Snow wasn’t the greatest at Stowe, Park City or Whistler. That means we needed to draw upon tools in our skiing toolbox, sometimes just to get down the slope safely across ce, rocks, branches
The overall theme: We ski with our feet: Remember the top of 7th Heaven? Mayhar, Rick, Tom and me. It was such a white out, skiing with our feet to feel our speed and direction was the only way to know what we were doing.
Basic skill: We need fore-aft balance to ski in changing snow conditions. Ice->slush->powder>frozen something. It comes from our lower legs.
Exercises:
- Lift your toes and hold. 2) Press your toes down and hold. 3) Stretch your calves. 4) Calf raises
What I talked about to help us ski in these variable conditions:
- Little toe into the hill (edging)> we end up putting our weight on our downhill ski (pressure).
- Upper foot back; downhill foot forward (rotary twist, edging).
- Relax the feet (pressure).
- Turn where there appears to be snow (tactics).
- A little weight on the heels to hold the tail (pressure, tactics).
In order to do the above, you have to have some balance and mobility.
So let’s start there:
Stand on one foot for 30 seconds (balance).
Swing your leg back and forth while controlling your position (movement isolation).
Stand on your inside little toe and roll your leg in and out. Lift the foot onto a small book and do the same. (edging).
As general technique, advanced skiers make sure their inside leg is strong.
Skiing on real snow is pretty easy; but skiing on ice or slush is not.
You need a strong core and strong legs to do that.
- Wall sit
- Plank
- Side Plank
- Push up