Learning The Skiing Basics - Ski-Buzz | Paradise doesn't have to be tropical

Welcome to video 1 of our Learning To Ski series. You can watch the full video above or if you prefer you can follow along with the transcript below.

If you want to watch any other videos from the series they’re linked to at the bottom of the page.

Intro

[00:00:02] Hi I’m James Lockerbie and I’m a snowsports instructor. I’m here today at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead.

[00:00:08] Today in this video we’re gonna be talking about different ways we’re moving along the flat, turning around, walking, skating with our skis. How we’re standing nice and balanced on the skis. Straight running and sliding and different balancing exercise which you can give a go in and out of your lessons.

Getting Used To The Skis: Sliding & Skating

[00:00:27] First of all how we’re going to move forwards now we’ve got the skis on. You can use your polls to slide your feet forwards and push yourself along as you go.

[00:00:37] If you’re getting nice and comfortable with that, you can try skating just like your ice skating, push from one foot and the other and push your poles at the same time.

Getting Into Position

Now as we need to turn around on this hill or if we’re coming off the lift.

[00:00:58] Best way to go for it, is we’re going to keep the front of our skis, the tips, nice and still and just step round little steps. This is the best way that we can turn if we’re turning on the slopes.

The Skiing Stance

[00:01:17] So just before we start sliding I want to look at how we’re standing on the skis. Start off with your feet hip width apart. Looking forwards, hands out in front of you like a goalkeeper or like you’re holding a tray. Making sure that our ankles, knees and hips are equally relaxed.

Side Stepping

[00:01:38] So we’re going to be using this shallower bit of slope but we need to get ourselves up there first of all. So what we’re going to do is something called sidestepping. We’re going to take your knees, roll them, point them up the hill. This puts you on two of your edges, of which you’ve got four on either side of the skis, and then you’re going to take little steps mainly pushing off the downhill ski to push yourself uphill.

Straight Running

[00:02:04] So now we’ve had a go at moving around on the flats and getting our posture right. We’re going to try some sliding. So just like we’re doing on the flat.

[00:02:13] Stepping round. Put your poles down the hill for the support.

[00:02:16] Keeping your tips still just stepping your heels around.

[00:02:20] Look up, getting into your ski position. You’re just going to push yourself forwards and let your skis slide.

Shuffling

And now this time we’re going to try shuffling our feet back and forwards. Another little test of the balance. So shuffle them back and forwards with legs nice and relaxed. Shuffle your feet back and forwards as you’re sliding down the slope.

Hopping

This time we’re going to ramp it up a little bit more so getting back into position we’re going to try some hops as we’re going down the slope. Jump, hop, hop, hop.

Shifting Weight From One Ski To Another

So get back in your ski position again. Little steps around. This time we’ve got two skis so we’re going to try and shift our weight, stepping from one to the other.

Sliding On One Ski

So this time we are going to do one final balance exercise and let’s see if you can stay on one ski all the way down the slope. Set yourself off. Balance on one.

Recap

[00:03:39] Just going to go through a quick recap of the things that we went through in this session. So remember when we’re walking along the snow, using the poles to help us push. If you want to give skating a try, like you’re ice skating, pushing from one foot then the other. When we’re standing in the ski position eyes looking forwards, feet hip width apart, hands out in front of you. Ankles, knees and hips equally flexed, nice and soft. When you’re straight running, looking forwards, letting the skis come straight and then giving it a play around with your balance leaning forwards and backwards trying to figure out where that middle point is. Shuffling, testing your balance there as you’re sliding down the slope. Giving some hops a go, jumping up and off the ground trying to get it nice and high to push it a little bit harder on that difficulty level. Seeing if you can shift your weight from one foot to the other. And then a real test of balance if you can go down straight just holding up one ski all the way down the slope.