Snow Skills

There’s a lot going on in your body when you’re making a turn; legs, feet, hands, arms, body, and head can seem to all have minds of their own when you’re trying to find the right combination of moves. Use the KISS Method (Keep It Simple Stupid) by reducing the load; try skiing without poles. The weight and grip of your poles tends to encourage overly active movements of your arms, sometimes to the point of twisting your body and taking you out of balance. If you can take the arms out of the equation, you’ll be more successful at focusing on separating your upper body from the more active motions of your legs. Result? Steadier balance from turn to turn!

Here are a few effective exercises without poles that will help you develop turns that have active legs and a quiet body:

Try skiing without poles. Focus on letting your legs turn the skis while the arms simply fine tune your balance by staying in front of you and away from your body. Your arms can move, but try not to let them move so much that your shoulders start to twist. If your hands drop behind your body, you’re probably losing balance.

Try skiing while carrying a pole in both hands. Find a pole (an old bamboo racing pole is perfect) and hold it across your body with both hands a little wider than shoulder-width. Make turns on an easy slope and focus on holding the pole away from your body with gently flexed elbows. The most effective movements are where you keep the pole (and your upper body) relatively across gravity while your legs are swinging back and forth.

Try skiing while holding your poles by the middle of the shaft. You’ll find this stance tends to quiet your hands and forearms and created a blocked effect where your upper body and arms are moving as a unit. While making turns, pay attention to your pole grips; if you see them swinging across your body or moving independently of eachother, there’s too much action in your upper body.

A couple runs without poles can help improve your skiing a lot. Now put the poles back into the picture and focus on leaving the upper body and arms as still as possible and turning with the legs!