A look at ski friendly / non-intuitive movements

Movement on Skis

“Skiing is an incredibly easy sport that is incredibly difficult to do well.”

- Walter Stoeckl
(Austrian Race Coach)

Since the dawn of man, and even before his daybreak, our bodies have been inundated with instinctual information processing. This is more than just a fancy way to start out what might sound like an academic review of evolution; rather, it is meant to understand our body’s relationship to movement, and ultimately, touch upon the grand challenges that face our body’s best bets to move as a proficient skier.

Back to our apish ancestors. Since out first bipedal brethren turned to the left (e.g. for sex or shelter) they were sure to move their hips in the direction of travel. And why not? ...It’s biomechanically the best way to go on two feet. Thus, this atavistic, anti-skiing movement pattern has been festering in our muscle memory ever since. When I move to the left, my hips tend to want to turn to the left. All well and fine - if you don’t care to ski.

Therefore, in due consideration of our predicament, we should take heed: the body’s instincts are not to be trusted. From our head to our toes, and all the proprioception in between, what “feels” good or comfortable does not necessarily move us in the direction of good skiing. Simply put, for good skiing, efficient movements rarely feel “right” to the body (though they may feel “good” in the way the skis contact the snow).

Fundamental movements that create effective skiing are fundamentally anti-intuitive. From this standpoint one can understand that in order to ski well, one has to abandon several of the body’s instinctual responses toward movement. In essence, effective movements of modern ski mechanics are learned movements. In sum: embrace the strange.



The 4 fundamental and anti-intuitive movements in skiing are:

1. The reliance on a balanced athletic stance (e.g. resisting the urge to lower the center of mass in order to increase one’s sense of balance)

2. Rotating and steering the feet and legs into the turn while maintaining functional counter in the hip (e.g. not directing movement from the hip).

3. Directing the center of mass into the next turn (e.g. overcoming the urge to direct the feet down the mountain first.

4. The dynamic turn starts as a result of –first – tipping and not turning the body toward the direction of travel (e.g. one resists the primal instincts to turn the body to change direction).

Likewise, there are 4 fundamental skills in skiing. They are:

1. Dynamic balance
2. Rotary control
3. Pressure control
4. Edge control

Each fundamental skill correlates with a fundamentally anti-intuitive movement. For example:

1. Relying on a balanced athletic stance: means that one balances against the outside ski as a measure of the hip aligned over the outside foot in each turn.

2. Rotating and steering the feet and legs into the turn while maintaining functional counter in the hip: means that rotary control (twisting forces) comes from the contraction of abductor and adductor muscles so as to rotate the femurs on their ball and socket joints with the pelvis.

3. Directing the center of mass into the next turn: means a proactive pressure control movement that maintains that ever important balance against the outside ski (and its contact with the snow) while the ski is directed in and out of the fall line.

4. The dynamic turn starts as a result of –first – tipping – and not - turning the body toward the direction of travel: means an edge control movement that makes effective use of the design and shape of the modern ski.

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Stupid Simple

New blog entry

Thanks to all of you who have read and contributed to the blog. Personally, I would like to think about it as an ongoing conversation for our study group. That said, I have no sethttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif expectations as to how this all will play out – though if you can leave any kind of response – as short as one or two words or as verbose as you care – feel free.

Mainly, I hope that everyone has been able to incorporate some of the training moves we worked on last Thursday into their lesson time. That said, my overall ski impression was that we need to work as a team on turning our legs more and turning them better.

Remember, throughout all our high-falutian tech talk, going skiing really is just a matter of tipping and turning our legs to the left, and tipping and turning our legs to the right (or vise versa) and that’s it! Regardless of all the fancy physics and bloated biomechanic analysis, this is really all we’re doing, and it’s all that really matters.

Keeping ourselves in balance over our feet allows all this tipping and twisting to happen.

No matter how complicated (or obtuse) our tech talks become, keep this simple sense in mind, hold on to it, let it ground you. What we will teach will ultimately be what we train and aquire for ourselves.

So, the take away message?... We have to experience the concepts and the visual cues to good skiing; we have to own them on the hill. So, work is light this January – go ski!

Our first day out

I thought about creating this blog as a way not to just disseminate information, but rather to create a forum from with instructors could communicate, share thoughts about good skiing and teaching, and otherwise create a community of those interested in becoming better at what we do.


First, let it be known: I am no computer wiz, and am open to suggestions as to how to create a better forum from which we can communicate.

This blogspot forum might be helpful and there might be better venues out there from which we can take advantage of web technology. Ultimately, it is my goal to work in a "cyber space forum" that is not so top down, but rather a real community free for all, from which all could share and express without censure.

And that all being said.....

Tomorrow: will be a chance to get to know each other - and generally get ourselves into a comfortable training space - wherein we can all come to support each other as athletes and professionals. This is my main goal for day 1. It might sound overly humble, but I know from experience that skiing can be a demanding and even stressful performance sport at this level - and we as a cohort must work hard to create a climate of support for each other. I see us as a team.

I believe that as a trainer I have enjoyed some rather strong pass rates at level 2, and I personally seek to even further improve my success at creating successful level 2 ski and teach candidates. Therefore in turn I ask everyone to support everyone in creating a culture of improvement and personal training. I believe that here is how we succeed (e.g. hard work). And... it is through absolute cooperation and colleague support (not competition) that this culture of excellence will be achieved. I personally am excited to also be a student amongst you all - and to embrace a "beginner's mindset" for all wonderful possibility it offers.

So I welcome you all.

And of course there will be some nuts and bolts to tomorrow's clinic. They will be note in the standard curriculum to be circulated soon when it finds its final draft form.

We will look at the skills concept and skill blending
We will look at balance, and of course balance against the outside ski (you will grow sick of the phrase)
And we will look at visual cues to effective skiing

And, I also hope that there will be some space to have some fun as well - in fact, I'm sure there will be.