TIPS for Beginners. Part 1

Balancing your body while in direct descent

With this stance, the body weight is distributed evenly on the shank and heel. See Fig.: Knees are in front of the ankles, hips, front heels, and shoulders slightly in front of the thighs. The hands are relaxed in a suspended state, hand placed ahead of hips, in the zone of the lateral view. Front view: feet are confortable, but not too wide apart and ankle and knees bended. Shoulders slightly leaned forward. Hands slightly split to the side, elbows are not pressed to the body. A skier can perform the movement with his sticks quickly and smoothly.

D. Pfeiffer

Direct descent or oblique descent

The direct or oblique descent of the slope is not a fixed position, and you must be available to all unbalance (see figure). For that your legs are slightly bent, flexed and the ankle joints of the hips and knees leaned forward . The hands are parted on the side and forward (around the waist). Under oblique descent (ie the mean direction at an angle to the fall-line), one leg is located above the other, so that the thigh is ahead of a shoe, shoulder respectively slightly forward. Accordingly, the shoulder line of the skier is parallel to the line connect the ski-tips, and not perpendicular to the direction as in direct descent. Much of the skier's weight is transferred to the downhill ski. This value depends on the stiffness of the boots, skis, slope and snow conditions: more boots and skis are rigid, and more the slope is steep and hard snow, more your weight should be on the downhill ski.

D. Pfeiffer

Avoid static positions

Most of beginners remember positions, which they have seen in some magazine photos. And don't realize that the athlete is in this position only a fraction of second, a beginner taking this stance, and it's justified in a part of the curve, will tend to stay there for a long period.. This leads to a static posture that does not match the changing terrain and requirements of each phase of the turn. It should be understood that skiing the most important is not the fact that you've bent your knees, but the fact that they bend and unbend, it is not important that you 've weighted skis, but the fact that they are constantly weighted or unweighted. To improve the technique smoothly imagine "the overlapping" curves, the performance that you are in continuous motion: your body bent, unbent, you increase and decrease the amount of edge angle, etc. As soon as you linged on a static position? the turn is lost (see Fig.).

B. Vestfeldt

How to avoid the static position when changing direction

Static skiing provokes disturing to enter the turn. The result is a series of changes of direction caused by the abrupt movements of the body. Your curves will be performed more easily if you imagine yourself kangaroo, leaping down the slope. It will force you to bend and straighten your body, and this motion will give you more confidence in your ski(see Fig.). At the start of the turn, bend your knees, and in the turn quickly straight your legs, you will feel that the pressurey declining, and your skis unweighted will go almost themselves to the fall line. Bending the legs in the conduct of the rotation increases the pressure on yours skis. In addition, bent legs put more power to steer which allows you to turn more accurately. Practice, you can get rid of sharp exaggerated movements.

B. Taylor

How to restore the balance

When you suddenly find yourself in the bump, icy section, etc.. at last you lost your balance. In such a situation, most beginners start randomly swim with their arms, and try to restore the balance. This only worsens the situation, cause the motion with the hands move the center of gravity further away from the center point,which is located between the feet. If you fall on a treacherous place, which threatens you to fall, quickly put lower your hands down toward the shoes and take a low position, but don't sit down (see figure).. This body will seek to restore balance and center of gravity will again be placed properly on the feet. Practice for a long time it does not bring the motion to automatism, and then you will fall much less.

B. Vestfeldt

How to get back on the skis after a fall

If you felt on a slope so that both ski get off, which ski should be put in first on a steep slope? Contrary to what many people think, for the beginners the first should be the uphill ski. Cause it's easier to bend in the mountain than in the valley, and when the lower leg is completly stuck in the snow, you won't take the risk of slip and fall or miss the ski when you try to put it. Of course, after you put the upper ski, you should turn around 180 ° and repeat the same operation with the other ski, which will become the uphill (the downhill ski will allow you to keep your balance). If you get off only one ski, then to put it on, take a position for which it becomes the uphill (see Fig.).

from the magazine «Skiing»

How to have the correct initial position of the hands?

Movement of arms to a greater extent than any other, distinguished one from another skier. Probably you will not find two skiers'class who use their hands or put sticks in the same way. However, there is a basic hand positions: quite low, slightly ahead of the hips. To make the correct position of hands, do the following (see fig.).

• 1. Take the ski poles and keep lower-arms along your body. Now release the knob sticks all fingers except the thumb and the forefinger, ring stick will be on the snow. Gently squeeze the handles of these fingers and relax the hand and forearm.
• 2. Do not straining the muscles below the elbow, lift the stick from the snow, by connecting the remaining fingers.
• 3. Looking straight ahead, raise your hands up (up to waist level), and then dissolve in hand so that they were in the lateral field of view. Now, your hands are ready to work.

S. Campbell

How to put a stick in the snow

Beginners, who learn to set poles in front of the turn, permit a variety of errors. To improve coordination in time, imagine that, in contact with the snow the stick do a little shock hits (see Fig.). The sticks should to touch slightly the snow , but don't immerse it in the snow. Enough for that your body needs to straighten up, as if your body react by the shock (it making easier to ski). Your rotations significantly improved after you have mastered the coordination in time and accurate statement of the stick.

G. De Marne

Do not carry a stick forward, and rocking her like a pendulum

Many of beginners admit such this mistake: keep the stick forward everytime. This leads to a twisting of the body, which does not allow skiers to enter smoothly into the turn. Learn how to swing the stick, like a pendulum toward the place where you want to put it (see fig.). To feel that you are balance well the stick, and not carried it forward;practice this movement, stand on the slope. Before you begin the descent, follow a few pendular movements sticks.

J. Waggoner

How to calm the hands

With performing excessive arm movements, the beginners at risk of losing balance. In order to appease his hands, imagine that your hand is surrounded by two steel rings. These rings, as if it were hanging in the air in front of you (about waist level), located on both sides of the torso (see fig.). The rings are enough large to provide hands on freedom of action, but at the same time so small that they oppose excessive movement.

G. Sotelo

How to get rid of the stop at the entrance in the turn

Beginners often find difficulties to enter into a turn without stop. This is explained by the fact that most of them trying to turn the downhill ski before to transfer their body weight. As a result, the ski is unweighted and difficile to turn it. To make a good parallel turn it's very important to synchronize the movements. This means when you intend to start a new twist, the body weight should be shifted from the downhill ski to the uphill. You can start entering the corner just after the change of the supporting leg, but not before. To play, find a gentle slope, where you'll feel confident, and do the following exercise (see Fig. above). Start a steep slanting down and completely transfer the weight to the uphill ski, which help to raise the downhill ski above the snow (top). Then start turning, turning the ski in the air at the same time you will put your weight on the other. Perform the exercise on both sides. Once you've mastered it, you won't lift longer downhill ski, but only to unweight it.

Use the pressure that occurs at the end of the rotation

Most beginners do not know how to linked rotations. As a result, each turn they do is like the first (and the first turn is always the most difficult) and once again requires a major effort to enter the turn. At the same time changing the supporting leg, the edging and the evolution of the leg will be easier if the end of the turn increases the pressure of skis on the snow and increases the speed. To facilitate entry into the turn, when performing a series of rotations, try to feel the pressure that occurs at the end of the rotation under your downhill boot (see right figure).. Learn how to use this pressure in a way that it helps you to enter every next turn. Do not tighten the beginning of the next rotation transition in an oblique descent, during which the pressure is gone. If you learn how to perform the turns so for each next, as the same as the back, then you'll significantly improve your technical level.

J. Warren