take advantage of it. If you're riding up the chair lift with some random person you saw skiing and you thought they were a really good skier, don't be afraid to ask them if they'd be willing to spend a bit of time helping you. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but I certainly wouldn't mind taking an hour or so out of my day to pay it forward if someone asked. The worst they can say is no. Best wishes to you all.
