We spoke to Aaron Tipping, co-founder of Maison Sport, fully qualified ski instructor and BASI trainer, about the three most common mistakes made when trying to perform carved turns on skis. Aaron talks us through each mistake and goes into a simple correction for each one.

Mistake 1 – Twisting the upper body

When you twist your upper body this will cause your skis to rotate and skid during the turn. This makes it really difficult to tilt the ski on an edge. You want to be able to tilt your skis on an edge, balance over them and make one smooth, clean carved turn. Twisting with your upper body will cause your feet to rotate and the tail of your ski to push out, resulting in a skidded turn.

To fix this and keep carving it helps to choose a point at the bottom of the run. Keep your upper body facing towards this point the whole time and let your skis come underneath you whilst you’re turning.

Mistake 2 – Leaning your body into the turn

When you lean your shoulders into the turn, the outside ski loses pressure and will slide away from you. This means it is very difficult to stand over the outside ski and keep carving.

To fix this, try to think about bringing your shoulders to the outside of the turn. In doing so, your weight will be balanced over your outside ski and you will be able to tilt your ski on an edge and keep carving cleanly around the turn. As you initiate the turn, your shoulders should come down to the outside which helps to create an angle with your ski and allows you to balance over the outside ski.

Mistake 3 – Leaning back

When your weight is in the back of your boots and over the back of your skis it is very hard to control your skis. When you are in the back seat, it is really difficult to put your skis on an edge and balance over them which generally leads to you not being able to perform a tight turn, so you pick up a lot of speed and then end up skidding to slow down.

To fix this, at the start of the turn you need to ensure your shoulders. knees and hands are all forwards, leaning over the front of the skis. In this position, it should be a lot easier to put the skis on an edge and keep carving all the way round the turn.

Now we have identified the three most common mistakes whilst carving, it’s time to try out these simple fixes on the slopes!

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