Your feet are rockets, use them to propel your skiing to new heights!

Take your movement control to the next level…

When it comes to skiing, having excellent fore aft balance is essential for optimal performance. This means having precise control and coordination over the pressure you put on your skis during a run.

Ski racers must have exquisite control over their forwards and backwards balance while making fast turns. Otherwise, they run the risk of being too far forward throughout a turn which drastically reduces speed because no acceleration is created.

Recreational skiers don't necessarily need to perfect this skill unless they wish to compete in races at higher levels; however, it is important that even recreational skiers understand how quickly pressure should be moved back through the middle and heel of the foot instead of feeling weight on just the back end of ski. If you wait until then, your performance will already suffer!

Having correct fore aft balance means that you can glide through turns quickly and efficiently, without wasting energy or momentum. It sets you up for an optimal flow. And creating a perfect flow of turns on the slopes, is all about mastering control & acceleration.

Correct fore aft balance sets you up for an optimal flow.

To generate enough control in between each turn, you must first learn how to move your hips ahead of your feet at the initiation of a turn. This will help you build a balanced momentum across turns and propel you into each new arc with ease!

When you start a turn, you should pull both feet back. This puts the feet immediately behind the hip, putting you in an ideal position to start the turn. For a sharper turn, pull both feet back strongly. You should keep your inside foot strongly pulled back all the way through every turn.

Then, push both feet forward to accelerate your skis into the turn.

Pull them backwards again to re-center and get back on the balls of your feet.

Many skiers do tend to be open to the idea of pulling the feet back at turn entry because they find fairly quickly that this movement gives them a lot of control at this stage.

However, with pushing both feet forward into the turn, they often have a harder time because they fear to end up in a backseat position. It can be terrifying at first to give up control when skiing at higher speeds…

This movement is highly necessary though to generate some form of acceleration. If you want to progress to high-speed turns with a dynamic silhouette, you must learn to play with letting both feet shoot forward into the arc of a curve. Pushing the feet forward can help power skiers through turns.

Notorious former World Cup skier Bode Miller was a master of this movement. In his early days, he could basically win a slalom by flirting with the backseat position, riding on the tail of his skis and driving them forward with insane acceleration in between each gate.

Take a look at this footage from 2001 for inspiration:

Here's an easy to remember summary for this movement pattern:

• Initiating the turn - pull feet back for regaining control, with the inside foot pulled back even more

• Shaping the turn - push feet forward into the turn for acceleration

• Repeat

Remember to fully integrate this forward-backward movement from the feet into a compact transition. If we want to maintain a low centre of gravity (=improved balance) and perform a quick edge change while making fast turns, we should strive to remain low in transition. A retraction release is therefore more appropriate here than an extended release.

An extension or up & forward-release could also bring the hip in front of the feet at turn initiation, but this is not very functional at higher speeds. It doesn’t keep your centre of gravity low and sets you up for a late edge change.

Constantly shifting the hip-to-foot relationship is crucial for mastering "for to aft balancing". This can be achieved by paying attention to sensory input from your feet, shins and skis.

The power of this technique lies in connecting with how you feel on the slopes - actively adjusting movement based on body orientation and pressure against snow. With practice, recognizing where your body stands relative to slope angle or ski path will bring new levels of performance potentials.

Pull both feet back for control. Push them forward for acceleration!

Remember, your feet are rockets…