We asked ski instructor, Jocelyn Cockle, for her expert skiing tips and she sent us a series of these excellent guides.
In part one, she discusses posture.
Look out for the rest of the series, which we will be publishing soon.
Skiing is such a dynamic and technical sport its very easy to over think and to get confused by listening to your friends and partners on how to do it.
At FREEFLO, we keep coaching simple and fun and can be technical when we need to be. Like in most sports the set up is so important but you have to realise that it is not a fixed, immobile position.
A sound skiing posture is often referred to other activites like a tennis player, a goal keeper. I like to think different especially when you come across clients that don’t do sport.
I use the analogy like skiing is like baking a cake. The bowl is your posture your ingredients is your edge, rotary and pressure and depending on what cake you want to make or type of terrain that you ski it will depend on how much of the ingredient you will use, and the range and rate that you will add the ingredients.
With time you will build smoothness, flow and timing and accuracy using no or little muscular effort. But it is very important that the bowl is in balance.
Key tips for posture:
- Keep a horizontal eyeline: Most people will look at their feet when they first learn to ski or even in the off piste when they are uncertain of the terrain ahead. If the client hasn’t skied much in powder they will return to looking down at their skis. Looking at your feet or skis is something you don’t want to do. As this will knock you of balance then when you are out of balance it is harder if not impossible to turn.
- Arms relaxed and away form the body: Don’t hold your arms like holding shopping bags or stiff and straight in front as that is just painful for your back.
- Keep ankle,knees and hip relaxed and flexed: A lot of clients ask me about the knees and the common myth is to ‘bend the knees’. You will find that just being in the ski boot that your knees are automatically flexed which is enough.
- Keep balance over the feet: This is very important keep your hips over your feet so that the pivot point is under the balls of your feet.
Go to your nearest dry slope and or ski dome and try out these tips.
FREEFLO specialises in progressive on and off piste skiing, backcountry ski touring and women specific ski courses www.freefloski.com
