3 Quick tips to become a better skier

1. Stay centred on your skis

 

Generally your weight needs to be evenly distributed along the length of your feet, to maintain downward pressure right along the full length of the skis.

The bindings on the skis are usually set a bit back from the middle, so you need to lean forward to get your weight to the middle of the ski, pushing with your shins on the front of the ski boots, this position lets you transmits your inputs to the ski much better.

The boots also are designed with a tilt forwards to force your ankles to bend, you should feel your shins resting on the padded front of the inner liners. The feeling is like if you are leaning on something solid with your shins.

If your weight is too far back, the front of the skis will not be pushing into the snow, resulting in a slow and late start of your turns, meaning lost of control.

 

2. Keep a relaxed intermediate position

 

Keep the three main joints of you lower body half bend, that means your ankles, knees and hips in an intermediate position, and keep the muscles holding this joints in a semi relaxed state, not too tens, not too weak. This is going to give a more adaptable stance, making it easier for you to keep your balance.

You have to think as this three joints are your suspensions, the better they work, the easier is going to be for you to absorbe all the vibrations and bumps, and stop them from affecting your balance.

Holding this semi flexed and semi relaxed position is tiring, so is important to prepare the muscles before the winter with some specific exercises. The longer you are able to keep this position, the longer your runs will be and your ski days skiing at your best.

The hardest part for all skiers is to keep their ankles relax. People tends to think the knees are the most important joint, but the secret resides on the ankles. When we are skiing, the joints closer to the skis are the ankles, there is where we start feeling all the sensations that the contact between the skis and the snow transmit to our body, and where all our body actions and commands end up to be transmitted to our skis. Skiers tend to tens them up on the hope of having more control over their movement, but too much muscular tensions means loosing our first line of suspension, also reduces our sensitivity and our ability to regulate our pressure over the skis and snow.

 

3. Even up the weight distribution between your feet

 

The way your weight is distributed between your skis determines how much each ski will influence your movement.

Lateral weight distribution (more weight on one ski or the other) brings you out of the fall line and takes your skis sideways to the slope (this combined with other actions makes you turn basically).

The ski with the most weight on it will also control your movement more than the other, as it is being pushed into the snow more, and has more grip.The more weight over one ski, the quicker you will reach the sideways position as well.

The problem is that skiers tend to put too much weight on the outside ski, the one situated on the outside of the semicircle drawn by our skis in a turn, as if the weight was the only factor that make the skis turn. That means that our outside ski has an excess of pressure on top of it (our whole weight, the inercia and the centrifuge force), what it make it more difficult for it to hold the grip with the edge on steeper slopes, harder snows or higher speeds.

Have you ever felt that you are skiing good and with control on blues and easy reds slopes, but when the terrain starts to get steeper, and the snow harder, you start to suffer to much, skid a lot, and have the feeling that you aren’t under control.

People tends to blame on the edges, not being sharp enough. Its obvios that having the skis in good conditions is going to help, but sharing the work and pressure between the two skis during the turn is going to help you even more (try to get a weight distribution of 70/30 or 60/40 as a rough meassure).

Start using more your inside ski and you’ll become a much better skier , feel much safer and with control, also your turns will look much smoother.