Simon Tasch - Skiing exercises for intermediate and advanced skiers

Skiing exercises for intermediate and advanced skiers Simon Tasch publisher landie.pl Copyright Copyright by landie.pl Sp. z o.o., 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be published or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Professionals insights: Simon Tasch Editor: Agnes Przybylska Photos: Andrew Pesheck Layout: landie.pl ISBN: 978-83-63017-86-6 Several of our publications may be purchased on: www.sport-book.co We hope you enjoy our sites. PEOPLE INVOLVED IN MAKING OF THIS BOOK: SiMON TASch AUTHOR: EXERCISES Mountains, for skiing and for many years equally for cycling, are the love of my life. I have skied since early childhood and for several years have been one of the leading Polish alpinists and with the national team.

For some time now I have specialised in the free riding, that is extreme riding off the track. For almost 20 years now I have also practised high-performance cycling and Down Hill MTB where I was the Champion of Poland in the masters. Andrew Pesheck BOOK DESIGN AND PICTURES Sports and photography are what makes me tick. The obvious link is the sports photography. In winter I go skiing, in summer I go jogging, swimming and diving, and everywhere I go I take my photographers backpack - its extra weight is a small price to pay. You will find more about me on www.andrzejpeszek.pl WHO THE SKI EXCERCISES ARE DEDICATED TO Exercises for intermediate and expert skiers are our next collection (the first one was presented in On Slope Ski Exercises for Beginners and Intermediates) of interesting and well thought out exercises you can perform on the slopes.

Exercises are divided into logical groups and have clearly defined goals; they will help you to correct small mistakes in your technique (it even happens to master skiers) and enhance/strengthen the elements that you already mastered quite well. On-slope ski exercises... are a great help to all who treat skiing seriously, i.e. do not wish to ski any old how, but instead to ski well and increasingly better and thanks to it have more and more fun when skiing and, very importantly, ski safer (reducing the risk of your injury as well as injuring other skiers on the slopes). Enjoy the book and exercises! 2. TERMS USED IN THE BOOK: In the book, as usual in all somewhat specialist publications, we use a specialist language - a sort of skier dialect.

To avoid confusion, lets explain each term. - centre (inside) of a turn/turn centre: a place, area, direction to the centre of an arc (circle) through which your skis move - outside (outer side) of a turn: a place, area, direction on the outer side of an arc (circle) through which your skis move - inside/uphill ski, leg, knee, hip, shoulder, arm, hand or pole: located to the centre (inside) of a turn - outside/downhill ski, leg, knee, hip, shoulder, arm, hand or pole: located on the outside of a turn -weighting of the outside/inside ski: shifting the greater part (and sometimes all) of your weight to one of the skis -weighting ski tips/tails: shifting the greater part of your weight to a given part of the skis -hips/knees angulation: breaking the silhouette in hips/knees, causing a shifting of weight to the outside of a turn -torso/shoulder counter-rotation: twisting shoulders to the side (outside) of the direction in which your skis move As a reminder to the more complex technical elements of skiing, we would like to invite you to read our books (see www.sport-book.co). 3. WARM UP A warm up is probably the most neglected topic in the theory of skiing, and especially in practice; at the same time it has a significant impact on your skiing and especially on the risk of an injury. During the warm-up you wake your body up, you warm muscles by increasing the blood flow in them, increase a range of motion in the joints and whats very important you stimulate the so-called proprioceptors - i.e. deep sensory receptors - thanks to them you may control the degree of stretching of muscles, tendons and ligaments, as well as the alignment of different body parts while skiing; in other words all the nuances making up an excellent skiing technique.

So lets warm up... LETS START WITH THE WARM-UP OF TORSO AND SHOULDERS TORSO TWISTS (10 TO 30 REPS) In the first exercise, use a pole held wide apart in a horizontal position and make wide arcs, twisting torso as much as possible. Starting with gentler twists, gradually increase their depth with each repetition until you come to the maximum back twist (for your body build). Perform full repetitions starting with a complete twist to the right followed by a full left twist. MOVING SKI POLE BEHIND YOUR BACK (10 TO 30 REPS) Holding a pole with arms wide apart, place it behind a shoulder joint. This exercise requires a fairly good flexibility of the shoulder joints.

If you have problems with doing this exercise, you may practice swinging your arms back in a similar fashion, i.e. to exercise with a virtual pole. Exercise the right and left side in turns. HIP ROTATIONS (10 TO 30 REPS IN EACH DIRECTION) Standing at ease (with feet slightly wider apart than the hip width) place hands on the hips and perform wide hip rotations. Rotate around clockwise 5 to 10 times and then repeat it anticlockwise. TORSO ROTATIONS (10 TO 30 REPS IN EACH DIRECTION) Standing with legs fairly wide apart, perform extensive torso rotations: during the downward move hands touch the snow, and in the upward move you slightly bend back.

Perform 2-5 repetitions in one direction and then change the direction. FORWARD AND BACKWARD LEG SWINGS (EACH LEG 10 TO 30 REPS) Standing on one leg and leaning on poles, perform extensive forward and backward swings with the other leg. If possible, the torso remains still. Perform 5 to 10 swings with one leg and then change legs.