Natural moves and Ski Moves™                                                                                             

 

                                                                                Natural Moves 

 

These three natural moves are related with one causing more of the other. You first move back on your skis, then use your upper body to turn and lean inside the turn.

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1- Moving back on a slope

2- Turning the upper body

3- Leaning inside the turn

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The goal is to replace these natural moves with Ski Moves to have an athletic stance and turn from your feet up, not shoulders down.

Using natural moves makes improving harder. It is best to learn Ski Moves right from the start.   

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​Moving Back Video

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1- This is the biggest problem for skiers and it causes more of the other natural moves. When standing on a slope and facing downhill without skis, you must lean back because your feet are too short to keep you from falling forward. But, skis support you so you can move forward into an athletic stance. This is very hard for most people to do, so even if they know what to do they may get frustrated and move on without it.  

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​2- Moving back happens at the ankles, knees, hips, back or a combination of all of them. If you can feel your weight on the balls of your feet with your chest above it will be easier to do on a slope when your body will try to move back. 

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3- When you go higher up a gentle slope, to steeper slopes, ski faster, or in harder conditions, you will tend to move back. Part of this can be fear, so you need to be aware and be able to return to to an athletic stance. 

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4- When first starting to move, your feet can move forward before the body which can also move you back.

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5- On level ground without skis, you cannot flex your ankles much without falling forward. So it is natural to bend your knees as you flex your ankles to not fall forward. But skis support you, so you can flex just the ankles. It is very common to flex the knees too soon, too fast, or too much and end up on the back of the skis. Ski boots also make it harder to bend your ankles. Flex the ankles and the knees.  

 

6- Most skiers flex with their knees and do not bend their ankles much, so they ski more on the back of their skis and turn with their shoulders. They usually struggle to make smaller turns and to turn far enough to control their speed.

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Turning the upper body  Video                  

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​Turning with the shoulders and hips is how people naturally move when walking. They use these same moves when skiing rather than turning from feet up. Moving back causes more of this upper body turning. 

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Turning the upper body restricts the upper body from progressively tipping to the side so you can continuously move over the turn. The tipping also puts the ski more on edge and it keeps you from falling inside the turn. 

 

Leaning inside the turn Video

 

Leaning your upper body inside the turn is how you move naturally against the force you feel to the outside of the turn. It starts to put the skis on edge to turn, but if it lasts to the end of the turn it limits how much you can edge the skis and keeps you from moving over the turn. It also increases the chances of falling on your hip.

 

Some will lean inside a turn first then turn their upper body in the direction. It may vary from right turn to the left, or each turn may be different. 

 

People will lean uphill when just standing on a steeper slope, so they don't to feel like they will fall downhill.

 

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                                                                                          Ski Moves™

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Developing Ski Moves gives you an athletic stance and to turn from the skis up. They allow you to progress faster and ski safer with greater control.   

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1- Start in an athletic stance ​

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2- Turn from the ground up

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3- Move over the turn 

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An athletic stance is the foundation. Feel your weight on the balls of your feet with the chest above, because your body will try to move back on a slope and you have to be able to get back to that athletic stance.

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A turn is made by turning the feet, edging the skis, or a combination of both.

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The essence of skiing is moving over the skis as they turn. Do this by progressively flexing the ankles and tipping to the outside of the turn. To make sure the tipping can happen, move side of the body on the inside of the turn forward, that is the foot, knee, hip shoulder, and hand. 

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First time skiers learn to move over the turn by skiing straight downhill in an athletic stance to build momentum and learn to make turns from the ground up, rather than using their shoulders and hips.

 

You will start to feel your body move over the turn and downhill. Your momentum helps to make the turn and moves you into the next turn. Big MO(momentum), let it go, go with the flow. Then gradually go to more challenging terrain making sure to maintain an athletic stance and tuning from the feet up.

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Your stance changes through the turn forward and back, side to side, and down and up.

 

Moving back puts you more on the tail of the skis. To look for this, see if the chest is moving forward and over the turn, or back and inside. Precise timing to keep your body moving over the feet is the formula for how to make the moves. Move over a turn and into the new one.

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Refined these moves by making different size and shape turns, on slopes of different steepness, and in different conditions. The feet can be tipped, pulled up or back to get a similar effect but it takes the focus off the flow of the body