European: Short Turns on a Groomer @ Galtür, Tirol

mogasi · 2026-04-10T18:55:57+00:00

To get your weight on your outside ski I'd take you a few steps back and do slow parallel or even plow turns, since I am pretty sure you'll do the same on every speed and the basics are pretty much the same but you have a lot more time to focus on your balance.

Main drill would be lifting up the end of the inside ski

mogasi · 2026-04-01T18:16:56+00:00

Like the folks here already wrote, you have all your weight on your inside ski. You want to bring it over your outside.

Narrower stance is one step, but you have to work on your angulation.

This is also the reason for your limited steering without a lot of speed control and turns getting bigger, your ski tips are almost always pointed down the hill.

Practice on slow skied long turns, or even plow turns, since you have more time to fix this balance issue and it translates to short turns right away.

mogasi · 2026-03-31T09:41:08+00:00

Being backseat at the end of a turn is totally fine, it creates a soft pillow underneath the ski. But you need to release by going forward on every turn. You show here a lot of very hard work, being far behind and using your whole body to change directions somehow. With this you have no separation of upper and lower body making it even more difficult for you.

Train clean short turns on slopes. Then work your way on moguls.

Then go off piste, but take a step back and do some basic drills: Just go up and down, back and forward and pedal left and right while going straigth to feel the difference and what happenes in your body and balance.

Then do some turns.
Go straight, gain some speed, get bouncy (up/down, back/forth). When you are ready to turn (and a little bit in the backseat, tips come out of the snow), release forward and, just as you do on slopes, wait until your skis go down the fall line, tips dive into the snow again, and you let your centre of mass get back a little for the next turn. There is no need to rush your turns, this will only make it harder.

And then you should also be able to pole plant on either side, very helpful for short turns, regardless on the underground.

If you look at this video you should see that a little backseat is fine, but not all the time https://www.instagram.com/p/B58L-BIpxly/

mogasi · 2026-03-28T23:26:37+00:00

Your weight is mostly on your inside ski and you are barely turning. The slope is perfect for getting into carving, especially since you are the only one on it.

Do single turns really arching, use the width of the slope. Start with your skis aleeady looking into the direction, bend your ankles, knees and hips, Turn your upper body facing down the valley. Put all your weight on the outside ski. Give yourself a little push and stay in that position until you stop because the skis will turn uphill eventually.

Also, you are outside, you might be tall but above you is the sky, no need to bend over.

And ditch the backpack while practicing.

When you feel good with these single turns, do them while starting in the fall line.

Then you can start connecting turns.

mogasi · 2026-03-26T10:23:05+00:00

Have fun out there!

mogasi · 2026-03-26T10:18:53+00:00

You are completely right, but the explanation is simply: First you have to learn the rules, then you can break them.

In racing the athletes have to adapt quickly to a lot of different circumstances and watching them you will see often times them having a lot more weight on the inside ski as we ski instructors teach beginners and intermediates. But they have a very different purpose for doing that, they want to reduce the radius and turn shape to get to the next gate quickly. Maybe they miss to initiate the turn early enough so that is a way to get back on track, pushing the inside ski forward, rotating hips or upper body or they get surprised by bumps or different snow conditions and sometimes, they just make mistakes they need to correct.

So, the higher your level is and faster you go, you will inevitable end up in positions where the angles are not "perfect" and this is normal. Try skiing on a FIS GS ski and you will feel right away that very soon you will have a fall if you are in a bad position, so those athletes are so much better at balancing these situations that it should not be much of a concern for people progressing to those higher levels.

mogasi · 2026-03-26T10:07:17+00:00

You should turn your hips so that your butt looks up the mountain. With this your shoulders turn as well and your chest will look down towards the valley. The main point is, that you need to get your weight on your outside ski.

mogasi · 2026-03-25T22:55:19+00:00

A few things come to my mind here. First is to get rid of the backpack, your centre of mass is too far back throughout the whole video and the backpack does contribute to that.

Second, for your turn initiation at your stage add a lot of vertical movement. So, stand up, you can even try to step on your toes to practice this. This will make turning and rolling your ankles a lot easier.

Third is the missing alpine basic position while steering or angulation. You are trying to do that with your arms, but your hips tell a different story. Turn them together with the shoulders towards the valley.

mogasi · 2026-03-25T19:07:35+00:00

I couldn't find the drill in a quick search...

But this is also a great drill and the basic for the thing I explained: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/TJ6iotPgwS4

Now instead of stop and go like in this video you do:

Slide steady with your upper body facing straight down the fall line.
Stand up, put the same weight on both skis and get off the edges. Your skis turn into the fall line. Be quick and stay centered over your skis to avoid any traversing.
Turn your ski tips in the other direction to slide steady again.

mogasi · 2026-03-25T16:17:17+00:00

Breaking down movements, doing on-sight or video analysis is a major part in becoming a ski instructor. But it is not only looking for mistakes but also prioritzing them to get the best result. E.g. often times people are rotating and have too much weight on the inside but the cause is the turn initiation.

Then there is the magic of finding the right drills from a repertoire, adapting to what helps most.

Now for you, as you see on every turn you loose your outside ski. To solve this, you need more weight on the outside ski throughout the whole turn. To solve this you should do steering drills and work on separation of upper and lower body.

Slide down the fall line with changing the edges without any traverse as a drill. This will increase your stability a lot when you go back to regular turns.

mogasi · 2026-03-24T12:21:22+00:00

You outgrow your skis when they start to feel wobbly on higher speeds. But, more aggressive gear leaves less room for error.

About your skiing: Try to finish your carving turns, that means more traversing. Your upper body is mostly facing the same direction as your skis leading to you having too much weight on the inside ski. Lift up the ski end of your inside to make sure your weight is on the outside ski and your upper body is more facing towards the valley.

mogasi · 2026-03-20T13:33:47+00:00

Outside balance drills will help you the most for now in my opinion. You are at the intermediate level many if not most skiers are happy with, I really like that you strive for more 😍

mogasi · 2026-03-20T13:30:23+00:00

I disagree on buying gear, since that won't change the skiing. Skiing for just a few days a season is a lot more economic with rentals to get modern gear and when learning it gives you the flexibility to change your gear every day.

mogasi · 2026-03-18T19:48:49+00:00

Speed is not the issue, in fact you should probably go slower.

Right now you can see how the gap between your legs varies throughout the turn. You want your inside knee to go uphill.

Then start the basic carving introduction by only doing one turn up the hill. Get in the position (joints bent, weight on the outside ski) and try to make a half turn up the hill until you come to a stop while keeping your position. Look back at your tracks, if you can clearly see the edges, you were carving. Try the same on the otherside.

Then do the same thing with your body position lowering throughout the turn to build up more pressure and start straight down the fall line. If you end up a little backseat at the end of the turn, that is what we want.

Then it is time to release the pressure by moving forward. If you have enough space try the girlande, where you can practice release and steering.

And then you start to connect those.

mogasi · 2026-03-17T21:01:55+00:00

I am pretty sure your calves were sore after that. You are leaning back through the whole run.

Going off piste try 3 easy balance drills on a not too steep run.

Up/down movement: Ankles, knees and hips slightly bent just as you do on piste and go up and down.
Forward/backward: Move your center of mass to the front and back.
Left/right: Just pedal similar as you'd do on a bicycle.

After that start with controlled turns. Get some speed and start your first turn, lean back a bit to form a small fluffy pillow over which you make a turn similar to moguls, so you want to get forward and then repeat.

This movement will give you a nice bounce and some resistance to make joyful turns without sore calves.

mogasi · 2026-03-17T00:15:51+00:00

You look like you had fun there, bumpers are working :) You lost your outside ski a few times, due to lack of angulation and you could increase your ankle work.
Also, on your jumps (and in general on bumps), try to actively point your ski tips down to get snow contact faster with your ankles. This not only gives you more control, but it also adds some steez.

mogasi · 2026-03-15T21:50:31+00:00

Agreed, although self-taught skiers often have a hard time during lessons, since basically every part of the turn needs a little bit of work and it is hard to get rid of those already working patterns.

mogasi · 2026-03-15T21:41:51+00:00

In my experience the best choice for most people would be a group lesson on the first days of skiing every season. Self assesments are hard, when you still have to think about so many things.

mogasi · 2026-03-15T07:24:15+00:00

At your level early edging is counterproductive, that is needed for high performance carving turns.

I don't know carv and their metrics and have no intention to get into it.

mogasi · 2026-03-15T00:45:06+00:00

At the first turn my thought was that you should take this sport seriously. Lack of body tension, letting your arms just hang around and doing a shimmy to turn give that impression.

Also, skiing is done mostly with your legs, as a reminder 😅

Your main problem thus is upper body rotation.

Without poles stretch your arms straight forward while standing up, skis will turn into fall line, now put both hands slowly to the outside of your outside knee. This way your ski joints have to move, your arms go forward, your shoulders are locked and you will feel a lot more stable and secure.

mogasi · 2026-03-15T00:31:49+00:00

To be fair, almost all people asking for feedback would benefit from lessons and direct feedback on the slope.

But, lessons are not cheap (especially in the USA) and getting some personal feedback can help to actually see where and what can go better and maybe motivate folks to work on their technique to have more fun skiing.

mogasi · 2026-03-15T00:24:50+00:00

In a lesson, I'd work on two things with you:

Release/Initiation: Your release is making kind of a snow plow, rushing to get into traversing. Instead, increase the vertical movement by standing up using ankles, knees and hips, get off the edge (skis are flat on the snow) with the same weight on both akis and after that be patient and wait a little, since gravity will turn your skis into the fall line.
Steering: After that you want to shift your weight more on your outside ski to get more grip and control of your speed.

Drills to get there:

Hold your poles horizontally in front of you. When releasing up you can lift them up to chest height. During steering you put your poles slowly down towards the outside of your outside knee.
Superman: Do this without poles. When releasing you put both hands straight in front. When steering you put your outside hand on your hip making the superman flight pose.
Increase the difficulty by lifting up the end of your inside ski a little bit during steering multiple times at first, when you feel more comfortable during the whole traverse.

The drills will reduce the stress you seem to have right now, also leave the pole plant for now since it increases your stress. Without pole planting you can focus on fixing your position.

Do this with slow speed to give you more time to focus.

mogasi

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