Downhill Ski Racing Technique Tips

Downhill ski racing is contested at all levels, from youth racing to the Olympics to masters events. In all the disciplines and age groups, the object is always the same and simple: To finish the race as quickly as possible. To accomplish this, there are a plethora of techniques to improve your skiing. These can be achieved no matter what your skill level or age.

  1. Crisp Turns

    • Keep your turns around the gates clean and crisp. A good base to making crisp turns is to have a good stance with your knees bent, your hands out in front in front of your face and your butt level with your shoulders. From this position, your weight will transfer more easily from side to side and you can avoid sloppy turns.

    Parallel Skis

    • During a turn, the legs move in opposite directions with the outside leg moving inward and the inward leg turning outward. Keeping the skis parallel while this leg movement is happening is a requirement for advanced ski-racing techniques. Keeping parallel skis benefits your speed as this technique better engages both skis in arcing smooth, graceful turns.

    Load the Inside Ski

    • This refers to transferring weight to the inside ski during a turn around a gate. Top racers have an 80-to-20 ratio of their inside to outside ski weight load. The exact percentage is not easily measurable and is not critically important to all but elite racers, but is good to have a guideline. In giant slalom racing, the ratio is a little more even and should be 70 to 30.

    Engage the Edge Early

    • Downhill race turns are not perfectly round. They resemble something of a long comma. The majority of the direction change happens well before the gate, meaning the majority of the carving should also begin there as well. About 70 percent of the turn should be completed before the gate. This is a common mistake for beginners who engage the turn only when they have nearly passed it. Practice setting your inside edge before rounding the gate and creating a mental image of the line your skis would draw around the gate, keeping the long comma in mind.