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.