This is for people who’ve tried skiing moguls but have arrived at that point where nothing is really working; it’s not fun and aside from the hamstring they just pulled, they are probably about to seriously injure themselves. You might know this place well. Maybe you’ve had a beginner bumps lesson, you understand the basic mogul line and you can confidently pick through a very gentle mogul field; but the second you try to increase your rhythm or ski a more direct line, you totally lose it. Game over. Or maybe you can ‘athletically’ link short radius turns through intermediate to advanced bumps; but you’re a hot mess, mostly airborne, in the back seat and one fall away from a season ending injury. It’s frustrating and scary… and let’s face it, we have all been there before. And if you teach skiing then perhaps you will pick up some tips and tactics to help your own students. 

But shockingly, when I started using these drills with my clients, I discovered that no matter what level they were as a mogul skier, the exercises still worked. I expected them to be only effective with higher end mogul skiers, but as it turns out they helped every person I coached. They were providing some of the missing links by helping to solve ‘the WHY’.

See, the deficiencies we experience as mogul skiers exist on a spectrum; the problems I was having as an advanced mogul skier were a subtle version of the problems you are having in the bumps. I’ve been collating, adjusting and optimizing this mogul/bumps skiing series over my 20+ year coaching career. It’s been designed to isolate and train the unique micro-movements required for intermediate to advanced mogul skiing, in a confidence building on-snow environment that is safe and geared toward helping you solve the unique challenges you are experiencing no matter what your level.

The #1 reason we struggle to ski bumps; is we do not use enough RANGE in our bend and stretch movements. And even after practicing the movements in various ways, why do we not have enough range? Because we have no internal meter telling us how much we have shortened or lengthened our legs. In summary; the mind’s eye is playing tricks on you. You think you are retracting and extending your legs a lot, but in reality you are not. At all. In fact, video analysis of my students usually shows how little they bend their legs, even though they thought they were doing it a lot. Often what they are feeling is their head moves up and down but what you really need to move are your knees. 

This next step has been designed to address one of the greatest barriers to success for new bumps skiers; your brain goes into ‘fight and flight’ when you make an attempt at skiing anywhere near or in the fall line. This means anything you had been previously learning and practicing goes out the window because your brain goes into ‘safekeeping’ mode. It immediately reverts to the convenience of those old deeply programmed and automated movement patterns. Most likely an extension or lengthening movement just like you are used to making in most of your turns on the groomed trails. These new mechanics you are learning are the opposite to this so we need to slow things down to allow yourself time to create new habits.

Truthfully, the whole progression has been designed to help the brain slowly adapt to these new surroundings and movement patterns as they are acquired. But this step is where you get to practice your new skills in a super relaxed way, using a strategy in an environment where you know you have the ability to succeed at the task at hand.

And the task? Ski through a mogul field as slowly as possible. Holding your flexion when needed. Holding your extension when needed. Being deliberately selective over which bump to turn on. You will be traversing a lot between turns but that is ok. In fact I highly recommend it. This gives you lots of time on task on terrain that might have previously had you freaking out. Not this time. The gold stars go to the skiers who keep their skis on the snow using as much bend and stretch as they can while also practicing the timing of these movements over the ever changing terrain under their feet. Try this on large moguls too, it’s actually not that hard because you’ll realize that you’re using the bump to slow you down… so the bigger the better!

For all the coaches out there, this is the best part; when your client gets to the bottom of the run after this step, they look up and realize they've just skied the gnarliest bump run they’ve ever attempted with a level of control far beyond what they thought possible. It’s empowering for them, and when you see their faces light up, it’s empowering for you as a coach because you know you’ve got tools that work.