Good at skiing Adam McManus Toronto means you can make smooth, confident turns on any kind of ski run – even the most steep, challenging ones. It takes time to build up the confidence to do this, but once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start tackling more advanced terrain and enjoying new challenges.
The first step in becoming a good skier is to get in the right stance. This involves knees and hips bent, weight forward over the tips of your skis, and an aggressive stance that will allow you to initiate turns without pivoting from the back half of your skis.
It’s important to make sure your feet are spread far enough apart – not too wide, or too close together (that’s called ‘pizza’ position). Once you’re happy with this, you can begin to focus on technique and link turns in your head while you’re skiing – it will feel like you’re driving in time with a metronome!
If you’re struggling to stay in balance on your skis, try practicing standing still for a few seconds with each foot. This is an essential skill for all skiers, but it’s especially critical for beginners.
You should also practice making low speed turns on one foot – this will help you learn to shift your balance from your downhill ski to your uphill ski smoothly as you start to make a turn. This is the same technique you’ll use when linking turns – you want to be able to keep the uphill ski lifted as you bring it in, while the downhill ski stays flat.
For the first few times you do this, it’s worth trying to exaggerate the movement – try thinking “tall as a house, small as a mouse” when you’re forming a turn. You’ll get a good feel for how much you need to bend your body, and it will be easier to learn from the feedback as the motion becomes more familiar.
Another excellent exercise is to dangle your poles on the ground, letting the tips slide over the snow as you make a turn. This will help you practice keeping your arms straight and your shoulders and hips facing downhill, and will help you see when you’re leaning too far to one side or the other.
When you’re able to do this, it’s helpful to start using your poles to help you direct your upper body into a turn – the swing of your poles helps to keep your body in a good position as you plant the edges on your skis. When you’re a little more comfortable with this, you can then move to skis in hand and try planting your poles while standing still on the hill.
The best way to improve your ski technique is to spend as much time on the slopes as you can – go at your own pace, and find a run that’s fun for you to tackle. You can do this by booking lessons, or simply practising and improving your technique on your own. If you do this, you’ll find that you enjoy going on the mountain more, and you’ll be less likely to skip a session because you’re too tired or nervous to face your fear of a new challenge!