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"SKIING IS A SLIDING SPORT": a skiing web manual
Conventional Skiing Wisdoms (CSW's)
by Bill Jones, Ski Instructor
Certified Professional Ski Instructor (Registration
#110478), Level III
How
To Reserve a Private Ski Lesson with Bill Jones
Which Conventional Skiing Wisdoms, if any, are true?
Always, or sometimes? Why? Why not? While learning a particular skiing maneuver, such as at the start of a ski
lesson, goals may be set. Commonly, certain aims are listed by would-be learners
as desirable, or even as given truths. These conventional skiing wisdoms may be the
ones you hear shouted at learning skiers as their mates and friends attempt to
teach them how to ski. Or you might hear them given as gospel in the bar any
time after noon, and sometime s before. Some might have once applied to skiing,
but have become obsolete due to equipment changes and technique or
slope-grooming improvements. Some have
likely been "poached" when overhearing a ski lesson; when an instructor says to
bend the knees more, the
point of reference is how much the knees have been bent already, and an added
bend may be too much for a bystander not in the lesson. Actually, there is some or much truth in
a number of these beliefs, but many have pitfalls. Some are downright wrong. If
you wrongly believe, you are not getting your full measure of enjoyment from
your skiing time. You are a candidate for further learning so you can rethink
your views and thereby have more fun on the slopes. Read on to help find out
why. A ski lesson is a good place to explore reasons why these "wisdoms" are
often counter-productive to skiing goals, for in a lesson you can practice and
experience physically whether these "truths" work while you are having their
variables explained.
In Learning to Ski/Ski Better/SkiMyBest, have an open mind. A conventional
wisdom may have become part of your skiing style, so feels right just as the wrong use of a word in a sentence may sound right to you
because you have used it that way many times. Thus a
modification of ski technique might be logically better, but not feel as good as your pet Conventional
Skiing Wisdom does--at least at first. So if the logic of the suggested technique makes sense
to you--or even if it doesn't, try it long enough to overcome possible initial muscle-memory (really
the brain) resistance. But
ultimately your choices of how to ski are yours alone, and should fit your
preferences and your anatomy.
And in so many cases, the right answer to a skiing question is,
"It depends!"
Click on each of these conventional skiing wisdoms for possible answers to
"Are any true? When? Why? Why not?"
CSW #1: "Keep the feet and therefore the skis
together."
CSW #2: "Sit back when
skiing powder."
CSW #3: "To turn, shift your weight."
CSW #4: "Lean."
CSW #5: "Push your skis (some say 'cut' them)."
CSW #6: "Up-unweight before turns".
CSW #7: "Wind-up the upper body to initiate turns."
CSW #8: "Skiing moguls ruins your knees, or back."
CSW #9: "If a skier looks good, the skier is good."
CSW #10: "Beginning skiers can learn from their skiing friends."
CSW #11: "Skiing faster is the way to learn to ski."
CSW #12: "Practice makes perfect."
CSW #13: "Don't wax skis; they would then go too fast."
CSW #14: "For my height I need skis of a certain length."
CSW #15: "After one ski lesson, I should be able to 'ski the mountain'."
CSW #16: "Fast skiers are out of control."
CSW #17: "Bend your knees while you ski."
CSW #18: "Turn the new outside ski first."
CSW #19: "Skiing is dangerous."
CSW #20: "New shaped skis are just a fad; the fad won't last."
CSW #21: "Old people can't ski well.".
CSW #22: "Kids have to use the wedge (snowplow) more than adults do."
CSW #23: "Skiing makes my thighs hurt (or calves, or etc.)."
CSW #24: "Running gates or racing is no fun; I'm not competitive."
CSW #25: "Bend low to ski like the racers sometimes do."
CSW #26: "Carved turns are best.".
CSW #27: "I use the wedge (snowplow) for control."
CSW #28: "Buckle
your boots tightly to make your boots stiff"
CSW #29: "Skiing slowly is safer"--in preparation
CSW #30: "The Skier's Responsibility Code will keep mesafe"
CSW #31: "Put (or keep) the weight on the balls of the
feet"
CSW #32: "Footbeds in my ski
boots are not important and neither is boot alignment"
CSW #33: "Always ski in balance"
CSW #34: "What is your favorite conventional ski wisdom
topic?"
CSW #99: "Please add your conventional ski wisdom
topic"
"SKIING
IS A SLIDING SPORT"--a skiing web manual:
Skiing Web Manual Contents Why Read
This Skiing Web Manual That First Skiing Lesson
A Little Skiing History
Motion in Skiing
CONVENTIONAL SKIING WISDOMS
Skier Excuses Fear in
Skiing Conditioning for Skiing
Equipment and Technique
Skiing Equipment
How Skis
Work
How
to Develop Balance on Skis
A Skiing Turn
Simplified The Final Skiing Skill:
pressure management Tactics for Terrains and Snow
Textures and Racing
Skiing Tips and Tales--a
potpourri
Exercises for Developing Skiing Skills
Children and Skiing
Age and Skiing
Gender & Skiing
Culture & Skiing Skiing Ethics and Slope Survival
Slope Safety Skiing
Environment Videos and Apps Glossary Acknowledgements SkiMyBest
Website Contents
This "Conventional Skiing Wisdoms" page last modified
February 19, 2025. Did you come here from a link on another website?
For latest version of this page, copy to your browser: http://www.SkiMyBest.com/skiCSW00.htm.
Copyright © 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. William R Jones..
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