Upper Body Position

By creating proper upper body position, your lower body can create the angles needed for solid ski technique. If the upper body is positioned over the feet, with hands and shoulders slightly in front of the feet, your feet will then follow your body downhill, creating the proper lower body position for edge pressure. A very pronounced proper upper body stance will provide many benefits including less fatigue and more control over a variety of terrain.

Many skiers are skiing in a neutral stance, or slightly aft of center, with shoulders over their heels. This is compounded when hands drop or linger behind between turns. To correct this, keep your arms extended and reach for each pole plant. As you plant your pole to initiate the next turn, move your hip to your hand. This keeps your upper body over your feet and by doing this between turns, your upper body will realign its self between turns.

Remember skis are designed to accelerate. If you carve a turn correctly your feet will jet out in front of your body. When you don’t realign your body over your feet, your speed will increase with each turn and your only defense will be to skid your tails at the end of the turn to keep any sense of control. However, if you focus on your pole plants and reach your hands down the hill and snap your hip to your hands as you initiate the next turn ( again, I don’t think this is clear) you will find that your speed will become consistent while you gain more control and confidence. Then you can ski more diverse terrain such as steeper trails and a variety of conditions.

Proper Upper Body is the key to good skiing. The realignment of the upper body I am suggesting will allow the lower body to find its natural position, remain in balance, and this will allow you to create edge angle as your carve your skis.