Jumping

Goal

Leg force is generated by flexing all joints, followed by a quick extension that projects the COM forward and across onto the other ski.

Helps when a skier is too stiff to generate leg power.

Details

Skis off. Skier lock all their joints and jumps high into the air.

Next, skier flexes down as low as they can go and then jumps. Ask what changed to improve their jump height?

Next, use this same flex and jump action moving forward from one foot to the other.

Now, instead of “jumping”, demonstrate striding starting from a flexed ankle (feet together position) to a relatively straight (extended) leg at the end of the push phase. Ask them to flex, extend onto the new ski, pause, and hold the glide. Then repeat with the other leg.

Reinforce flexing the ankle and knee before pushing hard with full extension onto the glide ski. Practice until you see the required movement in all joints.

Variation: change terrain or speed of movement.

Manoeuvres

Skill

Note: Tasks can be adapted to different manoeuvres, skills, and skiers. Try them. Be creative.