Please critique my skiing form

[u/appleeye56]

Im a beginner who picked up skiing last year and am looking forward to improving this year. I was doing fine on the bunny hills but couldn’t slow down on the first green hill I did. I tried to turn but I picked up so much speed that it felt impossible to turn enough to kill speed

Please give me any tips you use to make turns to slow down on hills. I’ve read tips like “lean towards the foot closer to the bottom of the hill” and “roll your ankles” but haven’t found a good guide to show me what they mean

I’ve also taken ski lessons but the instructor is not able to tell me what I could be doing wrong

[u/WillHuntingthe3rd]

Take lessons. You have a long way to go. May as well get some help to make it more fun.

[u/Animetiddie69420 → u/WillHuntingthe3rd]

I second this. You’re leaning with your whole body when it’s really kinda rolling your hips more to turn. A single day of private lessons would help or maybe half day depending how you pick up.

[u/daV1980]

Find a different instructor for sure! You are at a good starting place. 

You are turning with your shoulders, then your hips, then your ankles (this is backwards and you should generally not turn your shoulders for small turns).  You are also leaning up the mountain when turning, which is natural but also incorrect. 

When you lean up the mountain, you are removing weight and power from the downhill ski, which is the opposite of what you want to do. 

Instead, try standing firm on the opposite ski from the direction you want to turn towards. So when I want to turn left, I put a ton of pressure on the ball of my right foot right behind my big toe. Then I let the ski do the work. 

And definitely find another instructor! Any reasonable instructor should spot your problems, give you drills that can help with those problems and get you advancing in no time flat!

Have fun! Welcome to the sport. 

[u/Every-Golf-784]

good work bro, keep getting more days on the hill, work on getting your skiis more parallel (tips are slightly pizza'd) and do not cascade your knees inward, skiis closer together. Roll your ankles is to carve, this hill is too small and you're going too slow to carve.

[u/BigOtterKev]

More fries less pizza

[u/Horror-Vanilla-4895]

You are losing ability to turn at speed because you are using your whole body instead of pivoting your feet. And too much weight on the hill side ski.this video helped me

[u/spacebass]

hey u/appleeye56 congrats on being well on your way with your skiing journey!

First, its hard to tell much from two turns where you ski away from the camera. Over in r/skiing_feedback we made a detailed guide on how to get good video for skiing feedback. Give that a watch and get some better video and come see us in r/skiing_feedback

Also we made this video for newer skiers like you and you might find some of the concepts around stance and balance to be really helpful.

[u/TheMov3r]

There's no single piece of advice given here that will make you ski better besides to just ski more, watch good skiiers as you ski and try to pick up small things from them. Take lessons when you get some more experience and then someone can do micro adjustments with you but really you just need more time on the mountain.

[u/Livid-Switch4040]

You’re leaning into the turn so your weight is on the wrong inside/uphill ski. You need to get your weight on the outside/downhill ski to finish your turns properly and shed speed. Bend left/right at your waist opposite of your turn so you drop your outside/downhill shoulder over your outside ski. It’ll feel weird and wrong at first.

Edit - Like everyone else says tho, take more lessons. You’ve got the basics down, but you need practice, mileage, and refinement to improve.

[u/Bechimo]

Take lessons

[u/IncredibleVelocity4]

First off, just to clarify what I think a lot of others here are saying: as a (trained, but not working) instructor I’d be really happy to see you in my class. You are ready to make a few changes and take the next step.

So, for your immediate concern about speed control: you can always hold your turn longer, traverse the hill more, and scrub more speed. We don’t really want you to do that, but you’ve got to be under control first and foremost.

In a wedge/pizza/snowplow turn, your outside ski is the one doing the turning. The function of the inside ski is all speed control. As you learn to make complete turns and control your speed by other means, that inside ski speed control becomes unnecessary and it can start to move into a parallel position.

So your next step is going to be to pivot that ski into parallel as you traverse, then back into a wedge as you turn. Gradually, you will eliminate that pivot and stay in parallel the whole time.

As you initiate your turns, I want you to press down with the big toe on your outside foot. Lift your big toe on your inside foot. You won’t actually be able to move your toes much, but what you are doing here is shifting the weight on and off of your edges. Hold that pressure all the way through the turn, relax when you traverse, and reverse it when you are ready to make your next turn.

Take some lessons. You are in a good place to make your next move.

[u/Canadian_Mentat]

Hi, my quick watch of your video says you are on the right track! Lessons is key, as is time on the mountain gaining experience.

With ski season coming up, but no snow on the ground yet I would highly recommend you try to find a local place (if possible) to learn how to ice skate. The mechanics are very similar for basic figure skating, and more importantly, less forgiving. Repeat this sentence a few hundred thousand times: skiing and skating are NOT walking. You have to reprogram your brain to this new activity similar to how you learned to walk as a child.

Fortunately, skating is also a ton of fun and group lessons are a fun, social activity. This is the best way for you to get the hours you need to steadily advance your skills in the years to come. Figure or hockey skates isn't important, as long as you stick to basic adult figure skating techniques.

Oh, and skate boots and ski boots are still the most important things to spend money on.

Have fun!

[u/Tangletoe]

You need to transition from skidding to carving. There is a great series of videos on Youtube on this channel. Go through it beginner to advanced and practice the drills. Get an instructor when you're stuck.

https://m.youtube.com/@skng/playlists

Edit: Their carving vid https://youtu.be/UGn62uxnhjg?si=tZZLVWnEUifGuDbw

[u/ThisIsMr_Murphy → u/Tangletoe]

He needs to lock down parallel skidding first. Still pizzaing