5 Simple Ways To Improve Your Skiing

Improve your skiing and enjoy the mountains more than ever before

We all know that feeling – the mountains, the snow, the freedom!

When it all comes together there is no better feeling – we love it!

Improve your skiing and that love and enjoyment just keeps growing.

Below are 5 simple things that you can do in order to maximise your improvements, and therefore maximise your fun and enjoyment of the mountains.

TDCski coaches look at 5 ways that you can improve your skiing

Over the years the TDCski coaches have seen lots of people who under their guidance have taken their skiing from basic, to advanced, to expert.

How was this achieved?

The ways to improve are not complicated, it can be a simple ongoing task.
Here are 5 rules to follow.

1) Have a Goal

Having a goal doesn’t need to be an overly complicated or technical thing.
Your goal could be as simple as you want to ski relaxed, or you want to ski without worrying what is round the next corner.
Alternatively you could have a more specific goal. You might want to be able to ski a certain challenging run or you want to be able to “ski the bumps”.
Whatever it is, having a goal means that you will be able to move towards it.

In every ski lesson that we will ever take out, at some point at the beginning of your lesson whether you realise it is happening or not, the coach/instructor will negotiate a goal for that lesson with you. This will give you a target and as you move forward towards that target it is enjoyable. Achieving the little milestones will give you a satisfaction – a sense of achievement – it makes it fun!

2) Have a Focus

One of the greatest things about skiing is that it allows you to NOT focus on the regular days to day things that we all have to deal with in daily life.
If however you DO have a simple focus about your skiing, then it will allow you to keep your mind on the job at hand – enjoying yourself and getting that wonderful feeling of mountains, snow and freedom!

If you focus on absolutely nothing then it is very easy for the job at hand to go wayward.
Keeping a simple focus will allow you to monitor and measure what you are doing and if the job at hand is going wayward, you can adjust, change or even stop and start again.
A skiing focus does not have to be complicated; it can be as simple as making rhythmical turns or focusing on balancing on the outside ski.

Setting a focus is the pathway to achieving your goal. You need a more specific focus to achieve your wider goal. – see above!

3) Understand that Focus

It is a really good thing to understand WHY you are focusing on something, don’t just take someones word for it. Take ownership of what you are doing and try to understand the reasoning behind what you are focusing on.

Skiing is a blend of different skills so as you are skiing around the mountain there will be many times when you need to adjust the blend of what you are doing in order to adapt to a different situation – it might get steeper, or bumpy, or there is fresh snow.
If you understand WHY you are doing something and understand what skill it is that you are practicing/developing then you will be able to take that skill with you into any different situation.

4) It’s Not Just all about Technique

It is a really common misconception that getting better is just about what you are doing technically. There is more to improving your performance than just doing “x” with your little toe, or doing “y” with your hands.
Quite often you might take what we call a Tactical approach – where it the best place to turn, should I turn quickly, what line should I take? A good tactical approach to any given situation allows you to maximise the technical skills that you have at that time.
Skiing like any sport has its up and downs. Some days you feel really confident and some days….not so much. It is times like this that maybe we have to take a Psychological approach. Work out what it is that is not working today – is it in the mind? Maybe the weather has changed or there are lots of people around. The actual movements required to ski are the same – but it is how our mind is viewing it.

Being able to understand these things and tap into them will give you far greater success when you get down to the job of sliding down a hill and enjoying yourself.

5) Challenge Yourself

“Challenge” – this word I think means different things to different people, but whatever way you look at it, challenging yourself is a very enjoyable, rewarding thing to do and it will allow you to realise your best.
To some it means that you take on something that is harder than normal. Then you dig deep, you focus and you overcome, you rise up and take on the challenge.
To others this idea of increasing the level of difficulty is in itself very off putting. If this is how you feel, then your “challenge” is to keep the task the same, keep skiing on the same run, keep skiing at the same speed, but make sure that you set a challenge that means you do have to be more accurate, more precise with what you are doing. e.g. do all of your turns balancing on the outside ski early, don’t only do half and then start thinking about what’s for lunch.

Whichever way you look at the idea of “challenging yourself”, by giving yourself little challenges you will set yourself on a path for improvement that will be lasting, enjoyable and it will be fun!

What now?

These are some of the principles that TDCski use to develop skiers to their full potential.

We invite you to achieve that feeling with TDCski this winter.