1. Understanding the outside ski

2. Athletic Stance drills

3. Early edging drills

4. Balance against the outside ski drills

5. Progressive inclination drills to manage turn forces

6. Upper body discipline drills

7. Different types of transitions: Retraction/Extension

   
   

1. The physics of steering skis

2. Athletic stance drills

3. Turning with the lower body

4. Upper body discipline drills

5. Fore and aft balance and moving the feet

6. Finishing with a strong edge set/platform

7. Pole planting

1. Pivot slips in moguls to control speed

2. Pole planting

3. Line control

4. Collision control through absorption

5. High line and speed control through absorption

6. Flow and going faster

The most common and versatile turn type.

What: Deliberate controlled skidding and rotation of the ski to change direction. Edging must be blended with the rotation in order to redirect the skiers momentum.

How: The skier adjusts their weight to achieve this by applying subtle forward pressure on the skis. Or by being unweighted so the skis are not firmly in the snow. They can then guide the skis direction by rotating their feet to help regulate how much the ski brushes out on the snow.

The track left in the snow from the outside ski is between 10-30cm wide. This is produced via the tail taking a wider path than the tip through the turn.

Steered turns feel fairly stable as the skier is predicting/wanting the skis to partially skid - their balance is tuned and moving with the steering motion. This would be similar to running and sliding on the tennis court. The slide is deliberate and you stay balanced on the sliding foot. The friction created by the steering helps control some speed.

In order to steer your skis well you need to be fully aware of the sensations coming through your feet. Our feet are incredible at sensing but you must first focus on the feelings in order to develop the skill of body awareness. Start paying attention to your ski tracks, the pressure through the soles of your feet and how much the skis skid or not and you will become a connoisseur of steering performance. Watch the videos below to learn how.

Why?:

• Allows you to make a shorter radius turn than carving

• Gives control over turn size

• Gives control over speed through friction

• Versatility for all mountain skiing.

What: The ski is sliding sideways on the snow with little control by the skier. (It’s important to differentiate skidding and steering as both really are the same. The main difference is steering is controlled, skidding is not.)

Often there are several causes of skidding:

• The skiers balance is not centred. Usually too far forward OR inside.

• The skier lacks enough edge angle to oppose the turn forces

• The edges are not sharp, especially in icy conditions.

• There is a boot alignment issue

  
  

  When solving skidding issues go through this list:

The track left in the snow is very washed out often over 30cm wide through much of the turn. You can look at your tracks to find out. Skidding feels unstable to the skier. All sorts of issues show up like:

• Upper body rotation

• Arms in funny places

• Leaning on the inside ski

• A frame between the legs

• Skier looks stiff

• Your skis travel more sideways and not in the direction the tips are pointed

  
  

Think about how you look and feel when you unsuspectedly slip on a surface. You tense up and try everything to stay on your feet.

This turn performance creates a lot of friction which will slow the skier down. This can be good for control but stops flow and conservation of energy.

The most exilerating turn performance.

What: Clean lines left in the snow by the skis tail following the ski tips path.

How: The skier stands with their weight centred through their feet and can feel the skis create a solid platform to balance against as the body moves into the turn.

This turn has little friction, is fast and feels solid because the base of support is not moving sideways/skidding. The skier is redirected via the ski sidecut which allows the ski to bend into a curve. The ski bends more and more as the ski is tipped further on its side. Therefore more edge angle equals a tighter turn. If you want to turn tighter, you need to be able to tip the skis over further.

There is a misconception that more edge angle equals more grip. This is not exactly true. The ski will grip if the edge is sharp and you balance your weight in the centre of the ski. The reason you work on building bigger edge angles is to make the skis turn and deflect you from side to side. Pure carving is exhilarating because of the forces acting on your body and feelings of pressure from a turn.

You are able to get more out of each run as you are not going straight down but carrying speed across the slope extending how much time you have fun for on each run!

Why?

• Feels amazing and fun!

• Gives control at higher speeds

• Creates a solid platform for the skier

• Dynamic and faster type of skiing

The athletic stance preloads the muscles around your joints so you can be more reactive and dynamic.

Loading the arches of the feet, not just the balls of the feet, helps the ankles, knees and hips act more like springs as well as keeping the whole ski engaged tip to tail. It is not the most energy efficient position - standing bolt upright is; but upright stance doesn’t preload the muscles and makes it harder to access movement at your joints.

A correct stance is “athletic” so you will use a little more energy, but you will save energy in the long run as you’ll be more preemptive - rather than reactive (constantly making recoveries) - to terrain and conditions.

The athletic stance will change slightly depending on snow type and some turns:

• POWDER: More upright at the hips in powder due to more resistance from snow and to save energy.

• MOGULS: More upright chest, hips forward for mogul skiing, to help with absorption and extension.

From the home position you have room to extend and lengthen your legs.

E.g. in a long turn the outside leg will be fairly straight to better stack the Skeleton against the forces. At the same time the inside leg will be more flexed to allow your body to incline further.

The athletic stance is a position you want to always coming back to:

• For example you lose your balance hitting some funky snow -> find your athletic stance.

• You come out of a turn backseat -> find your athletic stance.

• You are learning something new and it is not working -> find your athletic stance and then try again.

Your goal is to spend enough time feeling what the athletic stance is like so it is your first reflexive response when you lose balance.

Fore and aft balance describes movements made by the skier forwards or backwards. Skiers need to adjust fore and aft balance for several reasons.:

• To help enable easier steering of a ski balance is shifted forward to engage the tips of the skis at the start of the turn.

  
  

• To stop a ski skidding or “washing out” at the end of a turn a skier needs to shift their balance backward to engage the tails.

  
  
  

• To stay balanced on increasingly steeper - or flatter - slopes the skier must lean their body forward or backward to match to march the relative angle of the slope.

  
  

• To compensate for powder snow a skier needs to move slightly aft to help balance out the resistance powder snow creates (Depending on how dry the powder is)

  
  

• In bumpy terrain there are a lot of fore and aft micro adjustments needed to make the skis connect with the snow.

  
  

Many skiers do not spend enough time training their range of fore/aft movement, as well as using it to manipulate the performance of their skis. You should aim to learn about how you can be more in control by watching the videos in the Fore and Aft Category

Lateral balance refers to how well a skier manages pressure and control while balancing on their edges during a turn.

The goal is to stay balanced under load on the outside ski, while also maintaining effective control of the inside ski.

• Outside ski balance is the foundation of good lateral balance. When you’re balanced against the outside edge, your body can be guided and supported by how that ski interacts with the snow. If you’re not balanced on the outside ski, the ski won’t perform the way it’s designed to — you’ll likely skid, lose edge grip, or fail to complete the turn shape.

• Inside ski balance is equally important to master. It’s not about applying the same pressure as the outside ski — rather, it’s about being in control of what that ski is doing. Skiers who can manage inside ski edge pressure can achieve higher edge angles, recover quickly from mistakes, and stay in control in variable conditions like powder, chopped-up snow, or off-piste terrain.

To develop true lateral balance, you need strong control over eversion and inversion of the feet. This allows each ski to edge and release independently.

We suggest you practice drills that isolate each ski to challenge your balance and awareness:

• Skiing only on the outside ski or inside ski

• Stork turns, javelin turns, white pass turns, one-ski skiing, and inside ski edge drill.

These exercises build precise edge control, help you trust your feet, and develop lateral balance that holds up across all terrain and turn types.

When you are steering a ski or deliberately making it slide sideways you need a different sense of balance. This abIlity to balance on a skidding/steering ski is one you want to master. It is similar to the balance needed by park skiers when they ride rails and boxes. There will be moments when you will need to drift and slide sideways - like in the moguls or even the steeps - to help control your speed and line. If you can manage to stay balanced on your outside ski as you do this then creating more grip and deflection after sliding will be much smoother and precise.

Good exercises for lateral sliding balance

• Side slipping

• Pivot slips

• Pivot slips in bumps

Examples of situations to use this skill:

1. When you encounter a big mogul with a long drop off. You can travel laterally on a sliding ski to keep speed under control.

   
   

2. When an off piste run gets narrow.

   
   

3. In the trees to help keep

   momentum flowing but at a more manageable speed.

   
   

4. The terrain park sliding boxes and rails.

   
   

5. Drifting the top of a pure carved turn on steeper terrain.

Picture this. You are driving in your car at 50mph and you approach a sharp turn in the road. As you steer your front wheels around the corner and your tyres grip you feel the sensation of being thrown to the outside of the corner. Instinctively you lean your body towards the inside of the curve to help keep you in your seat. You don’t need to know about this force but you feel it and react to it. What you have done here is balance your centre of mass more closely to the new forces that come from moving around a curve.

When we ski we must also make this adjustment to stay in balance. We must have our mass towards the inside of the curve. How far in we adjust our mass depends on two factors plus one major important element. Grip. The two factors that give you more turning forces you balance inward against.

1. The faster we go. The faster we go the bigger the force that will try and push us out of turning on a curve.

2. The shorter the radius or sharper the curve. Just like a sharp corner in a car helps us play corners with our brothers and sisters in the back of the car.

One very important point here. You need grip! The above turning forces you feel in a car are only possible if the tyres grip. If the tyres slip we do not go around the corner. When we ski we do not have the same type of grip as a car we must tilt our skis and make the edges bite the snow in order to have grip to push us around the curve. Many skiers problems come from the fact that they do not have grip against the snow. They lean and turn and see other skiers doing the same but it is not in response to turning forces. So you must remember that in order to feel forces that push you around a curve you need grip.

The key point here is to realise that there must be an alignment of your centre of mass to the inside of a curve in order to balance out turning forces. And in order to feel turning forces act upon you there must be grip from the skis on the snow.

Our brains are wired to predict. It’s how we walk, run — and ski. The challenge is, skiing requires us to predict lateral balance, and that’s something we have to learn through experience.

Take one of my students, Mike. He’d been watching videos of elite skiers and tried to copy their movements — angling his body into the turn, extending early, trying to look smooth. He understood a lot of the theory in skiing with his engineer mind but this got in the way of him trying to experiment with extremes. He was trying to predict something he hadn’t yet felt enough times to understand. Prediction comes from experiencing an action and its outcome. And it gets better the more we have consistent outcomes. 

The truth is, elite skiers don’t guess. When they commit to a movement, it’s because they know what kind of force is coming based on speed, snow, and turn shape. That prediction isn’t instinct — it’s built from experience. From falling. From experimenting. From feeling what happens when you go too far or not far enough.

It’s just like learning to walk. At first, you fall. Then you learn to trust that your foot will land. Skiing is the same — except you’re falling sideways.

So if you find yourself with too much weight on the inside ski, don’t stress. Ask:

1. Was I too far forward on my feet?

2. Was I going fast enough for the forces I expected?

3. Did I keep tightening the turn, or did I stall out laterally?

Every mistake is a clue. The more you experiment, the better you’ll get at predicting what’s coming — and putting your body in the right place before the turn unfolds.

Want to ski better? Be a kid again. Explore your balance. Get it wrong. Learn what it feels like. That’s how you build prediction — and that’s when skiing really starts to flow.

Let’s look at two skiers who could improve by learning to work with the forces in their turns:

• Meet Tim

Tim is stuck at the intermediate plateau. He skis at a consistent, medium-level speed everywhere. As soon as he starts going a little faster, he instinctively throws the skis sideways to scrub speed — bringing things back to the pressure level he’s familiar with.

The issue? Tim avoids feeling stronger forces. He may believe that good skiing is all about keeping the pressure smooth and constant. But if he allowed himself to go faster — to risk being popped out of a turn or feeling rebound — he’d discover that these forces aren’t a problem. In fact, they’re fun, useful, and something you can learn to manage.

If Tim committed to feeling more pressure through his skis and worked on recovering from that energy, he’d start to progress again. He’d learn how to move his mass more dynamically inside the turn to resist those greater forces — and enjoy the payoff.

• Meet Jim

Jim skis fast everywhere. But his turns are straight and direct down the hill. He struggles to shape a proper arc unless he’s first built up a lot of speed. He also avoids slower drills because his balance breaks down when the forces are reduced.

What would help Jim is learning how to tighten his turn radius to feel lateral acceleration — not just speed straight down the hill. By focusing on turning across the slope and feeling the build-up of force through the arc, Jim would unlock a deeper level of control and flow.

He’d discover that combining speed with turn shape allows for even greater forces — and that those forces give him something to balance against. He might even start to enjoy that feeling of really leaning into a turn and brushing his knuckles on the snow.

Remember: you generate stronger turn forces to balance against by either going faster, shortening the turn radius — or both. But none of it matters unless your ski is gripping the snow.