How to improve at skiing?
Lessons are always helpful and most resorts offer private or group ones daily. Or if you really want to improve your skiing request a ski coach (notice the word coach and not instructor) as they will have racing experience and will be better in assisting you. OR, if you’re willing to bump up your ski trips to once a week you could join a training squad, which is basically the lead-up to a race team. There’s no pressure to though. It’s a fun experience that gives you expert advice on skiing and will maybe even let you compete in an actual race or two.
Maximize each day by being at the lift when it opens. Take a short lunch/bathroom break before everyone else stops for lunch. Ski until the lift closes or you’re too tired to ski safely. When not skiing work at leg strength and endurance a couple of days a week. Try racing the self timer course a couple of times per day. Take a half day private lesson. Have somebody video tape you. Remember to always face downhill. Turning only your lower body while your upper body remains facing the fall line. Do not reach forward to pole plant. Try skiing without poles for a morning.
Practice, practice, practice. You get better at anything by doing it again and again. Before you get to the slopes work on balance exercises, hopping from foot to foot with your eyes closed, get a soccer ball and do a step touch drill for 5 minutes a day. Jump rope. All of this is to improve your balance and reflexes and timing so you can be ready for the ski season. Take a series of lessons at the start of the season to practice what you know and to refresh your muscle memory. When on skis, learn to balance on the inside edge of your downhill ski, right under your foot. Practice controlling your speed by shaping your turns and bringing you tips more uphill on each turn. When you can balance on the downhill ski and carve a turn, then try to carve the turn on the wrong ski, the uphill ski for advanced skills. Learn how to control your speed by linking turns in the fall line with a rhythm that matches your skill to the hill. Take lessons from a professional instructor. Buy a season pass
Skiing is 90% confidence & 10% ability. Just keep plugging away. It don’t matter how long I have been skiing. The first black I come across, I stand at the top and think to myself WTF are you doing, you silly old fool !!! Then get it over and have to wait at the bottom for the others. Keep at it : You are getting better all the time, you just dont notice.
