New England just got hit by tons of snow. Don’t miss out on New England skiing this weekend!
But, before you do…check out some things you should know about yourself and how you ski. Take a quiz by Skiing Magazine, and find out what kind of skier you are. We all have labels and have all been subject to a bit of skier profiling. Find out your stereotype here.
Also, identifying your skier profile could improve your performance.
Although skiers use terrain or skiing aggression to describe their skiing style and label themselves a black-diamond skier, a cruiser, or an all-mountain skier, skiers should instead concentrate on physical attributes or limitations.
In a book called Total Skiing, skiers are broken down into four types of skiers to help create an individualized training program for developing weak areas in their skiing arsenals.
Optimal Skier
Optimal skiers exhibit ideal functional movements and keen body awareness in all planes of movement. They react to terrain changes with body adjustments and refined agility skills. These skiers can pick up new skills quickly and are rarely sidelined with injuries. Optimal skiers can withstand longer outings to ingrain high-quality movements and can practice for longer periods because of good overall alignment, mobility, and strength.”
Overpowered Skier
Overpowered skiers are fit and use good mobility and stability to deal with terrain challenges. They often use the big muscles that can generate fast, ballistic movements in order to ski well. They lack joint mobility, especially in the hips, as well as fluid core movement and finessed leg movement, limiting their full range of motion.
Underpowered Skier
Underpowered skiers have good mobility and core stability but lack overall fitness, causing them to get tossed around by building forces in the turn. They also lack the endurance needed for longer, sustained runs. They can absorb varied terrain deeply when they are fresh, but they tire quickly and must rely on the stability of the hard, plastic shell of the boot or the tail of the ski.
Underskilled Skier
Underskilled skiers show great ability in the blocks of functional movement and fitness, but they lack technical and tactical skill. Skiing is a sport that requires repetition of movement patterns. They stay fresh longer and can operate at peak performance for several hours. Their weak link is their lack of fundamental skills.
Exercises focusing on mobility, stability, aerobic capacity, agility, and power will deliver big paybacks in performance and will increase the fun factor on the slopes. Not all of us can be Olympic skiers, but we all want to shred on the slopes, and that requires some work off of them.
Find out what kind of skier you are, whether you fit into one of the above four categories. Then you might be called a Big Mountain wanna be, Mr light and fast, The Tele Chick, The Jibber, or the Gaper. Once you know, get some skiing in before the Spring’s in full bloom at New England Ski Mountains like Bradford right outside of Boston. Boston skiing is waiting for you!