Simon Tasch - Skiing Exercises for Beginners and Intermediate Skiers

Skiing exercises for beginners and intermediate skiers Simon Tasch publisher landie.pl Karta redakcyjna 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: 978-83-63017-90-3 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 1.

WHO THE SKI EXCERCISES ARE DEDICATED TO The answer to the above question is simple: to all who love skiing and wish to ski better. Most of you are self-taught skiers, at least in a substantial part of your skiing careers. Of course, intensive lessons on the slopes with a good instructor will bring the best results, but due to financial or other reasons not everyone may take advantage of them. Even if you have a chance to periodically ski with an instructor, you will not ski with one forever, and sooner or later you will move on to a stage of self-improvement. And then your self-reflection - e.g. when comparing pictures or films of your skiing with the technique of masters observed on the slopes or when listening to kind advice of your friends - will often allow you to notice you do weird things with your arms, or your hips are in a rather awkward position.

A diagnosis is only half the battle to correct some errors, the other half is proper exercises and this is what our book is about. It is a book worth returning to, even if you do not have any objections (nor does anyone else) to your skiing technique. The enclosed exercises will allow you to strengthen your good habits, to recall the key elements of the ski technique at the beginning of a ski season, or most desirably, at the beginning of each day. 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. - 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. 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. 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. 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.