Skiing Techniques

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SKIING AND TECHNIQUE FOR BEGINNERS

Skiing is not only an arms, legs,and foot skill ; it is also skill to command your joints

Like every sport, learning to skiing also requires some times.However it is always possible to speed up learning by more often practising which make easier to adaptation .

In the mean time,in addition to the right equipment and appropriate gears, having right instructor and right techniques are important points that should always be kept in mind.

 When you arrive at the ski center,carefully check the winter tourism map first and make sure that all the information including safety warnings are understood very well.

Listen calm and carefully what your instructors will inform you about safety precautions of terrain and your ski gears

With our 40 years experience , We as the instructor team of True Legent Veysel Hodja,would like to  recommend our skier  below instruction before they take their skis on

Do low level excercises such as walking,running,stretchings e.t.c one day before you arrive the ski center in order to optimise your performance.

Do stretching at least for 20 minutes before you take on your skis and ski boots

Please kindly check table 1, table2, table3, and table 4 to choose right ski lenght

Walk about 20 minutes on snowy ground with your ski boots are on

Make sure that you ski boots are comfortable and well fits to your feet

Make sure that FLEX value which is flexibility of your ski boots meets your level.

Beginners should choose FLEX value of 65-70-80 and advanced skier should choose FLEX value of 90-110-or 130.

Carefull check the clips of your boots and make sure that they are binded well

Make sure that your sock is not bunched up in your ski boots.

Make sure that the inner and outer steel edges of skis or / and snowboards you will be using are smooth and solid

Make sure to choose Ski pole with height at your waist level

Make sure that ski pants legs always to fit over the boots and never inside.

Always wear helmet first before take your skis on

Try to walk on snowy ground at least 15-20 min.with skies on and do knee bending excercises to warm up your joints.

Stop overthinking about falling down.!!

When you have your skis on,apply pressure to the heels of your feet while at the same time allow your shins to gently press against upper front oval of your ski boots

Always look ahead when you are skiing position

Always prefer slightly sloping small hills with uncrowded terrains to do your first performance.

SNOWPLOW TECHNIQUE : Is the technique which is very beneficial to learn very well and must be improved through several excersises untill our joints movements  become reflexive.

It is the most important priliminary technique for learning of turns,speed control,and stopping when you decide to be good skier.

When you set the snowplow technique in your muscles and joints memory with the coordination of your legs,and feet,you never forget it and will realise that it is not difficult as it seems.

Tips to Start Snowplow

First thing to do is to concentrate on your  knee joints and foot joints rather than legs

Body :Make sure that your body weight is distributed evenly while your foot equally make pressure on your skis, ( heels have to make little more pressure)

For a correct balanced posture,it is necessary for your body to be slightly leaning forward ;but never backward

Knee :Always keep your knees slightly bended,as this will act as suspension over possible bumps in the terrain while skiing.

Hands :Keep your hands forwarded position like carrying a tray.In this way your upper body leans slightly forward to provide safer balance position.

Foot :.Form your skis “V” shape which also can called Pizza Slice .

To achive this,use your ankle joints and rub your heels from the inside out without lifting them off the ground and direct your toes inward.

In ideal snowplow “V” shape, the gap between front tips of skis should be 10-15 cm which can be accomplished  after several excercises.

You will see that your skis move faster when the distance between front tips of skis get wider,and slow down and stop when the distance get closer.

We advice NOT USE POLES  in learning stage of snowplow for better development.

Take care to stay calm by controlling your breathing well for better controlling your skis.

SNOWPLOW TURNINGS

After numereous exercises on low-slope tracks such as blue lines ,you will accomplish smooth sliding and stopping and snowplow become spontaneous reflexes for you.

It means you are now ready to start learning turnings by using  snowplow technique

In fact,snowplow turning techniques are not difficult to learn at all.

 Beside carefully  reading  the below tips and explanations, excercises of the listed movements with or without skis on may help a lot to develop your skill

  • Our skis : In form of slowplow shape “V” .“Pizza Slice”
  • Body : Slightly leaned forward 
  • Arms : Extended forward like carrying tray position
  • Knees : Little bended
  • Our Eye : Looking at turning direction
  • Upper Body and Shoulders: Towards to same direction where intending to turn,

Right Turns : When you want to turn right, with the help of your left ankle and left knee joint,put your feet slightly inward and apply pressure on the left ski,shift some of your body weight to  the left and turn sligtly to the right from the heel of your left ski (important note: do not step on the inside of your right ski while making right turn and always turn from vertical to slope side)

Left Turns : When you want to turn left, with the help of your right ankle and right knee joint,put your feet slightly inward and apply pressure on the right ski,shift some of your body weight to  the right and turn sligtly to the left from the heel of your right ski (important note: do not step on the inside of your left ski while making left turn and always turn from vertical to slope side)

After improving our straight sliding and turning with the snowplow through numerous exercises, you should ensure continuity in your turns by making consecutive turns (one after other) which called “ Link Snowplow Ski Turns”.

Link Snowplow Turns

As the name suggests, these are turns which are made in linked to each other. As one turn finishes than the next turn starts.

These are rotation exercises performed by reducing the weight of one foot, and balancing it, and then placing weight on the other foot, without changing snowplow  position.

It is very important to gain skill in snow plows turns and develop them with repetitive exercises  in order to adapt more easily to advanced levels.

Stem Turns

After making progress in snowplow turns, another technique that needs to be developed in order to ski on slightly more difficult tracks is the stem turns .

The purpose of stem turns is to cut the downhill direction of the slopes at a certain angle and to continue sliding by maintaining grip in the cut direction.

Before explain the “stem turn” It is useful to keep the following ski terms in mind as the main elements of this technique.

Downhill Ski: The ski that is on the downhill side as you traverse the slope.

Uphill Ski: The ski that is on the uphill side as you traverse the slope

Inside Edge: The ski that is on the inside of a turn.

Outside Edge: The ski that is on the outside  of a turn.

When you start sliding to the right or left by crossing the slope descent direction at a certain angle, it means that you have started to make stem turns.

Here is how

First of all, your ski and body position should be as follows.

  • Your skis are parallel to each other, hip-width apart 
  • Upper body slightly inclined forward
  • In order to traversing the hill left to right.
  • The skis are in paralel and most of your weight on downhill ski
  • Slightly lift uphill ski and place it back with your feet about shoulder width apart,while the ski front tips about 15-20 cm apart and right ski on its inside edge
  • Shift your weight to on uphill ski,which will initiate a turn to the left
  • Make the turn in snowplow position while your weight on outside ski
  • When passing the mid point of turning radius,slightly bring left foot and place down close to the right foot to take paralel position
  • Finish the turn and traverse right to left with skis are paralel while most of your weight on downhill ski

SIDEWAYS SLIDING TECHNIQUE

After improving stem turn  it is also important to learn and train the “Side Sliding” technique.

When doing sideway sliding , we need to release  pressure applied to the inside and outside ski allowing the entire base of  skis to kiss the ground .In the mean time our body should be in below position

  • Our hip slightly bended to uphill side
  • Uphill  ski knee bended outwards
  • Downhill ski knee bended slightly inwards.

In this way, side sliding begins in the direction of the descent, with the ski tips perpendicular to the direction of the descent.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PARALLEL TURN TECHNIQUE:

It is among the most necessary techniques in parallel skiing.

Basically,  these are turns made without losing the parallel position of the skis.

This turning technique is based on mostly knee movements and performed by  the opening and closing of the knee joints (raising and lowering movements)

In a sense, it can also be called a parallel turn technique, which is to turn towards the downhill side or uphill side  without lifting our skis off the ground, but by reducing the grip pressure on the track with a slightly rise and lowering  movement.

The information given above and the Ski Techniques outlined are generally preliminary information for ski lovers who are new in skiing.

As it can imagine, just like every other sport, skiing is a sport that requires frequent excercises, and it can only develop to be more enjoyable with the support of qualified and experienced instructors.