Snow Skills

Skiing and riding in the trees relies on both physical and mental aspects to successfully make it through a run. While the physcial aspects are most important, you can help set yourself up for success by developing mental concepts that support those moves. Since avoiding the trees is the goal, you can be more successful at that goal if you let yourself think different about what composes a turn in the trees. Instead of thinking of turning around them, you can create more room for yourself in the trees by thinking about skiing at an angle past them.

A traditional coaching concept in basketball is that a ball carrier wants to move diagonally to avoid a defender in front of them. Try standing face to face with a friend about 5 feet away. If you move directly to either side, you won’t really go anywhere and your friend can move forward and grab you. If you move forward, you’ll move right into your friend so they can grab you. If you move forward and to either side (diagonally), however, your friend will have more difficulty getting ahold of you.

It’s that diagonal movement that would help you make redirections in trees without hitting them easier. Now stand in a tree run with a tree directly below you. Notice that you have several directions to either side of the tree in a diagonal direction; you have less options if you try to move directly downhill or across the hill. Now begin skiing/riding through the trees and apply the same tactic to each tree; try to think less about turning and more about directing your gear such that you approach each new tree an at angle to it. By directing yourself down and to the side, you’ll find yourself moving to the open spaces and avoiding the trees more easily.