Bad habits to avoid when learning to ski or snowboard

We all pick up bad habits at some point on our ski or snowboard journey. Its easily done when you start to gain confidence and enjoy the sport. One of the most important things when leaning ski or snowboard is posture. It’s important to have the right posture to enable you to use the ski and snowboard equipment effectively and learn the basic elements.

 

Ski and Snowboard posture

When you stand at the top of the hill for the first time it’s natural to want to lean back into the hill but the best position to be in on your skis is leaning slightly forwards ensuring your shins are touching the front of your boots and you’re balanced over the middle over your skis. The best posture position for skiing is having your feet hip width apart, ankles bent, knees slightly flexed, head forwards and your arms kept forwards and to the sides. This is optimum position on your skis. Using incorrect posture affects every element of your skiing. Having the right posture will help you maintain balance and drive the skis in the direction you want and ski lessons are the best way to achieve this.

 

It’s the same concept in snowboarding. Naturally you will want to lean back on the board but to get the best out of your snowboard you need the most effective posture. During your snowboard lessons you need to lead with your most dominant leg and keeping your weight on your front leg is a vital part of snowboarding. When you start learning to turn on your snowboard lessons you will need to apply pressure onto your toes on your front foot so it’s essential you master the best position on your snowboard before attempting this. At the beginning of your snowboard lesson 1 and throughout the Snozone lesson programme the coaches will guide you through this.

 

Ski Poles

One of the common mysteries is using poles when skiing. What are they actually for? Are they to help you balance, go faster or push you along? It’s easy to pick up bad habits with poles too. 

When you first learn to ski you have enough to think about without worrying about another piece of equipment,  you are also travelling at a slower speed so throughout your ski lessons you will learn the basics first and then add poles at a later stage. Once you’re a confident skier you will start to use your poles for balance and timing. You should plant them in the snow throughout your turn. A correct pole plant initiates rhythm and sets the timing for your run.

A common habit when learning to use poles is letting the arms drop and dragging your poles along. The correct position is with your arms out, about 20-30cm from your body and with your elbows bent at almost a 90 degree angle. This is your starting position, once you’ve mastered this you can learn to plant the pole effectively in your turn.  Our indoor ski lessons will help you to understand and master the use of poles.

 

Improving bad habits on our Ski and Snowboard development lessons

The best way to improve bad habits as an experienced skier or snowboarder, is to join one of our ski or snowboard development lessons. It’s an informal coaching session where we invite everyone to come to develop and perfect their skills with other skier and snowboarders. This is a great way to enhance your abilities but also meet likeminded people of the same level.

The session includes two hours coaching and one hour practice. These indoor ski and snowboard lessons are popular and can also act as a refresher for someone who hasn’t had recent coaching. There is also a great social element to these lessons, and you will often catch everyone in the Alpine Kitchen afterwards having a coffee together!