Justin's Winter Sports Tutorials

In a previous post i explained the technique to doing large jumps on skis. Here is a video of me doing it.

In order to 180 when jumping on a snowboard you must first learn how to jump which will be explained better on a post coming out later today. But the basics of it are getting a good speed that is not too fast or slow and committing to the jump. You must also be balanced before you jump. Here is a video of me doing a 180 on a snowboard. This is a simple trick that is helpful to get from one side to another when standing still or to do when hitting a jump.

In order to do bigger jumps when skiing you must go into a jump with enough speed to make it over the top part and onto the downhill part of the jump. But, before doing any of this you must practice your technique for basic jumps. You must bend your knees and keep your body over the middle of your skis in order to stay balanced when you spring up into the air. The picture below shows the 5 steps to jumping. Doing big jumps on skis is much different. In order to do a bigger jump you MUST get enough speed to jump off the lip of the jump and land on the downhill. If you do not get enough speed you will land on the flat part of the landing and it will result in a more painful landing.

Probably the most important thing for skiing beginners to learn is how to Hockey stop. This is when your skis quickly turn sideways with your skis and body at the same time and create friction with the snow to slow your skis down at the same angle as the hill. The steeper the hill the more of an angle you will have to use in order to stop. It will take lots of practice and full commitment when doing it in order to master this and you may fall a few times when first trying it. Here is what it looks like. Slow the video speed down in order to get a closer look.

In order to jump when skiing the most important things to do are 1. Look at the jump beforehand to see if you feel comfortable doing it 2. Bend your knees 3. Ski in a controlled way going into the jump 4. Pop up off the ground once you are at the top of the jump 5. Land on the ground and bend your knees when landing to lessen the impact                                           Put the video into slow motion to see all the steps

When skiing turns are needed in order to keep control of your speed and change directions. It is one of the most important things for beginners to learn. In order to do this you want to look in the direction you want to go. Then bend your knees and lean slightly to the side you want to turn to. Use your knees to guide your skis in the direction you want to go and try to keep your arms controlled in order to remain balanced. In the video 2 quick turns from left to right are seen and you can see that all of these basics are being put into use. Put the video in slow motion to see the turns better