Top 8 Tips on How to Improve Your Skiing

As with most skills, hobbies, and activities, skiing gets better and more fun as you keep improving. However, like most skills, hobbies, and activities, you can always continue improving or trying to get better.

Over time, with practice, you’ll not only become more skilful but also gain more confidence and have more opportunities open to you. To help you get started on your journey, let’s take a look at our top tips on how to improve your skiing skills and start having more fun on the slopes.

Having a balanced stance makes a world of difference in skiing. Having solid control of your movements and being centred over your feet will give you the integrity and skill you need to perform many manoeuvres.

The first thing to know is that the upper body weighs more than the lower, which means that the less you move it, the more efficient you’ll be. The goal here is to keep your feet moving so that your weight stays balanced on the arch of your foot.

Another tip for improving your stance is making a few turns and paying attention to where the pressure on your soles is. By moving your feet and keeping them under your body, you’ll be able to maintain balance over the arch of the foot.

You should also be able to bend your ankles and engage the front of your boot while keeping a stable base of support. These things combined will give you a type of power steering effect, which you should be on the lookout for at the start of each turn.

No matter your skill level, having the correct posture is essential to skiing. Your posture controls your speed and your direction while allowing you to optimally adapt to the slopes of conditions.

When it comes to learning how to improve ski posture, your upper body is where it starts and begins for your balance. It should always be straight, no matter which manoeuvre you’re trying to do. If you move your upper body forward, backward, off to the right or to the left too much, you might lose your stability and fall over.

When you begin working on your posture, concentrate on one point in the alley and always aim for that point when making turns. These little adjustments will automatically ensure your upper body is upright and stable.

Also, consider that your hips are at the centre of your body and that most skiing movements come from your hips. While ensuring your upper body is upright for balance, you can determine your direction using your hips.

Another tip to help you improve your skiing is to keep your knees always slightly bent. Depending on where you’re skiing and your technique, you might have to adjust your knees.

Understanding your gear and knowing how to utilise it depending on terrain and technique properly will make all the difference. Learning how to improve your skiing and let your skis run will ease a lot of the strain on your muscles, ensuring an easier and more fluid ride.

When it comes to your skis, know that a skinny ski is much easier to find and hold an edge with. On the other hand, wider skis allow you to glide through deep, powdery snow with more ease.

A short ski makes it easier for you to turn and spin, while a longer ski is more stable at higher speeds. Then, there’s the ski with a lot of flex that is very forgiving when you’re going over bumps. However, a torsionally stiff ski will hold your carved turns at high-edge angles.

Also, keep in mind that your ski boots are the link between you and your skis and are a crucial part of your kit. When your boot moves, your skis move. That means that having boots that fit correctly, especially around your lower leg, will make a world of difference. You should never let your leg or foot rattle around in the boot.

All that said, don’t let your ski gear become your clutch. Even though it’s crucial that your skis fit the slopes and that your ski boots are well-fitted, avoid relying on a stiff piece of plastic to hold you up. You have to be diligent about the maintenance and always keep working on your skiing skills.

Without gravity, skiing wouldn’t be much (or any fun) because there’d be nothing pulling you down. However, a lot of skiers, especially beginners are afraid to give into it, which doesn’t make for very fun rides.

When figuring out how to improve your skiing, you should know how to use gravity to your advantage.

For one, know that as your skis start turning from across the hill into the fall line, they’ll start picking up speed and running more smoothly. But if your skis are turned out of the fall line and back across the hill, they’ll slow down.

If you accept that you’ll pick up speed in the first half of your turn, you should be able to use the momentum to smoothly steer back the other way and slow down.

If you’ve ever seen the pros skiing, you might have noticed that each and every move they make is linked together. Their momentum always carries them smoothly across the finish lines. Many say that this is the point where skiing starts feeling like real freedom.

If you want to experience this while you’re on the slopes, first remember to look ahead. Nothing positive can come out of you staring down at your skis. By looking ahead, you’ll be able to give your brain the time to prepare your body for what will come next. What’s more, it will allow your subconsciousness to take the wheel, all of which will result in smoother, cleaner movements.

Practising one-ski turns at any skill level is highly effective because it focuses on one of the core fundamentals of ski mechanics. When you practice your one-ski turns, you’ll receive instant feedback on how centred and balanced you are over the downhill ski. Not only that but it will also demonstrate how easily and quickly skis will turn by design and with minimal energy once you’re centred over downhill ski.

Continuing the point we made earlier which is to always look ahead, there are other tricks on how to improve your skiing. If you want to get better flow while going down the slope from one turn to the next, you need to look exactly where you want your ski tips to enter the fall line.

Also known as the apex of the turn, you should shift your eyes to focus on where the next one will be before you reach it. Even though it works well on groomers, it’s even better when you’re skiing over bumps or near trees.

If you want to master those bumps, you’ll have to actively flex and extend your legs, using them as shock absorbers. There’s a simple drill you can perform to get a better handle on the bumps.

Traverse across a variety of bumps and pull your knees and feet up as you go over each one. Then, extend your legs back to their full length once you cross the valleys in between. The purpose of the drill is to keep your head the same height while your legs are switching positions.

One of the best ways to figure out how to improve your skiing is to just hit the slopes. If you’re looking for a variety of ski areas, from green ones for beginners all the way to a black diamond for a pro, Club Med is where you need to be.

In addition to stunning, all-inclusive ski resorts, a Club Med ski holiday also comes with an array of activities, gourmet food, and more. Choose between Canada, Europe, and Asia and book your perfect Club Med ski holiday today!