Posture Perfect

A simple adjustment many skiers can make to improve ski performance is to modify their body position between the waist and the neck. The majority of skiers either ski too upright or bend over straight from the waist. Skiing with your back straight and shoulders back may follow what your mother told you about good posture but does nothing to engage your ski from its centre to its tail. This body position is more often seen with men, particularly those who carry some extra weight around the middle, but can also be seen with those who have participated in aesthetic-based sports (e.g., dancing, figure skating, diving, or gymnastics).

Skiing bent over from the hips is more common with women and tends to happen when skier are told to bend over more without being told how to do so. Then the bend comes at the hips giving the appearance of the butt sticking out. What this does to ski performance is get the skier “in the back seat” and thus unable to effectively work the front of their ski.

So what should good ski posture look and feel like? Think of being in a “ready position” – an athletic position like you would if you were waiting for a tennis ball to be served to you or a football to be snapped. For women, picture wearing a super tight pair of high waist jeans that force you to suck in your tummy. Picture these jeans coming up a couple inches higher than your belly button then roll your shoulders over keeping your waist upright. For men who may not be as familiar with the tight jeans feeling, picture getting sucker punched in the stomach around your belly button. As your stomach moves inward, roll your shoulders forward.

The goal for both groups is to keep your butt and hips upright and stacked over your legs with only your shoulders rolled forward. This will give you the active stance necessary to react to anything that comes at you but also allow you to use the whole length of the leg in your skiing and engage the whole ski tip to tail.