Teaching the basics of skiing

2planking

2planking

Active member
my friend wants me to teach them how to ski. does anybody have some things i should try to get them to do. i know like get comfortable just standing on the skis. then strait, pizza, strait, pizza. then to start turning, pizza, push with your downhill big toe and put more weight on that ski.

anything else to try or different ways to explain it?

 
to get into turning get them to push out there downhill ski a little farther then oncee they are comfortable they can start linking them.
 
Well, this could go for a while as there are whole textbooks written on this stuff! But for the basics you've got it pretty good.

I've been instructing for a few years now, this is basically how my lower level lessons tend to go down.

I start with straight runs on pretty flat terrain to get them balanced and comfy, then introduce the wedge (pizza). Get that strong in a good stance then move onto turning. The way I teach turning is very foot steering orientated, this helps build separation between the upper and lower body which will be way important later on. Get them to think about steering their feet in very small turns (kind of shallow wiggles) first, whilst keeping their upper body facing down the hill. Then progressively widen the turns until they start to control their speed through the turns rather than the wedge (terrain note, this would probably be the time to take them up the chairlift).

I would then start to talk about weighting the outside ski, if they are well balanced with good separation this should be easy. If it's hard for them, try using exercises like tapping their outside knee, or dragging their outside pole (though if they are fairly athletic I wouldn't give them poles anyway). If this is happening well they should start going faster and start matching (going parallel) their inside ski through the bottom phase of the turn (the wedge christie).

From here you can start blending in some vertical movements (up in transition, down in control phase) to smooth it all out and they should be fine skiing most greens.

Good luck!
 
I teach skiing but I have to teach people who pay so I can't implement any of my good teaching ideas so I'll just give them to you.

1. Dropping your hands back is BADDD. It fucks up the alignment of your whole body. The best way to ensure a skier has good hand position is to enforce it from day one. If your student drops their hands you should immediately whack them in the ass with your pole as hard as you possibly can. Their hands will be in the right place soon.

2. Leaning back is bad. Beginners LOVE to lean back when they get scared. They think that that will make them slow down. To combat this, attach a long metal spike to the tails of each ski, this way if they try to lean backwards they will be sodomized by a super sharp cast iron spear.

thats just two of 5 of phil's revolutionary ski teaching methods
 
The first thing i do when i teach kids is mobility, walking in ski boots, running, tag, then progress to "scootering", skiing on one ski...flat ground, to get used to the feeling of sliding, then cover the basics on a tiny little hill (The one i teach on has handy little dora figures to ski around) balance forward, hands on knees might work better than a giant spike up the ass, but whatever works for you....maybe then hands on the downhill knee (after they can turn), my five year olds learnt all this is their first 2 hours, so an adult should be able to progress faster and harder. but i suppose it depends on the skiier really
 
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