SKIING TIPS – SAFETY CHECKS
By: Jack McGurin
Puritan Ski and Tennis Shop will be offering you “Ski and Snowboard Tips” bi-monthly on our web site during the current 2007-2008 snow sports season. Information will relate to safety, equipment and how to advise as the season progresses.
These points of information are presented to you by one of our new staff members, Jack McGurin who joins us after his move to Cape Cod from 35 years in Franconia NH. Jack taught skiing at Cannon Mt. from 1972-2005. He achieved PSIA-E Level III Certification (Professional Ski Instructors of America).
We hope you find these tips both enjoyable and helpful. Stop into our Hyannis Store and talk skiing and snow boarding with Scott, Jack, Christen, Ed and the rest of our talented crew. Our shop has a new street floor location. Come on in… check it out and visit our web site every week. Puritan is your headquarters for the best in ski and snowboard equipment and apparel.
WEEK 10 SKI TIP - GOT BALANCE?
The most important aspect of skiing is to maintain balance while in motion. Assuming you have a good fitting pair of boots, appropriate length and type skis and a decent tune up on those skis, good skiing seems to be the responsibility of the user. Oh, I guess that conditions could also be an excuse, but the conditions are the same for everyone on the hill that day. With that being stated, skiing is all about having fun. If you have reached a plateau in your ability and you are having fun, COOL BEANS…CHILL! If you would like to improve, wish you could enjoy some fresh pow pow, carve more, skid less and have a few minutes to give, READ ON!!
Good skiing begins with good stance and balance. We start at ground level. Your feet should be a comfortable distance apart. People have different builds which means that a proper stance can vary slightly from one person to another. Start with a stance with your feet apart enough that if someone gave you a little push you could maintain your position and then adjust as necessary. This is your platform, your basis for side to side (lateral) balance. Now lets move on to what is referred to as front to back (front to back) balance. Moving up, your lower leg should extend out of your boot with a position that lets you feel the inner boot evenly around your leg, the amount of contact you feel should be the same. You should not stand over flexed in the ankle to the point that the boot is holding you up. On the other hand, if you are back in your stance with your calf against the back of the boot liner and shell, you are in the “back seat” position we often hear and see on the hill. Some people stand OK in their boots when stationery but then can not maintain that well balanced position when moving. They have difficulty with dynamic balance. So what does one do?
It is important to focus in front of you an in the intended direction of travel in order to see what is going to take place ahead of you in both location and time. What is going to happen is more important than what already happened. New skiers tend to look down at their skies …a bad habit...what you see already happened. Looking ahead helps you make adjustments with your feet, ankles, knees and hips. Keep these parts flexing and extending throughout your turns. A line across the top of your shoulders should be relatively the same as a line across the slope of the hill. When skiing with shape skis on groomed slopes our objective is to maintain constant contact between our skis and the snow. We want to think of fluid movement as opposed to herky jerky motions. In sports vernacular, we hear how a strong core is important. In skiing we want that strong core to MOVE WITH your skis. Your edges grip the surface and you guide and turn your skis in the intended direction of travel. Control your speed by turning your skis towards the uphill side of he slope until you are comfortable with the speed you are carrying. Control speed by turn shape. An alternative would be to scrub off speed by displacing the skis sideways to some extent and skidding. When the tails of the skis do not follow the tips through an arc but slide sideways and below the arc of the ski tips, a sideward displacement takes place. Another former technique was to set the skis edges quickly and move upward to un-weight the skis, taking weight off them and making them easier to turn. All these former techniques are valid and have a useful place in our arsenal of skiing maneuvers. However, our goal while moving forward and down the hill, is to have the tail of the ski follow the tip of the ski and CARVE TURNS with shape skis. If you are moving forward and sideward at the same time and that is not your intention, it is happening because you are out temporarily out of balance and not moving with the skis.
An easy drill to dial in good stance and balance is to go across a gentle (beginner terrain that is both flat and wide) hill. Get enough edge with your downhill ski that you can hold your carving with that ski alone and pick up your uphill ski so that you are moving balanced on one ski. If you are having trouble achieving this position you may need to make adjustments to your stance. Flex your ankle and move your shin towards the tongue of the boot and towards the side of the boot. You will feel your ankle tip the ski on its side in order to help you balance against the running length of ski edge. At first you can try this by making your uphill ski lighter by taking weight off of it. Then pick up the uphill ski just a little bit and for just a little while until you get used to balancing on one ski. Flex at the ankle knee and hip and keep your hands forward. Balance begins from the bottom on up. Pick a very gradual line across the hill at first. Back and forth, increasing speed and dynamics as you get comfortable. Gradually move to a little more pitch and a little more speed. Next step is to quicken the frequency of turns, turn more often, and you will improve your accuracy. As you shorten your turns, pick a line straight down the hill (remember this is attempted on beginner terrain at first).
Try this first thing every morning and watch your stance and balance improve. A new skier can do this drill as can a veteran skier. I often would use this approach with a first time skier very early into a lesson. I would also use this technique with an intermediate skier who needs to adjust their stance and balance. You don’t want to incorporate using ski poles during this practice. If you need to touch your pole down to help with your balance DON’T. This is indicative of your problem. Balance from your feet all the way up your skeleton. Not from your hands and arms down. This drill helps improve both lateral balance and fore and aft balance.
In retrospect, if you have an equipment problem, you can buy some remedy (re: new boots). If you have an ability challenge, you can purchase some coaching. After these purchases, let the buyer beware (of excuses). A good friend of mine who is a very good skier, we call him Mr. Balance, says we are never in balance while skiing, we are just always trying to achieve balance.
Boot FITTING Issues
Once the season has begun, those new boots you purchased may have begun to "pack out " a bit. This will be a bigger issue if you did not get a snug fit when you bought your boots. Boots that already have some previous experience on them most assuredly have packed out. tightening the buckles can help to some extent but isn't always a solution. What can you do about it ?
An easy fix is to try an aftermarket foot bed. These trim to fit foot beds, such as Superfeet, will will take up some of the slack space in a boot. Boot shells vary by volume, some are narrower as a ski racer would choose and some are wider to accommodate the casual skier with a wider foot. A foot bed can help fill in the void. They also provide a better cradle of support than the thin foot beds that come stock in a new boot.
If you have the type of job where you are on your feet a lot, you can easily understand the value of foot beds Those with arch problems, which is common with advancing age or increasing weight, would do well to use foot beds Anyone who has experienced knee pain will also appreciate the stability of a better foot bed
For about $35.00 foot beds are money well spent and can save the larger cost if someone can't stand their boots and think they need to buy new boots. If you are in the market for new boots, put foot beds in when you get the boot you like. You will like the fit even better right there in the ski shop at the time of the purchase. Not everyone needs to have custom orthotics that will set you back a couple of hundred dollars. Everyone should have a good foot bed in their boots. They will help improve your skiing by improving you boot fit.
Past Ski Tips
Ski smart, ski safe and have fun!
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