Bro-Ski is for Real
Boy or girl, we’ve all got bros that ski. Pant sagging, goggle gapping, and ski rapping—your bro-ski, man. You know who I’m talking about. It’s likely they give you a hard time for your ski strapping, goggle lens-packing, gate bashing style. And it’s likely you give them a hard time for—well, bro-ing. You love them for their different style, and their argyle one-piece pile.
Truth be told, we have a lot to learn from each other. To ski racers, technique is all discipline of the body. To free riders, technique is all creativity of the mind. Oftentimes, in the world of ski racing, the athlete gets very caught up attempting to travel past a gate the “correct” way. I’ve been a victim of this mindset, and I’ve watched kids ski stagnant trying to force technique. While there are basics to master, in the end, every skier has a different style, a different strength, and travels a different line.
Consider this common scenario: Your coach instructs you to move your hips forward in the transition. This piece of advice doesn’t mean move your hips forward like Johnny or Jackie; it means generate forward movement in your own way, to re-center over the ski in the transition, so that you can flex your ankle, bend the boot, and snap off a turn. Ted Ligety and Bode Miller have two different styles in the transition. You should, too.
Instead of lapping around, jumping back in the gate, and trying to do what you’re told in the blues and the reds, it’s time for the bro-ski in your head. Take the concept, and go make it unique to you. The best way to drive home an idea in ski racing is to master it in your free skiing.
Free skiing is the most underutilized tool in today’s ski racing environment. Programs pay a lot for training space, gates, and free skiing is, well, “free.” If you look to Europe, young ski racers are not allowed to touch a gate until they have mastered technique in their free skiing. These athletes are learning from the mountain; it is a natural course, using terrain as the turning pole, and mastering the arc without a pole.
If you’ve been slapping gates since you were 6, take a chance on free skiing. Opt for the free run over the training run (with the permission of your coach, of course). Put your hips on your tails for a few turns, move them so far forward you can’t initiate a turn, and find your own medium in the transition. You have to find the top of your own turn, your own way. It is, after all, your turn.