How to Improve as a Skier

Skiing is a challenging sport to master. Practicing every season can do wonders in improving your skiing techniques such as speed, jumps and tricks. Becoming a better skier takes more than regular ski runs, you have to carefully condition your body and improve factors that affect performance such as stance, form and balance.

Instructions

    • 1

      Improve balance by relaxing your toes and flexing your ankles. When your toes are relaxed, the joints in your lower body remain loose and better equipped to absorb varying terrain.
      Focus on bending your ankles forward instead of flexing your knees. When you flex the ankles forward, the knees also bend naturally, allowing you to maintain a more balanced and upright stance. Performing these two simple tasks improves balance and form.

    • 2

      Keep both shins in contact with your ski boot tongues. Avoid leaning back on your skis because this makes it harder for you to turn. When your shins are against the boot tongues, your body weight stays centered, providing better control and maneuverability.

    • 3

      Improve your turns by rolling the skis from edge to edge. When finishing a turn, instead of flattening the skis before the upcoming curve, roll the skis immediately into the next turn. This helps prevent you from getting tossed around bumps and chunks on the slopes, because flat-positioned skis are more easily thrown off, causing you to fall unexpectedly. This technique also makes your movement more fluid, which improves control while lessening slips and falls.

    • 4

      Prepare for the ski season by conditioning your body and improving overall fitness. Stay active by running, bicycling and performing other endurance exercises. Do workouts such as the hamstring curl and downhill lunge. The hamstring curl strengthens the core and hamstrings which helps protect against knee injuries. To do the hamstring curl, lie flat on your back and position both heels on top of an exercise ball. Keep you arms on the side and lift your hips off the ground. Roll the ball in toward you until your feet fall flat on the surface of the exercise ball. Roll back to the beginning position. Repeat 15 to 25 times.
      Downhill lunges aid in improving your skiing by simulating carving turns on the snow slopes. To perform downhill lunges, assume the ski stance and step laterally while flexing your lead knee to 90 degrees. Quickly push back to the starting position and repeat on the opposite knee, while staying low as if skiing. Repeat 10 to 20 times.