2 Simple Drills For Better Skiing: Improve Upper Body Stability and Stylish Turns

[@SteezyJoeNetwork]

I love how you describe the upper body as not being a passenger in this drill. Actively firing muscles to keep the body aligned!! Gonna go try this today.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

No passengers on this ship, everyone contributes haha

[@Minipera]

Thank you, Tom! This is truly one of the best ski guides on KZbin. The drills, the clear explanations of their benefits, the common pitfalls to avoid, and the concrete examples with "real" (yet very advanced) students are absolutely fantastic. I would love to book a private coaching session with you, but for now, as the cost is out of reach, I’m really appreciating these incredible videos. I hope your channel gets all the visibility it deserves and brings you even more students!

[@gregy1194]

Great vid Tom. I really like ski vids that have students in them. I can watch experts all day and understand the theory but watching someone closer to my level, demonstrating the drill and then seeing them make the changes. That I can relate too.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

It's great to hear that it really resonated with you.

[@richardcasey4439]

This year, semi-retired, so I’m skiing a few days every week. I can’t wait to try some of these exercises.

[@ilipika4105]

Always learn a lot from your videos, demo of drills with clear explanation and the rationale. Thank you so much!

[@roor.berllou]

授人以鱼不如授人以渔 好有文化的滑雪教练🎉🎉

[@RoseAnneLivao]

I’m already feeling more stable on my skis after just few practice. Thanks for the great tips, Tom! 😊

[@ardenpowers7730]

Nice quiet upper body drills. Upper/lower body separation keyed in. Great drills ! Thanks for sharing . . .

[@james-qd8iy]

I'm watching you from Japan. Last season, I improved a lot thanks to your hand drag drill video. I'm going to try the drill in this video. Thank you.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

That’s awesome to hear you’ve had success with the hand drag drill. Hope this drill works for you too!

[@lpja2326]

Same for me after living in Melbourne for 23 years , when I go back home and ski in Cervinia , the first few days are atrocious, every few turns I have to stop to catch my breath, really hard going and no fun at all. Thanks for another amazing lesson. 🥇🏆

[@massimilianoortodossi8523]

Cervinia is taxing your body further because altitude! Welcome home mate!!

[@lpja2326]

@@massimilianoortodossi8523 You need a few days to acclimatized but, who has the time when in holiday ? I've learned to ski there at 10 years old, my town 1hr drive away. Ciao

[@Studio42Brooklyn]

Tom. AWESOME video and energy! great format!

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Thanks! Appreciate your keen video editing eye

[@leer.watson4673]

Been watching your videos the last few months and FINALLY had my 1st day on mountain at Keystone. Was super pumped to work on your drills but my god they’re easier watched on KZbin than done. lol. Even your simplest drills were giving me trouble. That’s nothing negative towards you and rather my poor everything.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Haha yes that’s reality. But please don’t give up. The fact it challenges your skiing means you will be improving and pushing your level.

[@michaelprochazka3726]

Very nice drills! where was the video filmed? Greetings Michael ... ... and ... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Merry Christmas. This was filmed in Hintertux Austria in November

[@chriszhao8695]

Hi Tom, Thanks for the great content. I have a question that bothers me for a long time, it will be great if you could help provide an answer, or even make a video for it. I could do good parallel during turns, but I still have A frame for a short period of time during weight transfer. How could I solve this problem? Thank you very much!

[@yuvalsegal]

Tom, great video and I'm going to try these drills soon! Why is the advice to keep the poles square to the direction of travel? I've often been told to keep the upper body facing downhill at all times. And when I see competitive mogul skiers, it seems that their upper bodies are facing downhill always.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Just think about turn types. Most of the turns made in this video were longer turns. Way longer than a competitive mogul skiers short turns. Competitive moguls skiers direction of travel is…..DOWNHILL. So they face that way. Carving you travel down and across and down and across. Dynamic slalom short turns you also face a little across the slope when making sharper turns. That’s why it depends on the turn you make. Why I suggested mixing up the drill with long and short turns. You’ll feel where naturally you want to align and feel strongest depending on where you want to travel. Test it out

[@gogglebro9421]

Tom, your presentations have evolved noticeably. Observations: It looked to me like Rosie was banking and tilting her poles on right turns. I am wondering if you’d suggest to her to be more angulated? I didn’t catch you saying whether the hands are palms up or palms down gripping the poles, but I believe your intention is that the palms be face down, which is the way I prefer to do this drill. Though not necessary for this drill, I will pull the poles outward because it engages my torso, which I find also helps to stabilize my upper body. // Marshall

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Rosie noticed she wasn’t level either which was even better, and the whole point of the way I coached the drill. Watch again and see how she’s practicing on the flatter terrain and fixing it in real time. 00:13:25 I didn’t want to tell her how to do it. I just told her what the task was and how she could self assess if she was achieving it or not. It’s very tempting as coaches to always step in and try and give the answer. I’m moving away from this into more of the ecological approach to learning.

[@gogglebro9421]

@@Bigpictureskiing At your suggestion, I looked back at the portion of the video that included Rosie skiing at 00:13:25. Yes, I see how you made the task the teacher by following an ecological method of learning. I appreciate your pointing out to me that Rosie indeed found her own fix without your intervention. This is a very good example of using this methodology and gave me a takeaway. FYI - Last season, after being introduced to it, I started using Wulf and Lewthwaite’s OPTIMAL Theory of Motor Learning. I feel like these learning models complement each other.

[@jeremymoran7728]

Hey Tom, would you please do a video on ideal arm position for hard carving. I can't really understand where my arms should be, how far in front, how far extended out etc...

[@Bigpictureskiing]

I have videos about this stuff on my learning platform Big Picture skiing for members there. What’s on KZbin is a small selection so people can get some free tutorials but then if they really are keen can dig into the full video library. No ads, videos are added regularly, and there’s a forum where I answer questions like this in more detail. Cheers

[@lpja2326]

Tom , you should have become a WC racer , your skiing is amazing .

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Well that’s kind to say but, I’m not that big of a risk taker. I’m quite happy making turns where I want to make them. Haha

[@lpja2326]

@@Bigpictureskiing Live the dream !

[@Steph-iw3hr]

Really a good one , really good coaching I made it off snow looking at the video and what I notice when you have your outside hand to high and you try to fix it , it forces you to get more angulation Am I right ?

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Forces many things. Also helps you just to start paying attention. If you can notice it you can change it and then see what feels best. Can’t notice, can’t change it

[@АлексейЦыганков-ъ1ц]

Hello! What's top 3 carve skis?

[@marcin23228]

Hello i have head supershape ski. Can you tell me where can I rearrange my equipment to make even tighter turns and go lower? Tilt my shoes and move the fittings forward?

[@roy87345]

Awesome! ❤❤

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Thanks

[@jimt1575]

Thank you for this Tom. I guess you’re supposed to keep the poles level by body angulation instead of simply raising or lowering a hand??

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Yes. Surprisingly if you have a good stance to start with telling your body to try and keep poles level will help a student get there. Not the be all end all of course. But no cue or drill ever is

[@50guitar]

I was looking for the link to the free invisible selfie stick that you said would be in the description. I don't see a link for it. Also, the link to your camera takes me to a page that says the link is not available in your country (United States).

[@peterrobinson8999]

Please could you specify ski choice when showing demonstration videos like this. Thanks in anticipation.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Who’s ski choice?

[@peterrobinson8999]

@@Bigpictureskiing. Perhaps I should have asked what ski choice Tom is using the video? There appears to be 3 different skis.

[@checure]

Question since I have seen these drills done but folks tend to "cheat" ... Are the poles supposed to follow the ski tips direction or the fall line? ... Reason I ask is because at one point you say "direction of travel" which could be the precise moment in the turn or the general path to get down ... THANKS for all your videos!!!

[@Bigpictureskiing]

You’ll notice the shorter the turn the more the poles face down the hill. So sometimes people just think skiers face their body just generally down the hill. Which is somewhat true. But direction of intended travel might be a good way of saying it too. So it changes in different parts of the turn. One thing that would help is watch my video on “looking into your turns”. Our vision is SUPER important and leads everything first. More than the upper body.

[@duncanharvey2209]

😅 Just realised we live at the same place. Great drills as always.

[@grgagabric4369]

Just curious, is Fischer sponsoring you or do you just like their products because it seems that you rock only their skiis.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

I get some help from Fischer yes. But I switched to their ski boots years before, without a sponsorship. Because they fit my feet better. Pretty much all brands make great skis. I like the design and feeling of most of the Fischer products so am very happy to help promote them

[@MrPeacefulness]

I use your drills to help an intermediate skier who comes to the mountain a few times each year. I'm concerned about him falling falling while holding the poles behind his back. It seems like it could possibly severely injure a shoulder. Can you put my mind at ease before I have him try this?

[@Bigpictureskiing]

So if you’re worried don’t do that variation. It’s not necessary . It’s just one option to use to challenge your balance. I added it for those that are more advanced skiers

[@qin1992]

I drag my poles too much sometimes which indicates I’m not well balanced, so I also found shorten my poles or even no poles changes a lot.

[@krishnanlakshmikanthan1530]

Being a learner I am just afraid of having my hands stuck to my back, I won't have support in case I fall ...and the injury could take my arm as it's weirdly stuck 😢

[@gimmeagig]

So no more still upper body facing down the fall line. According to the video the poles and therefore the shoulders are kind of like the handlebar on a bicycle. Is that right.? I'm so used to keeping the upper body relatively still facing down the hill and have the skis turn underneath me,.So that is no longer the way ? That's a big deal. I'll try it.

[@loug4626]

My question as well. Can we have a response to that?

[@Bigpictureskiing]

Try it! That’s all I suggest from this tutorial. See what you discover and feel. And start noticing where the best skiers face their upper body and how it changes depending on where they want to go. Ie more carved across the slope or more direct down the slope like a mogul skier. It’s there in plain sight

[@peripheral1258]

Instead of these pole exercises I would rather hug a barrel and power up the LATS so that tension transmits across the shoulders = Resist a partner trying to close or open your arms. Wider hands resist rotation. When you really power up a ski I wanna see a pit-bull-coffee-table... not a floppy-cat folding-chair. Can you please do some vids on deflectioni into inclinatziononi.

[@DrCmoments]

You are Aussie?! Ha, what a surprise 😂

[@Esperluet]

7:46 so difficult 😢

[@johnklaus9111]

Tom is great. I see this drill all the time. I think both that this drill doesn't teach anything of value and it causes the frozen upper body skiing I see so many flawed Skiers use. I would recommend against using this drill or practicing with it. Stop trying to disconnect the upper body from the lower body within your turns. Kinesiology shows this is not a factual understanding of the interconnected physical structures involved. Said another way, you cannot teach someone to "ride" the ski while freezing their upper body around bad fundamentals. 😊

[@johnklaus9111]

You'll note that if you actually level your shoulders to the skis in a real carve turn you will wash out repeatedly. you further see Tom NEVER leveling his shoulders hands or poles during any part of his turns. The only time you are fully level is when pointing straight down the fall line. Shoulders over knees over feet.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

It’s a drill. I do mention that it’s not the goal of all skiing to keep the shoulders level. But you will learn a lot by taking on the task of trying to accomplish turns with level poles. That’s the whole point. Whole lot of skiers I see on the mountain would benefit and feel some great new sensations if they tried these drills out. Theres some interesting research around freezing different body parts so there are less movement solutions when improving a skill. That’s all the intention is here. Make the solutions to be found narrowed, in order to help the student discover something new

[@johnklaus9111]

@@Bigpictureskiing No need to be defensive. Lately, I wonder why I speak to people at all. No one performs any level of reasoning. Just knee jerk attack or defense. Said another way, you clearly agree with me, but struggle to understand how you can get paid and agree with me. It's the only thought going through the head of most of the people I talk to these days.

[@Test-i8t]

Love your videos but I worry the 2nd exercise with poles behind you is unnecessarily risky. If you were to fall with your poles in this position you could really hurt yourself.

[@Bigpictureskiing]

If you're worried about this variation, just skip it.

[@weirdbeard1980]

There was something in Marks skiing that is just a little wonky. It's almost like he artificially extends his outside leg rather than it being a natural movement pattern. What's your thoughts on that Tom?