Tips for skiing switch

kdes6

kdes6

Member
I am an advanced skiier like to ski the trees mostly when ever I can, but I want to learn to ski switch better. I usually ski with my pops and his friends in the woods but I am starting to find people my age to ski with and now i want to learn the tools of the trade I ski on a pair of dynastar 6th sense distorters.
 
I'm trying to learn how to ski entire runs switch better, and it helps when learning to switch off which shoulder you look over for each turn and try to really link your turns together.
 
yeah a couple of my buddies are just learning to snowboard so im trying to make as best use of my time possible so any tips are great
 
Stagger your stance. Drop your front shoulder and look over your high shoulder. alternate. Ski switch like a boss.

Carving while maintaining your head over just one shoulder is considerably harder so dont worry about it yet
 
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Just practise practise practise! different things work for everyone. Stagger your stance, get low, and use those edges. Over time you'll get more and more comfortable
 
thanks for all the help guys appreciate it for the tips and videos and all i gotta do is keep practicing, this is my first new schoolers thread and you all were helpful and im pumped to start using this site
 
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Any tips for slowing down/stopping without pizza-ing? Or stopping quickly?

Being a big dude I generally find myself going a little too fast for my own comfort skiing switch and need to bail out after a few good turns. Particularly when I land a jump switch I feel out of control almost immediately.

I sort of can only carve good race turns switch or pizza I can't really do anything in between to slow down a little. I don't want to sound like a pussy but I am not trying to go into a tree or anything and it takes fucking forever to stop skiing switch for me.

Tips?

 
Switch hockey stops, work on steering your legs independently of your upper body, that way you can skid your skis to slow down/speed check. When you come to a stop switch, try and leave your upper body facing up the hill and steer your legs across the hill, obv check there's no-one behind you first.
 
a mistake a lot of people make is they lean too far uphill, which is like leaning way back when skiing forward. instead, try to keep your body perpendicular to the slope. at first it feels like youre leaning way back, but it will give you much better control.
 
Bumping this thread with a question. With a properly staggered stance how much of a field of sight should you have? Do you feel like you can pretty much see everything in front of you or does it feel more like your kind of guessing.
 
I used to suck but the other day I went out and tried it for fun and I somehow got better at it. For me, I had to switch what shoulder I looked over as I turned left and right. I was like forced too becuase it felt natural.
 
You just gotta have the same mindset as going foward. When you were learning to ski tough terrain for the first time you probly were taught how i was in that you traverse a big section of the hill before picking a good spot to initiate a carve. This is probly the best way to control speed switch also. A lot of people learn to ski switch in the park so its just pointing it at the lip, but on the actual mountain you gotta just treat it like you are going foward. And that turpin vid helped me a ton as far as form and mechanics too
 
I couldn't ski switch very well a sew days ago, but i went to a semi-flat (not flat but not steep) run that not many people use and I forced myself to ski switch for like 5 or 6 runs. No forward, only switch. If you force yourself to stay switch you will get way better way faster. I can now carve decent turns with my head over just one shoulder. You pick it up really fast.
 
I have a hard time with the second part. I can ski whole runs switch and carve both ways but only looking over my left shoulder, when I turn right I do stagger my right foot forward but I still look over my left shoulder. Riding switch looking over my right shoulder sketches me out so I can't fully link turns properly looking over alternate shoulders.
 
What he said is confusing, I definitely look over my front (lower) shoulder. I assume that's what he meant but I could be wrong.
 
The way I learned how to switch hockey stop was to just ride switch and make a really big carve that would take me to a stop. That's essentially just a slow, exaggerated hockey stop. Keep getting comfortable with that, and then just speed it up and shorten it.
 
Oh god that gave me cancer *practice.

But like he said staggering your stance is key. Just keep practicing on easy runs to get comfortable. The more you try and do it the easier it gets.
 
I think what he meant is to look over your uphill shoulder as you initiate a carve and then it becomes your downhill shoulder and then when you want to turn again you switch shoulders to initiate the next turn.
 
I thought about it (no small challenge on account of beer) and I completely get what he said now and what initially confused me. If I ride switch more or less straight or carve but not all that much I look over my left shoulder and it is definitely lower than my right shoulder. However, if I open up into a full on carve to the left I drop my right shoulder and my left shoulder comes up.
 
look around, not over your shoulder, if that's the left shoulder, make your left ski be a little infront of your right ski, and visa versa.
 
Assume a staggered stance right now as youre reading this with your right leg forward. K, now you have to rotate your upper body so turn open your chest to the left. Naturally your back will be arched a little in this backwards 3/4 oblique pose and your right shoulder should sit slightly lower to the ground then your left. Look over your left, the high shoulder. In reality you are looking laterally of your shoulder not over it. Alternate.

I think me saying over was confusing. I should have said look around your shoulder.

 
thats awesome. It took me a while to figure it out. The physics are completely different and its was so damn hard for me to be able to switch edges without switching my bodies orientation. I probably spent a good 5 hours of constantly trying to learn it
 
oh now i get it. switch is pretty natural for me coming from rollerblading and i never think of it as looking over the high shoulder since i'm used to riding a bunch of different ways to do tricks fakie
 
Im by no means an expert at skiing switch, but one thing that helps me is slightly lifing up your uphill ski. It really helps me keep them together and not ending up in a switch pizza turn. Just my little tip.
 
Lots of good advice here already. I agree especially on these points:

- On steep faces, really shorten your uphill leg as you come around. Pull it up and let the hill push it up. You'll come around quick, easy and much more stable.

- Run blue groomers top to bottom switch, outside the park. Including the steeper top faces. It's grueling at first, but it forces you to deal with all terrain rather than just on the easy parts. Plus you get tons of turns in and normal people will think you're awesome.

- Spend a couple whole days skiing switch on all the groomed blues. Every run, top to bottom. All day without going forward except into the lift line or when you get into tight crowds... to keep ski patrol happy.

- Learn to use your edges. Switch skiers often look like they're riding flat, but the good ones are grabbing the snow with their edges while curving.

- Apply early pressure to the outside ski to initiate turns. Give it a real push. This will bring you around quicker and engage your edges.
 
Lots of good advice here already. I agree especially on these points:

- On steep faces, really shorten your uphill leg as you come around. Pull it up and let the hill push it up. You'll come around quick, easy and much more stable.

- Run blue groomers top to bottom switch, outside the park. Including the steeper top faces. It's grueling at first, but it forces you to deal with all terrain rather than just on the easy parts. Plus you get tons of turns in and normal people will think you're awesome.

- Spend a couple whole days skiing switch on all the groomed blues. Every run, top to bottom. All day without going forward except into the lift line or when you get into tight crowds... to keep ski patrol happy.

- Learn to use your edges. Switch skiers often look like they're riding flat, but the good ones are grabbing the snow with their edges while curving.

- Apply early pressure to the outside ski to initiate turns. Give it a real push. This will bring you around quicker and engage your edges.
 
Since its being brought back up, I learned to ski switch over my left shoulder first and staggering your ski will open your hips up to look behind you, what helped me was to imagine I was putting a wallet in my back pocket to keep my shoulders open as well. Carving over one shoulder If I'm looking left I square my skis back up and lean to the left to initiate my right carve and then when I get to my mid point of the carve go back to stagger and push your outside edge to carve left again. One thing to imagine is that you're trying to stand in a lunge position with your back up right legs bent, when you're in a proper stance you can feel the control of your ski just like if you were facing forward. Looking over your opposite shoulder is scary at first but take a few easy laps doing it and when you transition keep it smooth and one motion, as you look around stagger at the same time and put the wallet in your back pocket. For scrubbing speed do it just like you would facing forward a little kick of your skis to the side to scrub the speed, practice your hockey stops till you can get them snappy switch, its scary at first thinking you'll catch edge but I find one of those and then just leaning into my follow up carve is good for jump lines and doesn't look to ugly. Sorry tired as hell hope it made sense.
 
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