The Must-Have Qualities to Improve Your Skiing on Your Ski Vacation

Remembering your last ski vacation particularly skiing, can you say that you're already an expert skier? Do you have any basis?

If none, know these 10 essential skier qualities discussed by Warren Witherell, a legendary American skier, in his book €The Athletic Skier.€

These qualities help you determine the your strengths and weaknesses in skiing, including:

EXCEPTIONAL BALANCE
Balance is the core ability of every skier to maintain one's body proportion while skiing.
For Witherell, balance is the most important quality for skiers to enhance their agility and quickness, carving skills, economy of movement, strength and relaxation.

DYNAMIC MOTION
This is the ability to move fluidly from 'arc to arc'. He believes that ski turns should have continuous, integrated and active motions.

CARVING SKILLS
Witherell thinks that good shaping skills must use feet and ankles dynamically. It also requires anticipatory balance movements before making a good turn.

Anticipatory balance movements, he says, are intuitive and natural in expert skiers.

LATERAL MOVEMENT
It's the ability to maintain balance while the feet are at one side of the body. Warren describes athletic skiers as having a "wide divergence of lines between their center of mass and their feet."

As long as you keep your center of mass located laterally somewhere at or between your feet, you can remain balance and upright.

STRENGTH
For him, dynamic strength training intensifies athleticism in skiers especially when integrated with balance conditioning.

QUICKNESS and AGILITY
It's the ability to be focused while changing your body's position efficiently. He considers quickness and agility as a product of relaxation, which in turn is improved by balance.

ECONOMY OF MOTION
This is the ability to avoid extraneous movement especially when in difficult terrains. Warren thinks that by moving slowly and paying attention to your body improves your motion economy.

RELAXATION
Developing your technical skiing skills on ski vacations can make you competitive and confident. However, learning new skills particularly in challenging terrains can cause tensions. Warren, on the other hand, believes these tensions can be lessened once skiing is done repeatedly.

He also adds that an upright alignment or stance contributes significantly to relaxation-allowing your muscles to rest and your bones to carry your weight.

NATURAL and UNAFFECTED STYLE
Because of the dynamic nature of winter sports, holding postures is inadequate for any type of winter fitness training. He, in fact, stresses the importance of spontaneity and flexibility as opposed to correct positioning. Once they're achieved, it makes your skiing moves look natural.

PLAYFULNESS AND IMAGINATION
Witherell urges skiers to laugh often to enhance positive attitude on the slope. It also promotes your sportsmanship with fellow skiers.

He also believes the power of visualization as a factor to a successful skiing.

Do you have the qualities listed above?


As long as you have the desire to improve in skiing, you can always expect to have good turns and runs. If you have lots to improve, don't worry, you can still hone your skiing skills on your next ski vacation.


Original link: http://goarticles.com/article/The-Must-Have-Qualities-to-Improve-Your-Skiing-on-Your-Ski-Vacation/9244570/