Not everyone looks forward to ski lessons. When I was a kid, I absolutely hated structure. I thought ski lessons were the worst. Why the heck would I do drills when I could be jumping over things, skiing through trees, side trails and straight lining down the mountain.
Funny enough, I grew into loving the learning process of skiing. I actually became a ski instructor myself, and began to teach hundreds of kids and adults, but my approach was a little unorthodox compared to traditional methods. I made sure the the transition from intermediate to expert didn’t SUCK.
Ski specific drills can be helpful on occasion to force the feel of certain skills, but, the number one thing that makes you better at skiing is simply, just ‘skiing’. Seriously! Repetition is the most important thing when it comes to skiing improvement.
The more you ski the better you will get. The age old adage ‘Practice makes Perfect’ still kind of applies with a slight tweaking. I like to say ‘Somewhat Perfect Practice Makes Perfect’. I say somewhat, because skiing is such a personal sport, everyone has a distinct riding style, and no one can every be perfect, but there is always room for improvement. I personally have so much room to improve my skiing and that’s why I love it.
My philosophy for improvement is simple. Ski as much as humanly possible while continuously challenging yourself picking one technical aspect to focus on each day, and most importantly having fun.
If you would prefer to watch the video version of this post, check it out here!
But if you’d rather read, here is my formula for becoming an expert skier.
Table of Contents
1. Repetition
First and foremost, ski, ski, and ski some more. The more you ski the better you will get and the better you get, the more you will want to ski. Isn’t it beautiful. Seriously, ski all the time. Every weekend, every vacation day, every chance you get. This should be the easy part, all I think about and want to do is be at the mountain.
2. Follow People & Imitate
Following other skiers and riders is one of the best ways to improve. Younger siblings tend to become the best skiers, Why? Because they have to chase their siblings around so they don’t get left out. Try and make friends with skiers better than you and follow them around. I love passing on my passion to others and most skiers feel the same way. However, don’t expect your friend who’s a much better skier than you to stick around on a powder day, let them get their laps in before they slow down and hang with you again.
Imitation is how I learned to improve on my skiing. I always watch people on the chairlift and how they move down the mountain. I learned to carve by watching amazing racers and taught myself how to charge by watching free riders. Although chairlifts seem boring, you can learn a lot by watching what other skiers do right and do wrong.
3. Inspiration
Find Inspiration. Nothing is more motivating than aspiring to ski like some of your favourite athletes, local legends or family members. My personal skiing inspiration, although he was a little before my time was Glen Plake. I loved how he approached the sport with goofiness and grace. I have always been a massive Tanner Hall fan, the guy is just an incredible athlete and his grit to still be getting after it at 40 is beyond nuts. Locally, I’ve always also always loved watching Stan Rey ski, the first time I saw him was the Spanky’s video where he’s picking crazy lines and I said, who the hell is this guy. Although I’ll never ski like any of them, they’ve all inspired me to push myself and just have fun with skiing.
4. Ski hard in all Conditions
I’ve never had a bad day on the mountain. Even if the mountain is raining and a sheet of boiler plate ice, I’d still rather be in my boots than in an office chair. Each day and each condition change brings its own benefits and challenges. Being able to ski every snow type makes you a better skier and ready for anything. When you start attacking more challenging steep terrain it’s common to have to conquer some ice on the steeps before hitting the hero powder below.
5. Incrementally Challenge Yourself
You want to challenge yourself, but do it slowly. Pushing to hard, to steep or going too big too quickly can result in injury, or leave you feeling unsuccessful. Make a point every single day to do something that challenges you. Feeling scared is okay, as long as you know what you’re doing is within your skill level and sometimes an outside observer or a more experienced rider can help determine if you can handle certain terrain or lines before you ski them.
6. Stop Giving A Fuck
Ditch the ego, because no one cares. It took me a while to learn this in my teens but I used to ski park and progressed slowly because I was embarrassed to not look cool in the park. The reality is no one cares an everyone respects the hell out of the person who is giving it all they have out there. Just make sure you’re not jumping off the side of park jump lips, park shapers work hard to make these specifically for rails so hit side hits or the smaller jumps meant for jumping. This also stands all over the mountain, don’t be afraid to ride a fun run under the chair that people can see. No one knows who you are under those goggles and everyones gonna be smiling if you’re smiling, especially after an epic yard sale.
7. Terrain Choice
Terrain choice is everything. Make sure your choosing terrain that matches up to the style of skiing you’re trying to do and the level you are doing it at. You can’t straight-line bumps (unless you’re Candide) and you can’t drop cliffs onto groomers unless you have 12 year old knees.
But on a serious note, choosing terrain to match your skill level and the aspect of skiing you’re working on is absolutely crucial. If you’re on a groomer focus on widening that stance and carving. If you’re on the bumps bring it closer, stay athletic and ride em like bumps, and if you’re on powder, get that powder pump going.
8. Ski Bumps
Not only is this the best way to build knee and quad resilience. Skiing bumps somewhat properly and fast are the biggest precursor to flying through the trees. Bumps force you to think about timing, pole planting, weight distribution, keeping your body down fall line, decision making and so many more things. Skiing bumps, even those crap snowboarder ruined bumps will help improve your skiing. Now if it’s a super icy day from hell, stay off the bumps, it sucks for everyone. But when the conditions are half decent or the snow has softened up on a harder day in the afternoon, play around on them.
9. Side Hits and Side Trails
Side hits and side trails are an intermediates best friend. Seriously! Why do you think some kiddos become such wicked and fearless skiers so quick. Partly because they feel no fear and have elastic band bones and muscles. But, they are always exploring and jumping. Rolls, bumps, jumps and zooming through trees forces you to have an athletic stance. It’s impossible to land comfortably with straight legs and skiing is best done in an active stance. Side hits and jumping forces all skiers to be active in their lower bodies and learn to absorb and pre react to the rolls and bumps ahead.
10. Learn To Fall
Falling is one of the most important skills a skier can learn. Knowing when and how to fall instead of getting out of control can save you from some serious injury. Also remember it’s okay to fall. If I’m skiing hard I’ll fall usually once a day at a minimum, and snow doesn’t hurt that bad. I always say ‘if you aint falling you aint trying”. But, if you’re clearly tired and falls are stacking up at the end of the day, it’s okay to call it quits. Injuries often happen when you start getting lazy.
11. One Skill Per Day
Another trick I have is to keep things simple and focus on one thing per day. That could mean a lot of things for a lot of people, but, get out there, ski the hell out of the mountain and try to remember one single skill that you’re working on. You’ll probably forget the skill for half the day, but try to remind your self to feel for it every once in a while.
Here are a few great things intermediates can think about when skiing
a) Play around with forward pressure (mess around with how much pressure you have leaning into the front of your boots). See how the changes in pressure affects the way that you ski
b) Keep your body facing down the fall line
c) chill your arms and pole planting and hold them out front
d) Play with stance and turn shape. Mess around with wider stance and skinnier stance on different terrain. Things get intuitive and you’ll know when to widen up for charging and when to bring it closer for snappier tree turns
e) roll your ankles and knees and get on those edges. Carving is one of skiing’s greatest pleasures. If you can’t carve, try doing a big J turn which means skiing straight down and hooking a hard big long turn and trying to go back uphill, try and do this without smearing your skis and you’ll start getting a feel for your skis edges
12. Fun
The most important thing you can do to become a better skier is to have fun. The reason that I obsess over skiing and go back weekend after weekend, year after year is because it’s just so much god damn fun. And just like I said, the more you ski, the better you get and the better you get, the more fun you can have up there.
If you would prefer to watch the video version of this post, check it out here!
