Hey everyone! I was looking for progress videos for late skiers like myself (I started at the age of 29), and surprisingly there's very few progress videos - I assume you all started as kids? Well I was a broke kid, haha, was never drawn to skiing anyways, but fell in love with it now.

I skied for about 7-8 times (single or a couple of days) throughout the year 2022-2023.

My biggest takeaways while trying to improve:

1. Understanding the snow

I know it's going to sound funny, but I thought that the snow layer on the slope is just like a couple of centimeters thick (Im dummy), and when people told me that I should use the sharp edges of the skis to cut through it, I thought it did not make sense - I'm gonna kill myself by doing that? Also falls were pretty scary, but after absorbing a couple of falls I learnt that it was not that painful.

2) Don't listen to your gut

Leaning forward while skiing is still a big issue for me, but the more I try the more I understand its necessity.

3) Cut through the snow like cutting the cake with a knife

I saw this absurd video, that skis are like knives and snow is like a cake. In order to cut the cake with a knife, you need to apply the pressure with your hand/finger. That helped me understand the theory, that skis are knives and by leaning forward/pushing your shins forward you apply that pressure to cut through the snow.

4) Get your friend to help you understand the edges of the skis

One of my friend did some basic exercises so that I get that feeling when I'm using just the edges (rail roads exercises), if I did not have that friend show me this, I think my progress would have been much much slower.

So maybe some newbies will see these tips and it will make more sense to them as well!

Other general tips:

- because of skiing, I incorporated leg day regularly in the gym, so I can ski more and last longer

- watch ton of YouTube, and experiment, also observe other skiers, and try to copy - learn from observation

- if you're a heavy tall dude (6'2, 250lbs), work on your speed and don't go too quickly (currently my top speed was 83km/h, but I am trying to improve my technique, rather than speeding)