Last Updated29 February 2024

This section outlines the importance of situational awareness and coordinating the four movements to create skilful skiing, whether it’s performing a wedge turn or skiing a zipper line through the bumps.

Skills

As soon as a skier can turn, each of the four movements is evident and coordinated in some form. At beginner level the coordination of movements needs to be developed progressively to advance a student. Coordinating these movements accurately will allow skiers to advance their skill level as they encounter changing situations all over the mountain. These situations are created by terrain, speed, snow conditions and equipment.

The skills described here highlight the many layers of skiing, both physically and cognitively, that instructors will need to help their students master on the journey to becoming a confident and skilful all-mountain skier.

Situational Understanding

Situational understanding is the skier’s ability to grasp the cognitive and finer concepts that are required of the skier to perform an activity. This means the skier must marry their overall understanding of the surroundings and tactics to the performance intention they have set.

Speed of Travel

Understanding the necessary speed required to perform a task or demonstrate a skill plays a vital role in developing situational understanding. For example, a skier will not be able to perform wedge turns if their speed is too fast, and conversely if a skier’s speed is too slow they will not be able to perform dynamic medium radius turns.

Understanding speed and how acceleration or deceleration impacts the forces acting on the skier is key for instructors when they are creating clarity for their students.

The Conditions & Equipment

Assessing the snow conditions and the equipment the skier is on develops situational understanding and is key to knowing the level of performance achievable. For example, when skiing slushy spring snow, the heavy wet snow will slow the ski down during a turn and make the ski harder to steer. This is a similar ski performance to skiing crisp deep powder however, the snow texture and moisture content of powder snow will create a different feeling and experience for the skier.

The equipment a skier is on will also impact how they interact with the conditions. For example, a powder ski has more surface area so by design will stay afloat and closer to the surface of powder snow making the ski easier to steer. However, when skiing a powder ski on the piste, due to the ski’s width underfoot and the location where the foot is mounted on the ski, a powder ski will always be trying to flatten during a turn, making it harder for the skier to maintain consistent grip and edge during a turn.

Understanding the snow conditions and equipment a student is on will develop the instructor’s ability to make good decisions throughout the lesson. For example, how to alter instructions so progression for the students is achievable. On a morning with fresh snow on the run the size of a skier’s gliding wedge will need to be smaller due to the increased volume of snow on the run creating greater friction force and slowing the skis down. Compared to a skier making a gliding wedge on a firm and frozen spring morning, where the size of their wedge will need to be bigger due to less friction force acting on the skis.

Terrain

Assessing slope angle develops situational understanding and is important to safely navigate the mountain. For example, taking a student who can make a wedge turn to a slope that is too steep will not only be a safety hazard but also will negatively impact the remainder of the lesson and the student’s confidence. Knowing when it is appropriate to introduce new or steeper terrain to students is important and these factors should be considered: student skill level, student fatigue level, student confidence, student speed on current terrain.

Assessing whether it is safe to take students off-piste develops situational understanding. For example, skiing off piste after the first snowfall of the season can be dangerous as the rocks, fallen trees and bushes might only just be covered. Skiing off-piste in this situation could cause serious injury and would most likely damage the student’s equipment.

Tactics

It is important to have tactical awareness when skiing. Understanding the equipment, snow, terrain, appropriate speed and how to adapt in changing situations will help develop the skier’s decision making and situational understanding. For example, when getting off a chairlift for the first time the student should stand up and carry their momentum to a safe stopping point away from the offloading area. This is not always an intuitive thought for a student, so the instructor should take the responsibility of making those tactical decisions to keep the students safe and the lesson moving.

Understanding how to adapt turn shape for different slope angles plays an important role when making tactical decisions as an instructor. For example, using a larger turn shape with a long control phase across the hill would suit a nervous student, to help control the student’s speed down the run.

The remaining skills listed below are focused on the skier’s physical ability to perform on-snow activities. To perform these skills well the skier must use situational understanding along with a coordination of the four movements to achieve the performance intention set.

Active Stance & Balance

Coordinate all four movements to maintain balance and accurately direct pressure along the length of the ski through all phases of the turn. Use muscular control to align the body to the forces acting on the skier while managing the relationship between the centre of gravity (COG) and base of support (BOS) to control ski-snow interaction.

Ski Performance

Friction on the skis will increase and decrease within a turn, so to maintain balance through the centre of the ski, the skier must anticipate this and use muscular engagement to help guide the ski forward and backwards, ensuring the skier remains centred throughout the turn.

Maintaining balance through the centre of the ski will mean the entire length of the edge will contact the snow creating even pressure while bending the ski actively to create turn shape.

To accurately control the steering effort during a turn the skier must maintain active balance along the length of the ski. This will allow the skier to steer the skis from the centre helping them navigate all terrain.

Body Performance

To maintain balance through the centre of the ski, the skier must be active in their use of fore/aft and vertical movements, this will adjust the skier’s stance and control the direction of the COG along the length of the ski.

The skier must be active when controlling their rotational alignment, creating, maintaining and decreasing separation throughout a turn. This will help the skier manage the forces acting on them and create flow from one turn to the next.

The skier must be active in their pursuit to create a natural amount of angulation during each turn, helping them maintain outside ski balance while they use inclination to increase edge angle during the turn.

Outside Ski Balance

Coordinate all four movements to direct pressure to the centre of the outside ski. Use angulation to align the body to the outside ski to accurately manage the forces that build up throughout the turn.

Ski Performance

Balancing on the outside ski will allow the skier to feel greater stability and handle the forces acting on the skier throughout the turn.

To utilise the design of the skis to greater effect the skier must predominately balance and direct the majority of pressure through the outside ski during each turn.

Body Performance

Vertical movements of the legs help to control weight shift from outside ski to outside ski.

When travelling at higher speeds with higher degrees of edge angle and more inclination of the COG, the skier must use flexion of the inside leg to maintain angulation and balance on the outside ski.

Angulation is created throughout the turn by the legs moving rotationally and laterally inside the turn more than the upper body. Angulation helps the skier maintain outside ski balance.

Edging

Coordinate all movements to increase and decrease edge angle throughout the turn. Use the legs to initiate these movements, while managing inclination with the upper and lower body to accurately control ski performance, creating turn shape.

Ski Performance

The skier must increase the ski’s edge angle during the create phase, then continue to increase the edge angle during the control phase and release the edge angle during the release phase of the turn. This will create a round turn shape with grip.

As edge angle increases the ski will bend more, this is due to the ski’s side cut and camber. In order to manipulate turn shape through increasing ski performance, the skier must control the amount the ski bends.

Skis have a steering angle built in them, this is the ski’s side cut (turn radius). To utilise this the skier must increase the ski’s edge angle throughout the turn.

Body Performance

The skier must control inclination through precise lateral and rotational movements of the legs to initiate and control edging movements of the skis.

Controlling the lateral movement of the COG through inclination is important to create higher edge angles when travelling at faster speeds.

Steering

Coordinate all four movements to create and manage the steering (direction) of the skis throughout all phases of the turn. Using lateral and rotational movements of the legs to initiate steering while maintaining discipline in the upper body will manage separation and create effective steering.

Ski Performance

In all turn types the skier must increase the ski’s steering angle during the create phase and manage the steering angle during the control phase. There is no need to release the ski’s steering angle at the end of the turn as any releasing or decreasing of steering angle will result in the creation of a new steering angle for a new turn.

The rate of steering must be consistent with the skier’s desired size and shape of turn.

Body Performance

The steering effort is controlled through a combination of rotational and lateral movements of the legs while maintaining stability in the upper body.

To maintain accurate steering throughout the turn, the skier must maintain centred balance through all phases of the turn.

The rate and range in which the skier rotates their legs will control the speed in which the steering angle is created and the size of the turn.