Intermediate Lesson Ideas

The following some exercises to use with intermediate athletes who are matching skis at the end of the turn. By developing their skills we can help athletes to match progressively earlier in the turn until they are skiing parallel all the time.


Goals and Tips

• Have fun!
• Build confidence through improved turn shape, direction control, speed control and braking skills.
• Develop confidence at higher speeds and on steeper terrain.
• Strengthen rotary/steering movements and begin to introduce edging and pressure management movements.
• Provide lots of time for practice and repetition.
• Use lots of positive reinforcement, be specific with positive feedback.
• Help athletes explore new terrain.

Balance

1,000 Steps – On gentle terrain have your athlete step through a turn

Suckers – Have students pull both feet underneath them

Pacman – Pretend to be Pacman chomping down on a ghost during a turn. This promotes opening and closing of the ankle joint.

Twisting and Turning

These drills help develop rotary/steering skills

Wedge turn and shuffle – Make a wedge turn and shuffle your feet through the finish of the turn.

Little Arrow/Diet pizza – Work on turning with a smaller wedge. A smaller wedge is easier to turn because both skis will be flat.

Step at the end – Have an athlete make three steps down the hill at the end of the turn. Then move to two steps, one step and then no steps.

Weight transfer

These drills help develop pressure management movements that allow athletes to transfer weight foot-to-foot and match earlier in the turn.

Frogs – Pair athletes up. One partner yells “rabbit” and both jump. Try to get skis parallel after landing.

Pick apples - Stand up tall to pick an apple. Get low to miss the branch as you go around the tree.

Flat tire turns – Pump you legs up to start the turn in deflate the inside leg to make it easier to match

Harry Potter Turns – Use your broomstick to play Quidditch. Put your poles between your legs like you are riding a broomstick. When you want to turn push your broomstick in that direction. This encourages athletes to start their turns by using their inside leg.

Turn Shape

These drills help athletes experiment with different shapes and different sizes of turns. This will help them develop the movements to be able to turn on any gate. The shape of a turn plays a major factor in controlling speed. If the skier does a C shaped turn and finish by pointing their skis across the hill, they will check their speed at every turn. If the skier does a banana shaped turn they will accelerate with every turn.

Follow my track – Play follow the leader, have athletes keep their skis on the track. Explore different turn shapes.

Funnel – Start with big long turns, gradually make them smaller and then funnel out to make them bigger.

Robot – One athlete is the robot the other the controller. The controller skis behind the robot and gives commands. Commands can be turn left, turn right, hop, slow down, wedge, and stop. Use whatever commands that fit what you want to teach. Change positions so everyone gets a turn.

Edging

Edging is created by tipping different parts of the body, ideally the ankles, knees and hips. Edging allows skiers to more effectively change direction, control speed, change the shape and size of turns, slip, skid and carve.

Red Light/Green Light - Have your athletes side-slip during the game. Make sure you work on both sides.

The Squatty Body Waltz - Ski in a squatty body position. In this position the only thing you can do is roll your knees.

Sidelslip hops – Sideslip and stop (practice rolling ankles and knees into the hill), then hop. Start by hopping straight up. As skill develops, hop once back up the hill, then sideslip again.

Hockey stops - Have athletes do hockey stops to both sides. Start with big hockey stops and make them progressively smaller by increasing the edge angle and intensity of steering movements.