Skiing Backseat

lean more forward....

this

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... Seems logical enough

Try to feel the front cuff of your boot.  Play with it a little bit before hand.  You should be skiing ALL the time with your cuff in contact with your shins.  One thing I try to do is sit my butt between my feet, driving your knees forward.

I hate it when the snow is sketchy (fast to slow) and I am leaning forward and hit a slow spot.

Your nees have To be in line or farther up then your toe line this shoul fix your problem dramatically!! :)

lean forward, obviously  the easy fix. and like other people said, keep your shins against the tongue/front of your cuff at all times. For some people that's easier said than done. If you've got poor dorsiflexion (ankle joint flex) it may be harder for you to get your ankles bent and your knees forward. See a good bootfitter to truly address the issue. A few cork heel lifts go a long way and are only a few bucks.

If you really want to break the habit of skiing backseat, your first step is to get out of the park...it's too much of a distraction when trying to learn how to ski properly. Take some cruiser runs, after about 3 skiing the way you do, you're legs will be on FIRE...then after you've felt the pain (trust me, it's necessary), take a few more runs but this time put your shins into the front of your boot, keep your knees over your toes, and your shoulders forward...if you have to (and you will look stupid doing this...but it helps) imagine you're a gorilla/monkey and get into that body position. After these runs you'll notice your legs don't hurt as much, from there you can work on keeping the position, but not look weird (to do this, basically just try and stand up a bit straighter, but keep your knees forward and your shoulders centered). THEN you can go back to the park, you'll find yourself get 10 times better very quickly.



Most people fall into this habit (especially in the park) for a few reasons (not saying you have any of these particular problems, just generalizing). Once you've figured out the reason to a problem, it's easier to fix.

The first reason - the pizza/french fry is probably the worst way to learn how to ski...it's easy for little kids, but it's the most backwards approach. I figured this out a few years ago when I was goofing around on the hill and decided to follow a small lesson a friend of mine was teaching....doing exactly what the kids were doing...and I realized that in order to make a pizza and turn I had to lean back and get out of a normal skiing stance. Like I said, for little kids to stay in control, it's great, but to keep skiing that way is dumb.

The second reason - people tried to get into park too fast. It happens all the time, you see some kids throwing down so you get into the park before you've actually learned how to ski. In the beginning, while you're still learning park, it's not a big deal cause you're dealing with small features and lots of stop-and-go skiing so you don't notice the pain of skiing backseat and you don't have any problems, until you start hitting bigger features and realize you don't really know how to ski, you can do tons of tricks, but carving into a jump at high speeds isn't something you learned how to do, so you lean back to try and get that extra boost of speed then you can't pop properly.

The third reason - Afterbang...people try to afterbang and look good all the time...not just when they've landed a trick. But they don't realize that afterbang is mostly an upperbody thing, if you watch people like Tom Wallisch closely, when he afterbangs his knees are still bent and over his toes, not to mention when he approaches a jump he basically goes into a modified racers tuck...not standing up and leaning back.


Hope that helps

pretend your playing as a goalie in soccer about to save a penalty, how you stand then is how you stand skiing

hips over the middle of your feet, flex the knees, shins in front of boots and flexion in ankles

Well-fitted boots are essential to staying forward as well. My boots were too big a few seasons ago and I couldn't stay forward when carving or jumping

+K to you.

solid post flashkick. id just like to add a fourth reason tho, as it was the problem for me:

when I was coming into the landing off a jump I was never comfortable pointing my skis downhill, because it just instinctively felt like i might crash. I would always keep my skis parallel to the horizon (not the horizon in front of me, im just trying say they were flat not in relation to the slope of the hill)even when coming into a 40 degree sloped landing or however steep they are. obviously id land backseat on my tails and be forced into backseat. so alot of it is committing to coming into the landing smoothly with you skis actually facin downwards alittle

I find getting my arms up where I can see them helps get me into better position. I suffer from seriously lazy arms and if I don't pay attention to them it throws my body back when turning, landing etc. 

Also, spend even just a day or two turning around some gates. No speed suit or any of that garbage, just some solid GS turns, as that's where you'll really be able to work on technique.

Take a instructing/coaching course that'll learn ya good... or better yet just be a racer first

i cant tell you how good of advise this is. gold, pure gold.

great response. threads