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Breaking The Plateau: How Big Picture Skiing Transformed My Skiing Journey
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Breaking The Plateau: How Big Picture Skiing Transformed My Skiing Journey
Growing up in Utah, just minutes from the base of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, and with an active dad who enjoyed skiing as a hobby, you would expect that I would have been skiing before I was walking. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. For reasons unbeknownst to me, my parents never made it a priority to teach their kids to ski. I would always hear about my dad’s ski days and see his gear neatly tucked away in our garage, but I didn’t see a chairlift until I was 17 years old—only because I finally wore my dad down to take me skiing.
Just point it downhill
So, I strapped on a decent pair of rentals and joined my dad on the Majestic lift at Brighton, ready to hit an easy green for my very first run. By then, I was just athletic (and bold) enough to have false confidence on green and blue groomed trails. The first run of my life consisted of me pointing the skis straight downhill, tucking my body like a ski jumper, and bombing it to the bottom. It took my dad some time to catch up, and when he did, he said, “What are you doing? You’re supposed to turn and carve across the slope!”
The Plateau
After my first ski experience, I tried to follow my dad’s advice and attempt what I thought was “carving”—basically skidding down blacks and blues with either him or my college buddies, who were also athletic enough but far from expert skiers. I noticed my skiing ability quickly plateaued, and I was unable to tackle more challenging terrain or feel in control like the advanced skiers I saw on the mountain or in the latest Warren Miller film.
How can i help my kids ski better?
Years later, with a little more ski experience under my belt, I grew curious about what my dad had said those years back—“you’re supposed to turn and carve across the slope.” His observation was accurate, but his instruction on how to achieve a solid turn was to “just move your knees back and forth (laterally),” which didn’t really help that much (especially on steep or choppy runs). Fast forward a few years to when I was living in the Pacific Northwest. I vowed to myself (and my patient wife) that I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake as my parents—I wanted to get my kids on skis as soon as possible. The problem was, beyond saying “pizza” and “French fry” to my young kids on the bunny slopes of Crystal Mountain, there wasn’t much more advice I could give them—or myself, for that matter.
Scouring the internet for help
I scoured the internet for anything that could help me become the advanced skier (and parental instructor) that I always dreamed of being. I found a few YouTube channels, took a private lesson or two, and even downloaded a few mobile apps that I could use while on the lift. However, most of those resources didn’t seem to provide me with much help. They had trouble communicating what the skier should feel and the body mechanics involved in specific ski movements. I became so curious and obsessed with trying to figure out how these two planks on my feet should work that I remember striking up conversations with random skiers on the lift—including a few off-duty ski instructors—about what fore and aft means, how to get a higher edge angle, how to attack moguls, and where my balance should be throughout the turn. Most gave non-answers because they were just there “to have fun.” But to me, the fun part was improving and chasing after that elusive “perfect carve.”
Tom not only gave solid instruction on the fundamentals of skiing, but he also had a way of clearly communicating the what and how of skiing that instructors and well-intentioned YouTubers simply couldn’t. Combined with getting real-time feedback from the Carv boot sensors, Tom and “Big Picture Skiing” have transformed my ski skills from a basic intermediate resort skier to an emerging advanced skier who, with enough practice and time, will one day be an expert skier.
My breakthroughs so far
Athletic Stance/ Fore and Aft Balance
Getting bad advice like “crush the front of the boot” or “just bend your knees” to get forward was terribly confusing to me. Even the Carv app told me I was always in the back seat. It wasn’t until Tom’s detailed instruction on why we need fore/aft balance and the specific body movements that dictate fore/aft pressure that I finally unlocked this mystery. I found my skis engaging at the top of the turn and staying pressured throughout, making for better control and easier carving (and higher Carv scores 😊).
Toppling
More important than fore/aft movement was learning the lateral side-to-side movement to get the skis on edge at the top of the turn to begin a clean and controlled carve. This is such a non-intuitive movement for regular skiers, but it has transformed my ability to get a ski on edge and achieve higher edge angles.
Drills for skills
As a kid, I attended summer basketball camps that had me do tons of drills—shooting, passing, dribbling, rebounding, etc. I quickly found that such drills made me a much better basketball player. I wanted to transfer this mindset to skiing but found most internet drills were a hodgepodge of tips and tricks that didn’t ladder up to a higher objective. However, Big Picture Skiing laid out drills in a way that helped me understand the why behind the drill and how it would translate into skiing. Tom encourages his students to purely focus on doing the drills on easy trails to see accelerated learning and improvement. It’s during these drills that I have had the most “aha” breakthrough moments in my skiing. It may seem boring to do on a bluebird day, but it works!
Foot and boot setup
I always heard the phrase, “Skiing starts with the feet,” but I never truly understood what that meant until Tom gave precise and detailed instruction on what to look for in a boot, footbed, skiing without a buckled boot (try it, it’s a crazy sensation), and what to feel in certain parts of the turn. This seems so basic and trivial, but boot setup can make or break your progression as a skier. Simply knowing how your foot feels in a boot and footbed can make you that much more aware of what is happening from the foot up.
Skiing transformed
Needless to say, after three years of subscribing to “Big Picture Skiing” and consistently watching each video (sometimes over and over again), I have not only transformed my own skiing, but I can confidently coach my three boys on the slopes (amidst raised eyebrows and some groans)—and sometimes even give my dad a pointer or two. 😊
Author: Brandon Wells
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