Snow Skills

Question: what parts of the legs allow you to turn the skis? Answer: all of them! Your legs are the strongest limbs on the body and have many parts which work in concert to create that strength. The inidividual parts of the leg control your movements by an equilibrium of contraction and extension to give you strength through balance in any athletic activity. You can translate that energy into powerful skiing by ensuring that you use your legs in skiing the way you would in any other activity.

Try this: stand on a set of stairs with both feet on a single step and face across them. Hanging onto the handrail, dangle your downhill leg off the step and twist your foot left and right as far as you can. The entire leg from the hip joint down will work together to swivel your foot; notice that your leg basically stays long and doesn’t change length while it twists.

Now try the same exercise with your downhill ski boots on. Although the boot has a natural forward lean design, the slight bending of your leg doesn’t change the image of your leg basically staying long and not changing length when twisting. Be aware that the top of your boot will contact your calf with generally the same pressure all the way around. These are excellent leg steering motions to use while skiing. If you lean back or exaggerate the motion of any single leg part, you’ll feel one part of the boot cuff more and the natural equilibrium of your leg will have become unbalanced. This unbalance is sometimes called “bracing” off the ski boot and it’s a tiring, uncomfortable manner in which to turn a ski. Keep using all of your leg to steer your skis and you’ll ski strongly right through to last chair!