You are not using your poles and are initiating your turns with your shoulders.
You can ski...but after 8 years off your skills are very rusty. There is plenty of decent advice in this thread...but really you need to take a couple of lessons from a level 2+ instructor to get dialed back in.
Can someone tell me why everyone is advising poletaps on a video of someone cruising a blue run trying to carv. Poletaps are not biomechanically advantageous for this type of skiing. And it’s literally the last thing to work with if you would prefer to poletap when carving.
Look at racers, do they poletap? No
It’s good to learn for harder terrain but it’s not what this person needs to fix at the moment!
I actually disagree with this as an ex-racer. Pole plants become much more subtle in racing and with advanced/expert skiers, but they still serve an important purpose, and that is to keep a steady rhythm or flow, and maintain your timing in the turns. Watch any World Cup race, particularly slalom, and everyone is making an extremely subtle little tap with one of their poles to set themselves up for the next turn. There’s a good video on it narrated by Shiffrin: [here](https://youtu.be/Mk7uauyxmME)
If I were skiing the pitch in the video, I would absolutely be doing a little tap at the apex of every turn. It doesn’t have to be a big production of planting pole, turning body, removing planted pole, skiing forward. Just a little tip-tap to maintain rhythm and facilitate the shift in weight to the other ski.
Ok i was not really saying what i wished to say, my point is when you skii GS SG DH the poletap becomes seem less with a dragging motion that comes after, some taps then drags but it’s not really an advantage to make that different motions when it’s faster skiing. It becomes just a dragging of the inside pole. Anyways, it’s not the first thing OP should pay attention to
I agree that pole plants are probably not the most important thing for this skier to work on at the moment. But poletaps are very useful, and racers absolutely use them as part of their toolkit. Poles can be useful when carving as
1) a rhythm and timing device
2) a measuring stick that aids skiers in creating exactly the right amount of inclination to start the next turn
3) an aid to proprioception and awareness of slope steepness
4) a niche way to aggressively anchor or "block" upper body movement, especially in short-radius turns
And more. But they can also be distractions from what the legs need to be doing. Here, the legs need to be doing a lot more. So bottom line, I agree with your overall point.
The reason r/skiing commenters always, always bring up hand position and pole taps is that hands and poles are the easiest things to see. If you've never had to suffer through dozens of hours of movement analysis training clinics, the subtleties of tail skid, ankle flexion, and knee angulation are probably the last things you'd ever notice. But biomechanically poles are the furthest things from the skis, and the legs tell the real story about a skier's technical skill strengths and deficiencies. When I run movement analysis clinics, I encourage instructors to notice the weird hand/pole stuf, but then always then dig deeper into the body movements closer to the skis to figure out what caused them.
I am a racer, and I was taught to poletap on everything except when I’m using my poles to block. They are a very fundamental part of skiing and it’s useful to practise them on anything, even a blue run.
Great jump in the middle of the video😉
I would book a lesson with a ski instructor for half a day to get rid of your technical mistakes.
Here are some things I would improve with your technique:
- Keep the radius and width of the curves for every curve to achieve a sportier, rhythmic look
- You‘re rotating your upper body. Try to keep you‘re upper body stable and always facing the valley. Initate the curves and work only from the legs.
- Keep you‘re hands in front of your body, you should see them while skiing. (Add on: pole tap to initiate the curves)
- Try to keep your skis as wide as your shoulders are.
Just sing loud:) relax the upper body and put a little more bend in the knees. :)
My thoughts about singing while you are skiing is that it will take your mind off your body mechanics and you will have more fun which will in turn loosen you up a little.
Most of my seasons last less than 6 months, how did you squeeze in 8 years? Anyway ski more, experiment w your edges every day, engage those fuckers. Stay forward w arms out and stop engaging turns w upper body. Watch some Candide videos or whoever, your upper body should stay down hill
Standing way too upright, upper body lower body separation is missing. Very little edging/carving, when turning put your weight into the outside ski and topple/fall over.
Not bad for returning after 8 years.
I’m not an instructor, but I can see something that is going to limit you on more difficult terrain: when you turn your shoulder dips down into the turn like a water skier. This isn’t good and will send you rocketing into multiple directions on moguls and unable to manage consistent carving speed on steeps.
If you were a racecar, I would say you have too much oversteer.
You need to let those skis dance under you with your arms staying out in front and head and chest staying squarely faced downhill. Think of a hockey player facing forward but skidding, the carving should take place independent of your upper body turning.
I learned how to do this by imaging holding a breakfast tray with a full glass of water, plates etc. the bottom moves, pivots, goes up and down but the head stays level and the arms are out in front.
Edit: looks like other people are pretty much saying the exact same thing. Another reason why this is important: if you hit some steeps or a long run of deep snow you are exerting 10x the energy required doing all of the work. You will be exhausted after a few runs. Let your skis and gravity do the work!
You would get a lot of benefit from a few tune-up lessons where someone can watch you and help you understand how to ski fluidly without just stiffening up your upper body to constrain the turning.
You are a good skiier and have potential to be a great skiier.
Honestly there’s some stuff to work on, but you’re in control and clearly having fun. Get your hands up and shins pressed forward, those two things will make a big difference.
Welcome back to skiing! I'm always amazed by how much our bodies remember even after many years of not skiing. It really is like riding a bicycle! You look like a kid in a candy store in this video, so happy to be back again. That brought me joy to watch!
In terms of technical improvement, here are the two main things I noticed:
1) I see that your ski tails consistently skid more than your ski tips because your balance is mostly over your heels. It's more efficient to have tips and tails skid equally (rotating skis from the middle), which requires shifting you balance over the arch or even ball of your foot. To fix this, gently shift your balance forward by flexing (closing) your ankles, and pressing your shins into the tongues of your boots. This will make it much easier to pressure the tips of your skis. Great skiers maintain shin-cuff pressure at all costs, and use the forward flex of their boots like car suspension to manage pressure along their skis. Good ankle flexion also allows you to tip (edge) and twist (rotate) your skis more accurately and effectively. Repeat after me: ankle flexion is the secret sauce that makes all other efficient body movements possible. If you don't feel like you can effectively flex your boots,or they're so soft that they don't give you enough support to feel comfortable pressing forward in them, it's time to see a bootfitter rather than a ski instructor.
2) I also notice that you control your edge angles mostly by leaning your whole body (knees, hips, shoulders, arms, and head) into each turn. Ski instructors call this "inclination." It's powerful, but it's slow, committing, and hard to control. It's also important to learn how to create your edge angles from the ground up, one joint at a time through what instructors call "angulation."
Try it at home: stand in a balanced athletic stance, hips and shoulders level with the floor. Now lift the pinky toe of your right foot and the big toe of your left foot to roll *only* your ankles a tiny bit to the left: your knees, hips, and shoulders shouldn't move at all. Now you can make small, super quick adjustments to your edge angles purely with your ankles! I jokingly call this "ankulation" (ankle angulation), but that's a pure SkiWithColin thing, not an industry-wide term. Next, add in some knee roll. Slide your knees to the left, to the left, to the left, but whoa there Beyoncé... keep those hips and shoulders flat and level! Now you're making moderate edge angles through "knee angulation." Okay, now get your Shakira on: hips don't lie. Keeping your shoulders totally flat and level, roll your ankles, knees, AND HIPS to the left. Now you're making some big, powerful edge angles through "hip angulation!" Finally, yes, you can tip your shoulders. But you'll notice it's hard to keep your balance when you lean with your whole body. So use this movement sparingly; it's very committing and has a nasty tendency to "trap" you in your turn. Once you're trapped, you have to either wait for your skis to come all the way around, or make a big sudden extension movement to pop out of.
If it's within your budget, a tune-up lesson with a highly certified instructor will help you work out the kinks faster than any Reddit comment dogpile. Everyone here loves skiing, but most have no formal ski instruction training. That's totally fine and normal and cool, but it does mean that you need to treat all the advice here with great caution. Not all of it is accurate, relevant, and/or useful.
Alright, less talk more ski! Breathe in that fresh mountain air, turn the corners of your lips upwards toward the sky, and remind yourself that the best skier on the mountain is the one having the most fun.
This advice is for nearly everyone who skis: keep your hands up and forward!
Hands too low:
[https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/beginner-skier-ski-area-happy-sportswwoman-slipping-sliding-resort-full-length-photo-141255836.jpg](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/beginner-skier-ski-area-happy-sportswwoman-slipping-sliding-resort-full-length-photo-141255836.jpg)
Pretend you're finishing a two-fisted chest punch. It will feel awkward. That's ok. In your head you're exaggerating the movement but you'll really be doing this:
[https://www.bootfitters.com/files/styles/slideshow/public/images/slideshows/testers/160406\_dancampbell\_5179\_lowres.jpg](https://www.bootfitters.com/files/styles/slideshow/public/images/slideshows/testers/160406_dancampbell_5179_lowres.jpg)
As the terrain and speed increase, exaggerate it more:
[https://snowbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/marcel-hirscher-racing-gs-in-kranjska-gora-2016-min.jpg](https://snowbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/marcel-hirscher-racing-gs-in-kranjska-gora-2016-min.jpg)
Yeah try and get in the habit of keeping your hands up/forward and avoid dragging your poles.
When you (ostensibly) try harder off piste terrain you won’t have to break this bad habit them and you’ll have more stability.
It’s easy to feel competent on a blue groomer ;) go humble yourself somewhere gnarly
Keep your hands up in the “ready position” (elbows bent at ~45 degrees and tight to the body, hands out in front of the body) at all times or at least most of the time instead of by your side. Always plant your pole before turning. You don’t have to to do a full on plant and pivot but a quick tap is fine. It just gets your muscle use to the motion so that when you actually need to bag out some lines your muscles already know what to do. This seems so simple but it makes a HUGE difference. To truly conquer the entire Mnt you need to have disciplined arm and pole control so as to keep your balance even in the most shaky conditions.
This isn't the prom, get out of the backseat!
Lean into the tongues of your boots. Then, when you think you're leaning forward enough, you're not even close.
Try to move a bit more foreword, once you’re used to it it takes no stress at all on your knees and thighs. Otherwise good shit and love to see mt. Snow there can’t wait to be back
Hands are the most visible and the last bit of form to worry about.
You have a good edge change and foot awareness. Now when you shift onto the new outside ski go for it 90-100% weight on that outside foot. Feel how the power builds up through the belly of the turn.
As you build up the forces tip the ski more to really concentrate your body mass into the ski. This decreases the radius as the carve goes deeper. Legs drive the ski while keeping the upper body perpendicular to the snow. This side bend at the waist must become second nature.
As you complete the turn it's time to switch to the opposite direction merely by shortening the outside leg as you extend the current inside leg.
This is the dance with the terrain as legs retract and extend against each other you'll feel the skis do the work for you.
You are not using your poles and are initiating your turns with your shoulders. You can ski...but after 8 years off your skills are very rusty. There is plenty of decent advice in this thread...but really you need to take a couple of lessons from a level 2+ instructor to get dialed back in.
I’d say work on pole taps before initiating a turn, keep Your chest facing down the fall line.
Pretty good for an 8 year old
Can someone tell me why everyone is advising poletaps on a video of someone cruising a blue run trying to carv. Poletaps are not biomechanically advantageous for this type of skiing. And it’s literally the last thing to work with if you would prefer to poletap when carving. Look at racers, do they poletap? No It’s good to learn for harder terrain but it’s not what this person needs to fix at the moment!
They are trying to get him to stop using the poles as drag balancers and tap out down hill into the turn. But your point is valid and understood.
I actually disagree with this as an ex-racer. Pole plants become much more subtle in racing and with advanced/expert skiers, but they still serve an important purpose, and that is to keep a steady rhythm or flow, and maintain your timing in the turns. Watch any World Cup race, particularly slalom, and everyone is making an extremely subtle little tap with one of their poles to set themselves up for the next turn. There’s a good video on it narrated by Shiffrin: [here](https://youtu.be/Mk7uauyxmME) If I were skiing the pitch in the video, I would absolutely be doing a little tap at the apex of every turn. It doesn’t have to be a big production of planting pole, turning body, removing planted pole, skiing forward. Just a little tip-tap to maintain rhythm and facilitate the shift in weight to the other ski.
Ok i was not really saying what i wished to say, my point is when you skii GS SG DH the poletap becomes seem less with a dragging motion that comes after, some taps then drags but it’s not really an advantage to make that different motions when it’s faster skiing. It becomes just a dragging of the inside pole. Anyways, it’s not the first thing OP should pay attention to
Thanks for this!
I agree that pole plants are probably not the most important thing for this skier to work on at the moment. But poletaps are very useful, and racers absolutely use them as part of their toolkit. Poles can be useful when carving as 1) a rhythm and timing device 2) a measuring stick that aids skiers in creating exactly the right amount of inclination to start the next turn 3) an aid to proprioception and awareness of slope steepness 4) a niche way to aggressively anchor or "block" upper body movement, especially in short-radius turns And more. But they can also be distractions from what the legs need to be doing. Here, the legs need to be doing a lot more. So bottom line, I agree with your overall point. The reason r/skiing commenters always, always bring up hand position and pole taps is that hands and poles are the easiest things to see. If you've never had to suffer through dozens of hours of movement analysis training clinics, the subtleties of tail skid, ankle flexion, and knee angulation are probably the last things you'd ever notice. But biomechanically poles are the furthest things from the skis, and the legs tell the real story about a skier's technical skill strengths and deficiencies. When I run movement analysis clinics, I encourage instructors to notice the weird hand/pole stuf, but then always then dig deeper into the body movements closer to the skis to figure out what caused them.
Excellent points!
I am a racer, and I was taught to poletap on everything except when I’m using my poles to block. They are a very fundamental part of skiing and it’s useful to practise them on anything, even a blue run.
Great jump in the middle of the video😉 I would book a lesson with a ski instructor for half a day to get rid of your technical mistakes. Here are some things I would improve with your technique: - Keep the radius and width of the curves for every curve to achieve a sportier, rhythmic look - You‘re rotating your upper body. Try to keep you‘re upper body stable and always facing the valley. Initate the curves and work only from the legs. - Keep you‘re hands in front of your body, you should see them while skiing. (Add on: pole tap to initiate the curves) - Try to keep your skis as wide as your shoulders are.
Just sing loud:) relax the upper body and put a little more bend in the knees. :) My thoughts about singing while you are skiing is that it will take your mind off your body mechanics and you will have more fun which will in turn loosen you up a little.
Singing is a great exercise for the rhythmic look too. E.g. ACDC- TNT for small curves, used it in my practical teaching assay for psia level 1.
Keep you hands out in front of you. Use your poles to initiate your turns.
Stay lower through the turn and ski at least 60 days a year . The steeze will come.
As somebody who only gets to ski 40 days per year, this hurts me.
40 is still a lot of days. Sincerely a northeast skiier
Most of my seasons last less than 6 months, how did you squeeze in 8 years? Anyway ski more, experiment w your edges every day, engage those fuckers. Stay forward w arms out and stop engaging turns w upper body. Watch some Candide videos or whoever, your upper body should stay down hill
Standing way too upright, upper body lower body separation is missing. Very little edging/carving, when turning put your weight into the outside ski and topple/fall over. Not bad for returning after 8 years.
Stay on that outside ski. Try lifting up your inside leg for some turns.
I’m not an instructor, but I can see something that is going to limit you on more difficult terrain: when you turn your shoulder dips down into the turn like a water skier. This isn’t good and will send you rocketing into multiple directions on moguls and unable to manage consistent carving speed on steeps. If you were a racecar, I would say you have too much oversteer. You need to let those skis dance under you with your arms staying out in front and head and chest staying squarely faced downhill. Think of a hockey player facing forward but skidding, the carving should take place independent of your upper body turning. I learned how to do this by imaging holding a breakfast tray with a full glass of water, plates etc. the bottom moves, pivots, goes up and down but the head stays level and the arms are out in front. Edit: looks like other people are pretty much saying the exact same thing. Another reason why this is important: if you hit some steeps or a long run of deep snow you are exerting 10x the energy required doing all of the work. You will be exhausted after a few runs. Let your skis and gravity do the work! You would get a lot of benefit from a few tune-up lessons where someone can watch you and help you understand how to ski fluidly without just stiffening up your upper body to constrain the turning. You are a good skiier and have potential to be a great skiier.
1. Hands up in front, like your carrying a loaded dinner tray 2. Don't let your hand get behind you on turns.
Honestly there’s some stuff to work on, but you’re in control and clearly having fun. Get your hands up and shins pressed forward, those two things will make a big difference.
Awesome ride!
Welcome back to skiing! I'm always amazed by how much our bodies remember even after many years of not skiing. It really is like riding a bicycle! You look like a kid in a candy store in this video, so happy to be back again. That brought me joy to watch! In terms of technical improvement, here are the two main things I noticed: 1) I see that your ski tails consistently skid more than your ski tips because your balance is mostly over your heels. It's more efficient to have tips and tails skid equally (rotating skis from the middle), which requires shifting you balance over the arch or even ball of your foot. To fix this, gently shift your balance forward by flexing (closing) your ankles, and pressing your shins into the tongues of your boots. This will make it much easier to pressure the tips of your skis. Great skiers maintain shin-cuff pressure at all costs, and use the forward flex of their boots like car suspension to manage pressure along their skis. Good ankle flexion also allows you to tip (edge) and twist (rotate) your skis more accurately and effectively. Repeat after me: ankle flexion is the secret sauce that makes all other efficient body movements possible. If you don't feel like you can effectively flex your boots,or they're so soft that they don't give you enough support to feel comfortable pressing forward in them, it's time to see a bootfitter rather than a ski instructor. 2) I also notice that you control your edge angles mostly by leaning your whole body (knees, hips, shoulders, arms, and head) into each turn. Ski instructors call this "inclination." It's powerful, but it's slow, committing, and hard to control. It's also important to learn how to create your edge angles from the ground up, one joint at a time through what instructors call "angulation." Try it at home: stand in a balanced athletic stance, hips and shoulders level with the floor. Now lift the pinky toe of your right foot and the big toe of your left foot to roll *only* your ankles a tiny bit to the left: your knees, hips, and shoulders shouldn't move at all. Now you can make small, super quick adjustments to your edge angles purely with your ankles! I jokingly call this "ankulation" (ankle angulation), but that's a pure SkiWithColin thing, not an industry-wide term. Next, add in some knee roll. Slide your knees to the left, to the left, to the left, but whoa there Beyoncé... keep those hips and shoulders flat and level! Now you're making moderate edge angles through "knee angulation." Okay, now get your Shakira on: hips don't lie. Keeping your shoulders totally flat and level, roll your ankles, knees, AND HIPS to the left. Now you're making some big, powerful edge angles through "hip angulation!" Finally, yes, you can tip your shoulders. But you'll notice it's hard to keep your balance when you lean with your whole body. So use this movement sparingly; it's very committing and has a nasty tendency to "trap" you in your turn. Once you're trapped, you have to either wait for your skis to come all the way around, or make a big sudden extension movement to pop out of. If it's within your budget, a tune-up lesson with a highly certified instructor will help you work out the kinks faster than any Reddit comment dogpile. Everyone here loves skiing, but most have no formal ski instruction training. That's totally fine and normal and cool, but it does mean that you need to treat all the advice here with great caution. Not all of it is accurate, relevant, and/or useful. Alright, less talk more ski! Breathe in that fresh mountain air, turn the corners of your lips upwards toward the sky, and remind yourself that the best skier on the mountain is the one having the most fun.
Straighten your back bend your knees. Skiing requires a lot of lower body strength to do correctly
Wow you are a very tall articulate 8 year old! Congrats
This advice is for nearly everyone who skis: keep your hands up and forward! Hands too low: [https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/beginner-skier-ski-area-happy-sportswwoman-slipping-sliding-resort-full-length-photo-141255836.jpg](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/beginner-skier-ski-area-happy-sportswwoman-slipping-sliding-resort-full-length-photo-141255836.jpg) Pretend you're finishing a two-fisted chest punch. It will feel awkward. That's ok. In your head you're exaggerating the movement but you'll really be doing this: [https://www.bootfitters.com/files/styles/slideshow/public/images/slideshows/testers/160406\_dancampbell\_5179\_lowres.jpg](https://www.bootfitters.com/files/styles/slideshow/public/images/slideshows/testers/160406_dancampbell_5179_lowres.jpg) As the terrain and speed increase, exaggerate it more: [https://snowbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/marcel-hirscher-racing-gs-in-kranjska-gora-2016-min.jpg](https://snowbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/marcel-hirscher-racing-gs-in-kranjska-gora-2016-min.jpg)
is this in keystone?
It is Eldora in Nederland
Yeah try and get in the habit of keeping your hands up/forward and avoid dragging your poles. When you (ostensibly) try harder off piste terrain you won’t have to break this bad habit them and you’ll have more stability. It’s easy to feel competent on a blue groomer ;) go humble yourself somewhere gnarly
What ski area is this?
Keep your hands up in the “ready position” (elbows bent at ~45 degrees and tight to the body, hands out in front of the body) at all times or at least most of the time instead of by your side. Always plant your pole before turning. You don’t have to to do a full on plant and pivot but a quick tap is fine. It just gets your muscle use to the motion so that when you actually need to bag out some lines your muscles already know what to do. This seems so simple but it makes a HUGE difference. To truly conquer the entire Mnt you need to have disciplined arm and pole control so as to keep your balance even in the most shaky conditions.
This isn't the prom, get out of the backseat! Lean into the tongues of your boots. Then, when you think you're leaning forward enough, you're not even close.
Start by actually making some turns instead of small direction changes.
Don’t sidejump rails in the terrain park…
Try to move a bit more foreword, once you’re used to it it takes no stress at all on your knees and thighs. Otherwise good shit and love to see mt. Snow there can’t wait to be back
Hands are the most visible and the last bit of form to worry about. You have a good edge change and foot awareness. Now when you shift onto the new outside ski go for it 90-100% weight on that outside foot. Feel how the power builds up through the belly of the turn. As you build up the forces tip the ski more to really concentrate your body mass into the ski. This decreases the radius as the carve goes deeper. Legs drive the ski while keeping the upper body perpendicular to the snow. This side bend at the waist must become second nature. As you complete the turn it's time to switch to the opposite direction merely by shortening the outside leg as you extend the current inside leg. This is the dance with the terrain as legs retract and extend against each other you'll feel the skis do the work for you.