Flex Your Outside Ankle

Skier navigating slalom course wearing helmet and goggles

Image by TT News Agency/Alamy

Overview

  • Movement 2: To start a turn, flex your outside ankle towards your big toe, feel pressure on the ball of your foot and stand on the outside ski.

  • This description is the second of eight modules included in the Ski Technique module, describing how elite skiers and racers carve turns.

Start a new turn

Flexing your outside ankle toward your big toe and feeling pressure under the ball of your foot, will tip the ski onto its edge and apply pressure to the front of the ski, causing it to begin carving.

Illustration of a human foot with instructions to flex the ankle towards the big toe, highlighting pressure under the ball of the foot.

Image by Arm

Stand on the outside leg with the bones aligned and stacked on top of each other, as demonstrated by Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway.

A skier in a blue suit carving a turn on a slope. The text indicates "Kristoffersen Carving a Turn" and emphasizes "Outside Leg Stays Stacked" with a diagram. The skier is shown in three different poses, demonstrating the technique of ski carving.

Watch a few turns of Henrik Kristoffersen in this video. Observe how his new outside leg is stacked, while his outside knee remains stable and does not tip inward.

Video and above screenshots by Filip Chwistek.

With ‘shaped’ skis, tipping the outside knee inward to create edge angle is unnecessary. This action reduces pressure against the outside ski and increases the risk of knee injury as demonstrated in the Learning Module, Reduce Risk of Injury.

Outside Leg Video

Tom Gellie’s video below compares the ski technique of two skiers; Warren and Casey.

  • Warren in the upper frame starts his turns standing on the outside ski with a stacked outside leg.

  • Casey in the lower frame tips his outside knee inwards to start the turn.

Tom Gellie explains how Warren is able to start the turn with more power stacking the outside leg. You may want to watch this video more than once as it focuses on subtle but very important differences between these two skiers.

Video by Big Picture Skiing

How to flex ankles along with some helpful drills is demonstrated by Warren Smith in his video.

Video by ‘In the Snow’

Sketch of foot anatomy showing bone structure and balance center

Feel Your Feet

Being aware of the pressure under your feet will significantly improve your performance on the slopes and in a racecourse.

Key Takeaways

  1. To start a new turn, focus on flexing the outside ankle toward the big toe, feeling pressure under the ball of the foot.

  2. Keeping the outside leg stacked by standing on the outside ski will avoid the knee tipping inward,. This action will reduce the risk of knee pain and injury.

Suggested Learning Modules

Go to Ski Technique 3 Forward Movement

Return to Ski Technique

Important Message: Skiing and ski racing involve inherent risks. It’s essential to ski responsibly and stay within your skill level and personal comfort limits.