Mogul Skiing Technique Guide
Your Eyes: Always One Step Ahead of Your Feet

     A common problem among many recreational (and even some professional) mogul skiers is their vision. When you’re in a bump field, you should always look at least three to four bumps ahead of you at all times (some pros are looking more than ten bumps ahead!). Your head and your eyes should always be up, looking ahead, not down. Think about it: if you’re only looking down at the bump beneath you, then how are you going to be able to prepare for what lies ahead? That’s right -- you can’t. Half the battle in skiing moguls well is being prepared for the upcoming bumps (or other obstacles). If you are looking ahead three or four moguls, you will be able to plan (subconsciously sometimes) what to do when you actually get to that bump. You will be able to ski a much smoother run, and you will be ready for whatever lies ahead. If there’s a stray ski pole in your line, you’ll have time to switch lines to avoid disaster. If someone ahead of you has fallen, you will be able to adjust before plowing him over. If your line is irregular, you won’t be surprised when you run into a bump that isn’t where you expected it to be.

     This image shows me skiing a line at Mary Jane, and the red line approximates where I am looking. As you can see, I am looking ahead about four bumps:




















     Looking ahead is pivotal to skiing a safe and fluid mogul run. At first, you may feel uncomfortable not looking at what is underneath you. But logic and reason must point out that, since you’ve already seen the bump (because you looked at it a couple of bumps ago), you already know what’s there. You also may feel like your feet won’t know what to do unless you’re carefully studying what’s beneath them. Nonsense! Your feet, legs, boots, and skis can do a lot more on their own than you’d like to believe!







Drills:

     Head to a relatively easy, intermediate, groomed run. Pick a reasonable portion of the trail to ski without stopping. Find an object at the end of that portion on which to focus. It could be a tree, a snowmaking hydrant, a sign, a lift tower, whatever (so long as it is stationary, of course). As you ski that portion of the trail, keep your eyes on the focal object and ski in your stacked stance making short-radius turns. Do this until you become very comfortable with the idea of looking ahead instead of down.

     Next, take this same idea and apply it in a low-pitch bump field, preferably one that is half groomed/half bumps so that you can safely bail out if necessary. Start out just looking one bump ahead. Then, as you become used to that, move on to two, three, four bumps ahead. If you can get comfortable looking five or more bumps ahead, then more power to you! It will certainly work to your advantage!

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