Mogul Skiing And Powder Skiing - How Your Relative Ski Position Impacts Balance

control | balance | tactics

How Your Relative Ski Position Impacts Your Ability To Stay Balanced When Skiing Moguls And Powder

If you stand on the side of a ski run and watch skiers coming down the hill you will notice that a large percentage of skiers have a ski lead . . . that is to say that the uphill ski is ahead of (leads) the downhill ski as the skis cross the fall line.

In days of yesteryear when we used straight skis, this was a desirable technique because this ski lead causes the hips to be countered so that the hips are facing more downhill than the direction of ski travel. This disparity between the hips and the direction of ski travel aided ski rotation and helped the initiation of turns.

Today's shaped skis are designed to turn merely by tipping the skis on edge and riding the natural arc of the turn. Because of the ski design, less rotational force is required to initiate each turn.

Consequently, a lead change is not an essential element of a turn. In fact, on shaped skis it is more desirable to have your hips more square to the direction of travel and your ski tips to be more equal throughout the turn.

A lead change creates two problems that are undesirable in moguls and powder.

First, it is an inherently less stable position to have the uphill ski ahead of the downhill ski versus having your feet and skis side-by-side.

Second, if your uphill ski is leading your downhill ski, the act of extending to, and balancing on, the uphill ski at turn initiation requires a much larger physical move of the torso to get over the uphill ski. That extra movement makes it more difficult to keep a quiet upper body and to stay in balance. If your feet are side-by-side the re-balance to the uphill ski can happen more quietly, with less chance of becoming unbalanced.