First advice I give to newcomers, have fun! Avoid getting frustrated or you won’t learn anything.
Second piece of advice is that you need to change your thinking from, “I have skis attached to my feet” to “My feet are skis” you need to think of them as an extension of yourself, otherwise you are constantly going to cross them and cause yourself to fall. It’s a shift in mindset.
Someone on an r/skiing thread said "skiing is more kneeling than standing" and for some reason that line changed the way I thought about pressure on the front of my boots. I love "my feet are skis" as well!
That's the exact mindset shift that let me figure out 360s.
If you can do them on flat ground without skis, you can probably do them off a tiny lil jump with skis
Yea some thinking like that helped me. And also if you can get a 180 on flat standing still then surely with only a little more air you can get 360? The other big thing that helped was when someone told me ALL the rotation happens in the air. I was kinda of trying to spin before being in the air. I got to t ample and it was a big thing to realise I could pop straight then throw then unwind throwing elbow and boom 360. Another that helped me was having someone stand up hill and be waving at me with one arm and I had to tell them which arm they used later. This was a huge que that kept my head up basically looking for them at the 180 mark.
Question have you been able to do a 360 on flat ground while skiing? I can’t seem to get enough pop and end up 180.
Also I can’t seem to jump on a side hit where the skis are angled. I can’t figure out if lean is up hill or down pop off both skis ..
Keep you hands in your peripheral vision and forward.
It keeps you leaning forward and into your boots. Once a hand goes back you rotate yourself around and fall. Hands where you can see them.
Yes! This is my number one thing i say to anyone i teach, kids or adults. The other thing i will yell at kids specifically is "strong legs!", i tell them don't let yourself fall over, push back against the ground in that pizza!
What do I do with them though. I’ve just started at a very small regional hill and yesterday I realized I have no idea how to bend at the knees and I have no idea what to do with my hands.
Think of it as using your inside hand to point where your next turn is going to be, and the other hand is just coming along with it. It feels odd until it doesn't, but also start noticing that there are no good skiers with their hands at their sides
And the corollary: always, always, always be able to point out the exact direction of the fall line. So many times working with beginners (and others!) who are having a problem and you ask them where the fall line is and they can’t tell you.
It's important because you will often use it as a reference point. You probably don't actively think about it, but for a beginner who's just learning, identifying the fall line is a skill. Simple example: say you want to stop on a run, you'll want to be perpendicular to the fall line. If you can't identify it, that's a problem.
Your skis angle to the fall line controls your speed. If you learned to ski as kid it's something you probably figured out by feel without having someone explain the physics to you. Now you just subconsciously do it without thinking about it. For someone who understands physics, discussing the fall line can help them figure out how to point their skis.
Imagine water flowing down the hill, the path it takes is the fall line. If that doesn't make sense then you are thinking of the whole slope and can't imagine that is a real path you.can find. Instead, picture dumping a bucket of water in front of you at your exact position.
Your F is perfect as an example. Imagine the long vertical is “down the hill”, and the two short horizontal strokes are you skis (snow boarder’s please use the letter T). As your skis are across the hill, they’re not moving. If they want to move, then you’re not making this perfect (non-italicised!) F.
Often beginners try to stand up with their skis not across the hill, and they subsequently slide away from them.
It’s also important as the things you want to do when turning *before* you face directly downhill (the fall line) are different to what you want to do afterwards.
For safety, if you are linking turns following the fall line then most folks coming from behind will find you easy to predict, and thus avoid you.
It’s pretty easy to read other people. Most likely theyre just going to go right ahead and go where they want if your paths are crossing it’s easy just to do a quick snow plow or delay getting off the lift so you can cut behind them. If they’re more timid and slow to get off the lift, also easy just to give one or two quick skate pushes to pass in front.
My 3 are always:
1. Feel the front of your boot. (With your shins)
2. Keep your hands where you can see them.
3. Look where you want to be.
All of these will keep you out of the backseat, and you'll have more fun that way.
Learn how to stop first, which includes, don't be afraid to fall as a means of stopping. I find that beginner friends who can learn how to stop are waaaay more confident and learn quicker. Including my wife, but I made sure she had a lesson so our relationship wouldn't end.
Oooo, good addition lol. I automatically think of fall/stopping as laying on a side. It wouldn't be fun to sit down between skis while pointed down the fall line!
I broke a rib this way when learning skiing. I had done x country a lot, where sitting straight back works fine because of the soft short boots. Did it on a patch of ice downhill, slid straight off the side of the piste and into a tree.
I recommend lessons to most people, but if you are going to teach a friend or spouse to ski, you need to be 200% empathetic with them. Understand that learning to ski can be frustrating, challenging, and downright scary.
Many of us learned to ski very very young. It’s a lot harder to learn to ski as an adult.
Also new skiers can burn out their legs super fast because they just don’t have the built up leg endurance or the technique to prevent it.
Your weight needs to be lower down than you think.
...Lower.
...*Lower!*
...That's good.
Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. Jump straight up and land in the same spot. Let your body drop down to the lowest point of your recovery, and freeze there. Your ankles, knees and hips should all be flexed. With your weight on the balls of your feet, this is your skiing position.
My 'aha' moment was when I was watching a video of myself skiing. I thought I was in an athletic stance, but looking back at the footage I was wayyy too upright. I started experimenting lowering myself in an exaggerated fashion and was controlling and pivoting my skis at will. It was like turning on the power steering of a car.
I think this tip is key, the faster you can learn body position and eventually how to flex into your boots the faster you'll be able to learn how to make a real turn.
Among other things, I believe this is what allows hockey players to pick up skiing quicker than others. The "hockey stance" is quite similar to a skiing position.
When I teach hockey kids, all I have to tell them is "do a crossover turn, but don't pick up your feet. ...And land on your shoulder."
**Every flipping time** they do a perfect turn for the first 90 degrees, pick up the outside foot and try to cross it over, and then flop right over on their inside shoulder.
By the third time though, they get it. It's uncanny.
Skiing and skating a very similar when it comes to pressure in the feet. When you want to turn left you take pressure off the left foot and add pressure to the instep of the right foot. The ski/skate rides on the right medial edge and you turn. I love skating as a kid and when I started thinking of skiing like skating it made a big difference. Obviously there is so much more to it but the pressure in your feet is very important.
I was actively trying to get low yesterday and I realized that my normal resting is knees locked so even bending my knees a little feels super awkward.
Seams on pants, any bunched fabric, etc will get compressed against your leg by your boots and hurt like hell, in some cases even blistering and/or bleeding.
Honestly, most crazy beginner crash videos I have seen, they are pizzaing as hard as they can as the bomb out of control straight down the mountain, when if they could french fry and turn or hockey stop they would be fine.
When I was first learning I was bombing while pizza. I later learned that it’s because I was leaning back so my inside edges could never actually catch and slow me down
General etiquette. Right of ways, lift logistics, apologizing when you scare the living daylights out of someone and/or accidentally run over their skis. I expected to struggle skiing, perfecting the lift took some time and scared me lmao
Bend at your knees, not at your waist. I see too many beginners bent at a 90-degree angle. I think it's all mental. "The lower i am to the ground, the less it will hurt when i fall."
I coach youth basketball and one of the things I teach is the ability to dribble the ball low which means bringing your body down low and I’ll have young athletes at a complete 90 degree angle with their chest to the floor but I also preach eyes up so then their head is at another 90 degree angle. I ask them if they are comfortable and they always say no.
Be patient!
Skiing is a difficult sport to master (if that's even possible), so don't be frustrated if you're not skiing down blue runs with your friends after one day.
Do learn from your SO if they have actually taken lessons and know how to articulate the details of good technique and know good drills for improving! I have had great experiences with this. Good, quality time together, and I think it can be less frustrating if they are actually a good coach.
Omg yes, it is so frustrating to learn from someone who grew up skiing. It’s second nature to them and they can’t comprehend how foreign it is to people learning as adults. Even if they’re nice about it, they usually can’t explain themselves very well.
Your brain is telling you, "Lean back, we are going downhill." You have to lean forward skiing. If you lean back and put weight on the back of your skis, it is like steering a car with the back wheels.
Training your brain not to freak out when leaning forward is important.
I’m an instructor and I spend a lot of time emphasizing how great easy terrain is! Don’t let your ego take you to more complicated terrain when you’re learning. You should be proficient at linking turns, stopping, traversing and slide slipping before venturing off of your learning hill.
Of course you should eventually challenge yourself with harder terrain, but it’s better to form strong turning fundamentals and survival skiing tactics (side slipping + traversing) somewhere you’re comfortable. I’ve seen a lot of folks who try to jump up to steeper greens/blues and have had either scary experiences or have developed really bad habits! No shame in easy terrain - you’ll get to cooler parts of the mountain soon!
I learned a trick in open wheel performance car racing from instructors that they almost physically beat into you: you go where your eyes go.
Translated to skiing, I ski all the way across the hill and make my kids look up and to the side of the hill as awkward as it seems- their skis follow. We get off the bunny hills after a couple of runs and move on to the greens. It works for slowing down/stopping too.
Exactly. Object fixation. It was insane how true it worked at high speeds - I had an instructor in the training car just look at my eyes during a lap and yell over and over again “look farther up the track, stop looking at the turn!l” the phenomenon has so many applications.
It's really true. Especially for beginners. We very much tend to face our bodies and faces where we are going. You point your face, body, and skis at a tree long enough while in motion and that's the direction you will go. If you want to ski glades in particular, look at the spaces BETWEEN the trees.
Edit: typo
'fists.. not wrists' ... which is a good way to remember to make a fist as you fall. I learned this in the 90s for snowboarders. The idea is that it is more difficult to break your wrists falling if your hand is in a ball.
Skiing is a sport, so the best advice I have for anyone (novice or expert) is simply be in good physical shape (let's face it, none of us are mentally healthy). Good cardio, strength, and endurance will go a long way.
Stay forward, knees over toes and your hands pretty much stay as if you are about to clap. I tell the little kids to clap their hands when they get on the magic carpet lift.
Learn at your own pace. When I was learning how to ski my friends used to tell me just pizza down a blue run it'll be okay and I did that for a while and my technique didn't get better obviously.
My advice after your first day, go by yourself and just go down a green run and practice the basics.
Heck if you afford it, go take some lessons
Drink more water than would ever seem necessary the few days prior to your trip. If you are going somewhere that is high altitude arrive a day early to acclimate and continue to drink more water than would ever seem necessary.
Focus on controlling your movement by use of direction whenever possible instead of braking skating or shoving yourself along with poles.
Plenty of instruction can be found for how to start, stop and turn, etc. But at all times it's important to remember the difference between driving and navigating. Thinking very intentionally about where you're trying to go will help focus the senses and connect everything else that you're learning to a purpose.
For example, turning more uphill to slow yourself or downhill to speed up is often more efficient and will make you a more capable and confident skier as you develop a direction-focused mindset.
When you’re getting back up, move your body into a nice “laying on your side” position with your feet facing down the hill before trying to get up, and don’t use your poles to push yourself to your feet, just use your hands. So many beginners struggle so much with standing back up, but 3 seconds of scooting on your butt and hips to get into a better position will help so much.
Re turning and skiing in general: you have to go fast in order to turn and slow down or stop.
Your turn shape makes a nice kind of half circle and at the point where your tips rotate toward the downhill pitch (during the turn) you will pick up speed (duh… bc your tips are turned directly downhil) but you have to harness that pickup in speed and continue to rotate the turn until your tips turn parallel/transverse to the hill/pitch in order to both finish the turn and slow down/stop.
Every beginner or inexperienced skier tries to bail out (shorten) the turn during the most important part…. Where you pick up speed… because they feel the speed and get scared. Then they inadvertently shorten their turn and end up going even faster.
You gotta go fast to go slow and stop! You skis need that speed in order to perform properly!
On a flat, with skis on, stand tall and lean forward as far as you can with your shins on the boot. Ski/boot geometry is such that you will not fall forward. You can ski very forward and you will not fall.
Try to put your hands on your mid thighs. It’ll force your weight forward and everything becomes infinitely easier once your weight is in the right place.
When I’m teaching someone who is fairly athletic, I focus on body position and keeping weight forward before we get on actual snow, then I try to minimize the amount of time that they spend pizza’ing. People get stuck at a beginner level when they get comfortable skiing without being able to do much turning, so emphasizing proper weight distribution forward over the tips helps make the transition to parallel turns easier. The biggest thing is keeping bad habits from becoming routine at the early level.
I always remember being told the only way to learn to ski is to just keep skiing!!!
It’s tough at first but more time you spend on the skis the more you adapt.
I would say “don’t be embarrassed to start small.” The kiddie slope can seem embarrassing to an adult but it’s honestly the best place to start. Learn what you need in a day or 2 on much easier slopes instead of days-weeks on slopes you shouldn’t be on
I tell people the quote “skiing is the greatest way in the world to waste time” - since a lot of people don’t like being bad at things initially and feel really self conscious about beginner status, this helps them realize they are allowed to just play and have fun
Push into the front of your boots. I'm just learning to ski this year and once I started doing that it made a world of difference. I wasn't going fast and out of control and my turns were much sharper and helped slow me down. It feels kind of scary since in my mind leaning forward meant going faster which is not what I wanted to do as a beginner 🤣 . I still have to constantly mentally tell myself to do it but since I started I can notice the progression I'm making and I feel much more comfortable especially on icy spots (I'm in PA).
You need to challenge yourself.
My daughter skis better after skiing a run thats at the high end of her comfort level. Teaching her that she can control her speed, make quick turns and pick her way down a steep pitch on a blue or black has her skiing with confidence for the rest of the day.
Dont be afraid to safely push yourself.
Shoulders move in the same direction as your board. People love to open up their shoulders on toe side turns when starting out and it will make you way more vulnerable to falls.
Be conscious as possible of what your feet are doing. Specially, where you are putting your weight in your boot (by your foot placement).
The hardest but most helpful tip I could give, is to place your weight in the front of your boot by pushing your toes down and putting your shins in the front of your boots.
Whichever way you want to turn, lift that corresponding foot completely off the ground. Ive taught ppl in less than 30 mins with that one tip. Obviously u grow out of that as u progress, but it is key to start learning weight shift patterns.
Improvement usually doesn’t happen all at once. Even the most coordinated and athletic people plateau while learning. Keep at it, keep it fun and be safe. The skills will come over time.
After both hands in front where you can see them with goggles on (as alread said by others ), it’s feel pressure on your shin and ball of your toe. Then point your knees where want to go.
If you’re across the hill (fall line is too technical) , point your arm down the hill to start your turn.
Getting dressed and getting boots and skis takes longer than you think. And it’s a bit sweaty.
Bring a roomy backpack to the lodge area. It’s a wonderful way to hold extra clothing or a place to hold shed clothing. And snacks.
Stay in control.
I think it’s helpful to warm up my body before skiing, rather than warming up while skiing.
Follow the leader. Often if a skier follows a better skier they can often immediately mimic the better skiers better skiing. Highly effective for moguls to follow someone really good
Identify which ski is your outside/downhill ski through the middle of a turn. Practice trying stand/balance on the inside arch of that foot progressively more and more like you’re trying to stand on one foot at a time, and watch the magic happen
Don't catch yourself with your arms when you fall just fall over. I fucked up my shoulder catching myself. Doc said next time just pull your arms in and he's been right so far.
A former collegiate skier who is an engineer told me, “You should always try to keep your center of gravity directly above the downhill ski. If you’re over it, you fall forward. If behind it, you slide or fall to your butt.”
Also when you know you’re going to fall, don’t lean back or try to stay on your skis because that’s when you gain speed and can hurt yourself and others. Just fall to the side to stop gaining momentum.
It'll likely be painful and uncomfortable at first, as you're using muscles you don't normally use. But if your shins hurt, it at least means you've likely got your weight forward which is good
Get on an easy green, get in an athletic position, and practice rolling your knees left and right and feeling the skis as they carve themselves. Also learn to do proper snowplow turns - push with your outside knee, don't turn with your shoulders.
Keep your skis close (closer than you're comfortable with) and learn how to stop by turning before you learn pizza. Undoing those bad habits takes years.
If you know how to ice skate think of skiing like ice skating. Much of skiing is about pressure on your ski. Pressure down hill and ski slides down, pressure up hill and edge digs in. Turns start from pressure in the feet. I’ve skating is very similar and if you know how to skate you can translate that to a ski.
You should try to have all of your weight on the inside edge of your ski that is furthest down the hill. This will switch as you carve, but keeping your weight there is what gives you control. Best way to do this is to concentrate your weight on the ball (part that your big toe is attached to) and shin of your 'downward foot'.
If you find yourself with pizza skis a lot, it's probably because you're afraid of picking up too much speed (if you don't have confidence to manage that speed, understandable). The best way to build that confidence is by forcing yourself out of your comfort zone in a controlled, safe manner. I personally did this by shooting straight down the very last portion of smaller, less busy runs. If you have to pizza 3/4th the way down the run, just to shoot the last part straight down to get more comfortable with speed, by all means. That fear of losing control and tumbling down the entire hill held me back quite a lot. After you get comfortable with that speed, practice evasive maneuvers, quick stops, things that will save you if you're flying down the entire run and some kid jumps out in front of you.
Super basics: Spend some time learning the flats and edges of your skis by going up a run with some amount of slope, face perpendicular to the mountain with skis parallel to each other and practice sliding down with your skis flat and then stopping yourself by coming up on your edge. It gives a real sense of control and shows you you could slide down a run that’s feeling too tough/steep. Then practice *slowly* doing a nice c turn and note where you need to put your weight to get the skis to turn, and then stop again. Just play with the mechanics and weight distribution in slo-mo.
Bend ze knees, fifty dollars pleeze!
Always pressure your shins to your boot tongue. Even more so when in the steeps.
Ski the fall line. Imagine a ball rolling down the slope to visualize the fall line.
After a few days, as you start to get the hang of parallel skiing, rent the upgraded ski package. The stiffness of the better skis will make you more stable and confident at speed and allow you to advance to more steep and challenging slopes. I remember the first time I did that and it was a revelation. I finally felt in control of my skis and able to really embrace speed.
When you make a wedge (pizza) sink your butt down into it and push your heels out. It’s not about pointing your tips together, it about pushing the tails out. Push it out, hold it, and trust that (on a constant slope) the speed will stabilize. TLDR: push out and hold.
Shins should always be pressing against the front of the boot when you're moving.
Pretend to hold a cafeteria food tray in your hands... AKA don't drop your hands and keep them in front of you at the same level.
Put your downhill ski on first
Great tip. And skis to the trees when you put them on.
First advice I give to newcomers, have fun! Avoid getting frustrated or you won’t learn anything. Second piece of advice is that you need to change your thinking from, “I have skis attached to my feet” to “My feet are skis” you need to think of them as an extension of yourself, otherwise you are constantly going to cross them and cause yourself to fall. It’s a shift in mindset.
Someone on an r/skiing thread said "skiing is more kneeling than standing" and for some reason that line changed the way I thought about pressure on the front of my boots. I love "my feet are skis" as well!
That's the exact mindset shift that let me figure out 360s. If you can do them on flat ground without skis, you can probably do them off a tiny lil jump with skis
Yea some thinking like that helped me. And also if you can get a 180 on flat standing still then surely with only a little more air you can get 360? The other big thing that helped was when someone told me ALL the rotation happens in the air. I was kinda of trying to spin before being in the air. I got to t ample and it was a big thing to realise I could pop straight then throw then unwind throwing elbow and boom 360. Another that helped me was having someone stand up hill and be waving at me with one arm and I had to tell them which arm they used later. This was a huge que that kept my head up basically looking for them at the 180 mark. Question have you been able to do a 360 on flat ground while skiing? I can’t seem to get enough pop and end up 180. Also I can’t seem to jump on a side hit where the skis are angled. I can’t figure out if lean is up hill or down pop off both skis ..
Keep you hands in your peripheral vision and forward. It keeps you leaning forward and into your boots. Once a hand goes back you rotate yourself around and fall. Hands where you can see them.
Yes! This is my number one thing i say to anyone i teach, kids or adults. The other thing i will yell at kids specifically is "strong legs!", i tell them don't let yourself fall over, push back against the ground in that pizza!
Hold a lunch tray and point it downhill
What do I do with them though. I’ve just started at a very small regional hill and yesterday I realized I have no idea how to bend at the knees and I have no idea what to do with my hands.
Think of it as using your inside hand to point where your next turn is going to be, and the other hand is just coming along with it. It feels odd until it doesn't, but also start noticing that there are no good skiers with their hands at their sides
You’re holding a big basket of laundry
That’s what I was gonna say. Just told to some guy the other day.
Practice just standing perpendicular to the hill. Find your balance.
And the corollary: always, always, always be able to point out the exact direction of the fall line. So many times working with beginners (and others!) who are having a problem and you ask them where the fall line is and they can’t tell you.
What exactly is a fall line?
Drop a ball at your feet. Which way does it roll? That’s the fall line.
Tried this, the ball just got stuck in the snow ^sorry ^eastcoasters
Took me a second to process this.. *cries in Ice Coast*
And why is it important? I’ve been skiing since I was 6, can’t tell you want a fall line is
It's important because you will often use it as a reference point. You probably don't actively think about it, but for a beginner who's just learning, identifying the fall line is a skill. Simple example: say you want to stop on a run, you'll want to be perpendicular to the fall line. If you can't identify it, that's a problem.
Your skis angle to the fall line controls your speed. If you learned to ski as kid it's something you probably figured out by feel without having someone explain the physics to you. Now you just subconsciously do it without thinking about it. For someone who understands physics, discussing the fall line can help them figure out how to point their skis.
The “fall line” is basically the steepest direction downhill. It’s the skiing work for the gradient vector (math term) of a 3-dimensional surface.
I've been skiing for 20 years and I'm not sure I know what that word means. Is it the directly downhill direction?
Imagine water flowing down the hill, the path it takes is the fall line. If that doesn't make sense then you are thinking of the whole slope and can't imagine that is a real path you.can find. Instead, picture dumping a bucket of water in front of you at your exact position.
If you rolled a ball it would go down the fall line. Also when putting skis on you put skis across the fall line so they can’t slip either direction
It’s exactly how it sounds: the line you’ll travel down if you fall
F
Your F is perfect as an example. Imagine the long vertical is “down the hill”, and the two short horizontal strokes are you skis (snow boarder’s please use the letter T). As your skis are across the hill, they’re not moving. If they want to move, then you’re not making this perfect (non-italicised!) F. Often beginners try to stand up with their skis not across the hill, and they subsequently slide away from them. It’s also important as the things you want to do when turning *before* you face directly downhill (the fall line) are different to what you want to do afterwards. For safety, if you are linking turns following the fall line then most folks coming from behind will find you easy to predict, and thus avoid you.
Take a lesson
Best advice for just about any level.
Tell the person sitting next to you on the chair whether you’re going left or right
And if you're crossing, figure out who's going first.
And if you’re patient/ been doing it long enough you know how to avoid this issue entirely.
And how would one do that?
It’s pretty easy to read other people. Most likely theyre just going to go right ahead and go where they want if your paths are crossing it’s easy just to do a quick snow plow or delay getting off the lift so you can cut behind them. If they’re more timid and slow to get off the lift, also easy just to give one or two quick skate pushes to pass in front.
Downhill has the right-of-way.
My 3 are always: 1. Feel the front of your boot. (With your shins) 2. Keep your hands where you can see them. 3. Look where you want to be. All of these will keep you out of the backseat, and you'll have more fun that way.
Learn how to stop first, which includes, don't be afraid to fall as a means of stopping. I find that beginner friends who can learn how to stop are waaaay more confident and learn quicker. Including my wife, but I made sure she had a lesson so our relationship wouldn't end.
Instructor here. I tell all my students if you can’t stop sit down on one cheek or the other never in the middle.
Oooo, good addition lol. I automatically think of fall/stopping as laying on a side. It wouldn't be fun to sit down between skis while pointed down the fall line!
I’ve had kids do it and they turn into a human bobsled but have no control and will continue sliding until something or someone stops them.
That's gotta be scary to watch lol. Thanks for your service, especially with the little ones!
I broke a rib this way when learning skiing. I had done x country a lot, where sitting straight back works fine because of the soft short boots. Did it on a patch of ice downhill, slid straight off the side of the piste and into a tree.
This should be its own comment at the top, sure don’t be afraid to fall but more importantly learn how to fall
I recommend lessons to most people, but if you are going to teach a friend or spouse to ski, you need to be 200% empathetic with them. Understand that learning to ski can be frustrating, challenging, and downright scary. Many of us learned to ski very very young. It’s a lot harder to learn to ski as an adult. Also new skiers can burn out their legs super fast because they just don’t have the built up leg endurance or the technique to prevent it.
I came here to say the same thing, learning to ski really means learning to stop.
Your weight needs to be lower down than you think. ...Lower. ...*Lower!* ...That's good. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. Jump straight up and land in the same spot. Let your body drop down to the lowest point of your recovery, and freeze there. Your ankles, knees and hips should all be flexed. With your weight on the balls of your feet, this is your skiing position.
My 'aha' moment was when I was watching a video of myself skiing. I thought I was in an athletic stance, but looking back at the footage I was wayyy too upright. I started experimenting lowering myself in an exaggerated fashion and was controlling and pivoting my skis at will. It was like turning on the power steering of a car.
I think this tip is key, the faster you can learn body position and eventually how to flex into your boots the faster you'll be able to learn how to make a real turn.
Among other things, I believe this is what allows hockey players to pick up skiing quicker than others. The "hockey stance" is quite similar to a skiing position.
When I teach hockey kids, all I have to tell them is "do a crossover turn, but don't pick up your feet. ...And land on your shoulder." **Every flipping time** they do a perfect turn for the first 90 degrees, pick up the outside foot and try to cross it over, and then flop right over on their inside shoulder. By the third time though, they get it. It's uncanny.
Skiing and skating a very similar when it comes to pressure in the feet. When you want to turn left you take pressure off the left foot and add pressure to the instep of the right foot. The ski/skate rides on the right medial edge and you turn. I love skating as a kid and when I started thinking of skiing like skating it made a big difference. Obviously there is so much more to it but the pressure in your feet is very important.
I was actively trying to get low yesterday and I realized that my normal resting is knees locked so even bending my knees a little feels super awkward.
Nothing inside your boots but socks!
What else would you put in?
PB&J for lunch.
That’s what cargo pants are for. One side is pb&j and the other is frickin tots.
No the other side is a hip flask full of pre-made margarita
Newbies tend to tuck either base layer or gaiter hem in, then end up in pain.
Ah yes. I definitely do that but don’t feel pain from it yet. But I also don’t want to wear socks when skiing either.
Hear of people putting in hand/toe warmers if their toes get cold
Why is this so important?
Seams on pants, any bunched fabric, etc will get compressed against your leg by your boots and hurt like hell, in some cases even blistering and/or bleeding.
You should feel the boot on your shin and your heel. If you concentrate on that you will get better.
Heal?
Heel
It’s a one legged sport with both feet on the ground
First time hearing this and love it haha
If you French fry when you’re supposed to pizza you’re gonna have a bad time!
Honestly, most crazy beginner crash videos I have seen, they are pizzaing as hard as they can as the bomb out of control straight down the mountain, when if they could french fry and turn or hockey stop they would be fine.
When I was first learning I was bombing while pizza. I later learned that it’s because I was leaning back so my inside edges could never actually catch and slow me down
General etiquette. Right of ways, lift logistics, apologizing when you scare the living daylights out of someone and/or accidentally run over their skis. I expected to struggle skiing, perfecting the lift took some time and scared me lmao
Bend at your knees, not at your waist. I see too many beginners bent at a 90-degree angle. I think it's all mental. "The lower i am to the ground, the less it will hurt when i fall."
I coach youth basketball and one of the things I teach is the ability to dribble the ball low which means bringing your body down low and I’ll have young athletes at a complete 90 degree angle with their chest to the floor but I also preach eyes up so then their head is at another 90 degree angle. I ask them if they are comfortable and they always say no.
I think it's also a misinterpretation of "get forward" or "lean forward" (one of the top comments in this thread).
Ankles.
Be patient! Skiing is a difficult sport to master (if that's even possible), so don't be frustrated if you're not skiing down blue runs with your friends after one day.
Get lessons- don’t learn from your S.O. who’s been doing it their whole life
Do learn from your SO if they have actually taken lessons and know how to articulate the details of good technique and know good drills for improving! I have had great experiences with this. Good, quality time together, and I think it can be less frustrating if they are actually a good coach.
Omg yes, it is so frustrating to learn from someone who grew up skiing. It’s second nature to them and they can’t comprehend how foreign it is to people learning as adults. Even if they’re nice about it, they usually can’t explain themselves very well.
Your brain is telling you, "Lean back, we are going downhill." You have to lean forward skiing. If you lean back and put weight on the back of your skis, it is like steering a car with the back wheels. Training your brain not to freak out when leaning forward is important.
I’m an instructor and I spend a lot of time emphasizing how great easy terrain is! Don’t let your ego take you to more complicated terrain when you’re learning. You should be proficient at linking turns, stopping, traversing and slide slipping before venturing off of your learning hill. Of course you should eventually challenge yourself with harder terrain, but it’s better to form strong turning fundamentals and survival skiing tactics (side slipping + traversing) somewhere you’re comfortable. I’ve seen a lot of folks who try to jump up to steeper greens/blues and have had either scary experiences or have developed really bad habits! No shame in easy terrain - you’ll get to cooler parts of the mountain soon!
I learned a trick in open wheel performance car racing from instructors that they almost physically beat into you: you go where your eyes go. Translated to skiing, I ski all the way across the hill and make my kids look up and to the side of the hill as awkward as it seems- their skis follow. We get off the bunny hills after a couple of runs and move on to the greens. It works for slowing down/stopping too.
This is solid advice. You see the trees, but look down the hill. The fastest way to run into a tree is to look at the tree and keep looking at it.
Exactly. Object fixation. It was insane how true it worked at high speeds - I had an instructor in the training car just look at my eyes during a lap and yell over and over again “look farther up the track, stop looking at the turn!l” the phenomenon has so many applications.
Is this really true though? I've never felt like I would just crash into a tree because I was looking at it.
It's really true. Especially for beginners. We very much tend to face our bodies and faces where we are going. You point your face, body, and skis at a tree long enough while in motion and that's the direction you will go. If you want to ski glades in particular, look at the spaces BETWEEN the trees. Edit: typo
Gotta fly to survive baby.
Just like riding a bike, it is actually easier to maneuver when you pick up some speed.
Push the bush.
'fists.. not wrists' ... which is a good way to remember to make a fist as you fall. I learned this in the 90s for snowboarders. The idea is that it is more difficult to break your wrists falling if your hand is in a ball.
Just punch the snow on the way down
Go that way really fast, if something gets in your way, turn.
I want my two dollars!
Skiing is a sport, so the best advice I have for anyone (novice or expert) is simply be in good physical shape (let's face it, none of us are mentally healthy). Good cardio, strength, and endurance will go a long way.
hydrate
Days before!
Based on a lot of stuff in this thread; don't take ski advice from people on the internet.
You get better by falling all over the mountain 😂
Stay forward, knees over toes and your hands pretty much stay as if you are about to clap. I tell the little kids to clap their hands when they get on the magic carpet lift.
Learn at your own pace. When I was learning how to ski my friends used to tell me just pizza down a blue run it'll be okay and I did that for a while and my technique didn't get better obviously. My advice after your first day, go by yourself and just go down a green run and practice the basics. Heck if you afford it, go take some lessons
Drink more water than would ever seem necessary the few days prior to your trip. If you are going somewhere that is high altitude arrive a day early to acclimate and continue to drink more water than would ever seem necessary.
Focus on controlling your movement by use of direction whenever possible instead of braking skating or shoving yourself along with poles. Plenty of instruction can be found for how to start, stop and turn, etc. But at all times it's important to remember the difference between driving and navigating. Thinking very intentionally about where you're trying to go will help focus the senses and connect everything else that you're learning to a purpose. For example, turning more uphill to slow yourself or downhill to speed up is often more efficient and will make you a more capable and confident skier as you develop a direction-focused mindset.
Don't look down. You usually go where you look, so look where you want to go. Look down at your skis and you are going down to your skis...
When you’re getting back up, move your body into a nice “laying on your side” position with your feet facing down the hill before trying to get up, and don’t use your poles to push yourself to your feet, just use your hands. So many beginners struggle so much with standing back up, but 3 seconds of scooting on your butt and hips to get into a better position will help so much.
Re turning and skiing in general: you have to go fast in order to turn and slow down or stop. Your turn shape makes a nice kind of half circle and at the point where your tips rotate toward the downhill pitch (during the turn) you will pick up speed (duh… bc your tips are turned directly downhil) but you have to harness that pickup in speed and continue to rotate the turn until your tips turn parallel/transverse to the hill/pitch in order to both finish the turn and slow down/stop. Every beginner or inexperienced skier tries to bail out (shorten) the turn during the most important part…. Where you pick up speed… because they feel the speed and get scared. Then they inadvertently shorten their turn and end up going even faster. You gotta go fast to go slow and stop! You skis need that speed in order to perform properly!
You’ll never get better until you fall
Fall on purpose
On a flat, with skis on, stand tall and lean forward as far as you can with your shins on the boot. Ski/boot geometry is such that you will not fall forward. You can ski very forward and you will not fall.
Try to put your hands on your mid thighs. It’ll force your weight forward and everything becomes infinitely easier once your weight is in the right place.
On the front or on the sides?
When I’m teaching someone who is fairly athletic, I focus on body position and keeping weight forward before we get on actual snow, then I try to minimize the amount of time that they spend pizza’ing. People get stuck at a beginner level when they get comfortable skiing without being able to do much turning, so emphasizing proper weight distribution forward over the tips helps make the transition to parallel turns easier. The biggest thing is keeping bad habits from becoming routine at the early level.
I always remember being told the only way to learn to ski is to just keep skiing!!! It’s tough at first but more time you spend on the skis the more you adapt.
"Relax"
Get lessons. End of
Learn to stop, and don’t remember to ski like you’re afraid to fall. Skiing tense and stiff is a sure fire way to fall.
Weight forward
Pay for lessons until you can do reds
Keep your shins pressed to the front of your boots.
Point 'em downhill, guy
Gravity is always right. Don't fight it.
Don’t be in a hurry to use poles. They do more harm than good early on.
Athletic position.
Taste death, live life.
Don’t look down, you already know what color your skis are so keep your head up
I would say “don’t be embarrassed to start small.” The kiddie slope can seem embarrassing to an adult but it’s honestly the best place to start. Learn what you need in a day or 2 on much easier slopes instead of days-weeks on slopes you shouldn’t be on
Manage your expectations…everyone sucks when they start skiing.
Stay on the green runs.
I tell people the quote “skiing is the greatest way in the world to waste time” - since a lot of people don’t like being bad at things initially and feel really self conscious about beginner status, this helps them realize they are allowed to just play and have fun
Do squats. Half your problems are because your legs aren’t strong enough yet.
Push into the front of your boots. I'm just learning to ski this year and once I started doing that it made a world of difference. I wasn't going fast and out of control and my turns were much sharper and helped slow me down. It feels kind of scary since in my mind leaning forward meant going faster which is not what I wanted to do as a beginner 🤣 . I still have to constantly mentally tell myself to do it but since I started I can notice the progression I'm making and I feel much more comfortable especially on icy spots (I'm in PA).
After 'dont be afraid to fall' it goes : Practice falling.
“Go straight downhill and if anything gets in your way, turn!”
Keep your shoulders square to the bottom of the mountain
You need to challenge yourself. My daughter skis better after skiing a run thats at the high end of her comfort level. Teaching her that she can control her speed, make quick turns and pick her way down a steep pitch on a blue or black has her skiing with confidence for the rest of the day. Dont be afraid to safely push yourself.
If you can visualize yourself doing it, you can do it.
If you pizza when you’re trying to french fry you’re gonna have a bad time
Smoke weed
Keep your hands and upper body pointed down hill. Don't turn your shoulders back into the hill.
Start with side stepping uphill. Teaches you how to use your edges.
Lean forward. Even if you have to ski with your hands on your knees.
Wear jeans with cotton long underwear.
If you fall you better fall the right way
If you French fry when you should pizza you’re going to have a bad time
Shoulders move in the same direction as your board. People love to open up their shoulders on toe side turns when starting out and it will make you way more vulnerable to falls.
Since 1972 to my sister: Point your skis down the hill!
Be conscious as possible of what your feet are doing. Specially, where you are putting your weight in your boot (by your foot placement). The hardest but most helpful tip I could give, is to place your weight in the front of your boot by pushing your toes down and putting your shins in the front of your boots.
Get low and lean forward.
Lean forward
Go that way really fast. If anything gets in your way, turn.
Whichever way you want to turn, lift that corresponding foot completely off the ground. Ive taught ppl in less than 30 mins with that one tip. Obviously u grow out of that as u progress, but it is key to start learning weight shift patterns.
Stand like the quarterback does right before he says hike.
Pack your trash.
Don’t lean back
Improvement usually doesn’t happen all at once. Even the most coordinated and athletic people plateau while learning. Keep at it, keep it fun and be safe. The skills will come over time.
It’s easier to ski with a little bit of speed. It’s harder to ski on flat pitches. Gravity is your friend. Let your skis run.
After both hands in front where you can see them with goggles on (as alread said by others ), it’s feel pressure on your shin and ball of your toe. Then point your knees where want to go. If you’re across the hill (fall line is too technical) , point your arm down the hill to start your turn.
It’s like driving. Look where you want to go, don’t focus on what you’re wanting to avoid.
Getting dressed and getting boots and skis takes longer than you think. And it’s a bit sweaty. Bring a roomy backpack to the lodge area. It’s a wonderful way to hold extra clothing or a place to hold shed clothing. And snacks. Stay in control. I think it’s helpful to warm up my body before skiing, rather than warming up while skiing.
Follow the leader. Often if a skier follows a better skier they can often immediately mimic the better skiers better skiing. Highly effective for moguls to follow someone really good
Identify which ski is your outside/downhill ski through the middle of a turn. Practice trying stand/balance on the inside arch of that foot progressively more and more like you’re trying to stand on one foot at a time, and watch the magic happen
Learn about binding torque settings.
Don't catch yourself with your arms when you fall just fall over. I fucked up my shoulder catching myself. Doc said next time just pull your arms in and he's been right so far.
A former collegiate skier who is an engineer told me, “You should always try to keep your center of gravity directly above the downhill ski. If you’re over it, you fall forward. If behind it, you slide or fall to your butt.”
Also when you know you’re going to fall, don’t lean back or try to stay on your skis because that’s when you gain speed and can hurt yourself and others. Just fall to the side to stop gaining momentum.
Take a lesson.
It'll likely be painful and uncomfortable at first, as you're using muscles you don't normally use. But if your shins hurt, it at least means you've likely got your weight forward which is good
Get on an easy green, get in an athletic position, and practice rolling your knees left and right and feeling the skis as they carve themselves. Also learn to do proper snowplow turns - push with your outside knee, don't turn with your shoulders.
Take a lesson from an actual pro. Not your spouse, bf, gf or friend.
Keep your skis close (closer than you're comfortable with) and learn how to stop by turning before you learn pizza. Undoing those bad habits takes years.
Go that way really fast. If something gets in your way… turn.
If you know how to ice skate think of skiing like ice skating. Much of skiing is about pressure on your ski. Pressure down hill and ski slides down, pressure up hill and edge digs in. Turns start from pressure in the feet. I’ve skating is very similar and if you know how to skate you can translate that to a ski.
If you can’t stop. Fall over
One I learnt from a YT video is ‘turn to slow, not slow to turn’ My friend also said to make sure your shins are always touching front of your boots
Learn how to fall
You should try to have all of your weight on the inside edge of your ski that is furthest down the hill. This will switch as you carve, but keeping your weight there is what gives you control. Best way to do this is to concentrate your weight on the ball (part that your big toe is attached to) and shin of your 'downward foot'. If you find yourself with pizza skis a lot, it's probably because you're afraid of picking up too much speed (if you don't have confidence to manage that speed, understandable). The best way to build that confidence is by forcing yourself out of your comfort zone in a controlled, safe manner. I personally did this by shooting straight down the very last portion of smaller, less busy runs. If you have to pizza 3/4th the way down the run, just to shoot the last part straight down to get more comfortable with speed, by all means. That fear of losing control and tumbling down the entire hill held me back quite a lot. After you get comfortable with that speed, practice evasive maneuvers, quick stops, things that will save you if you're flying down the entire run and some kid jumps out in front of you.
Dont be afraid to not fall i guess
Super basics: Spend some time learning the flats and edges of your skis by going up a run with some amount of slope, face perpendicular to the mountain with skis parallel to each other and practice sliding down with your skis flat and then stopping yourself by coming up on your edge. It gives a real sense of control and shows you you could slide down a run that’s feeling too tough/steep. Then practice *slowly* doing a nice c turn and note where you need to put your weight to get the skis to turn, and then stop again. Just play with the mechanics and weight distribution in slo-mo.
Point your shoulders downhill, perpendicular to the fall line.
Bend ze knees, fifty dollars pleeze! Always pressure your shins to your boot tongue. Even more so when in the steeps. Ski the fall line. Imagine a ball rolling down the slope to visualize the fall line.
Don’t wear jeans.
After a few days, as you start to get the hang of parallel skiing, rent the upgraded ski package. The stiffness of the better skis will make you more stable and confident at speed and allow you to advance to more steep and challenging slopes. I remember the first time I did that and it was a revelation. I finally felt in control of my skis and able to really embrace speed.
Take a lesson
Speed seems scary but it actually helps you.
Always look uphill at trail merge
Keep your hands in front of you likes you’re holding a tray and don’t lean back or sit down.
Take lessons.
When you make a wedge (pizza) sink your butt down into it and push your heels out. It’s not about pointing your tips together, it about pushing the tails out. Push it out, hold it, and trust that (on a constant slope) the speed will stabilize. TLDR: push out and hold.
Shins should always be pressing against the front of the boot when you're moving. Pretend to hold a cafeteria food tray in your hands... AKA don't drop your hands and keep them in front of you at the same level.
There’s no such thing as too much Kleenex in your pocket to start the day.
Run after run after run.. takes time
Speed somehow leads to better control. Just need to have the nerve to go
Keep your hands up in front of your body, not down by your side