A wide stance

[skidmarks]

How wide is your stance? Is it way wide like the Senator from Idaho?
Do you use a narrower stance in bumps or powder? Knowing your stance width is important when aligning the upper cuff of most good ski boots. I'm always asking people what their stance is at the shop.

 

[bvibert]

Depends on the terrain, but it's not typically very wide by most peoples standards. I'm an aspiring bumper. I try to keep a narrow stance when skiing them, and I think it tends to transfer over into the groomers a bit too. For the most part I look at the groomers as a way to get to and from the more interesting terrain, so I don't usually pay too much attention to my stance.

 

[gorgonzola]

olds kool narrow - been trying to spread it out for the last few years

 

[o3jeff]

Try not to keep it too wide, but as the terrain get tougher, the wider my stance gets.

 

[skidmarks]

olds kool narrow - been trying to spread it out for the last few years

When ever I think my feet are apart, they are not.

 

[Philpug]

hip width

 

[fixedgrip16]

Pretty narrow. Not like the old days wedelin with straight skis but especially in bumps/ powder a narrower stance is needed as a platform. High speed arcing turns spead 'em out a bit leading a little with inside tip.

 

[Greg]

Relatively narrow. I go for almost locked in the bumps but I still splay from time to time. My stance widens naturally out of the bumps, unless I'm doing drills to use in the bumps. I know narrow is not cool anymore, but it works for me, especially in powder and moguls.

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

hip to shoulder width...hip width or narrower in bumps, shoulder width the rest of the time. feet used to be locked together but the UMF ski industry program changed that...coach Reynolds yelling "you think your feet are far apart, they're not wide enough" over and over again while he's skiing behind you...along with "the hands are here...the hands are here" (while he demonstrates the location).

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Wide for cruising the groomers..narrower for the bumps...I do notice alot of older skiers skiing with a narrow stance on supershapes..which doesn't make sense..a wider stance means more angulation..I feel like in crud and powder...wider is better to plow through the gnar..

My stance is pretty wide in this picture..but I unfortunately crashed into the camaraman..Ski9..

 

[2knees]

anything short of together for the bumps is too wide.


i cant ski with my feet apart at all. it just doesnt work for me. actually i should say i just dont know how to do it.

 

[Beetlenut]

Glued together! Leftover from the old days. I can ski with my feet apart if I want to, I just don't want to! I feel less stable when I do it.

 

[MrMagic]

I usually stay about hip width. A good test to find a good width and a good neutral balance point is to put you feet together and jump three to four times, each time you jump you feet should spread out a little bit, take a look at you stance at the end of the third jump, its usually a good indication of you stance/width/ when you ski , of course its different for bumps ect

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Together. Tight. My boots are scratched up on the sides, and my tips are shaven down about 1/8". Tight, tight, tight. That's how I like it.

 

[SkiDork]

to make turns like the picture in the original post, you must have at least a shoulder width stance. Actually to take advantage of shaped skis, shoulder width stance is pretty mandatory. Thats my favorite skiing with my Fischer RC4s - ripping railroad tracks down Snowdon.

 

[atkinson]

Using the word "stance" to describe a fluid motion sport is counter-productive. Can anybody show me their running "stance"? Stance means stand and we don't stand while skiing, we move.

Your feet should be constantly moving, even if it is within a narrow spectrum, like the bumpers do. Don't worry about where your feet are, look ahead!

John

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

Using the word "stance" to describe a fluid motion sport is counter-productive. Can anybody show me their running "stance"? Stance means stand and we don't stand while skiing, we move.

Your feet should be constantly moving, even if it is within a narrow spectrum, like the bumpers do. Don't worry about where your feet are, look ahead!

John

From dictionary.com:
–noun 1. the position or bearing of the body while standing: legs spread in a wide stance; the threatening stance of the bull.
2. a mental or emotional position adopted with respect to something: They assumed an increasingly hostile stance in their foreign policy.
3. Sports. the relative position of the feet, as in addressing a golf ball or in making a stroke.

so lets go with "relative position of the feet"
I don't know about you, but I don't have to look down at my feet while I'm skiing to tell you where they are. Regardless of how dynamic our body movements are while we're skiing, we all have a baseline stance.

 

[campgottagopee]

For me,like in any sport, my stance would change as it needed to but as a rule of thumb I would say hip width.

 

[SIKSKIER]

How wide is your stance? Is it way wide like the Senator from Idaho?
Do you use a narrower stance in bumps or powder? Knowing your stance width is important when aligning the upper cuff of most good ski boots. I'm always asking people what their stance is at the shop.

That's pretty much it right there.It's all relative though.The more speed you carry into a turn,the more your stance should open up as you lean more into the hill to offset the centrifical force.Sounds good anyway.
What about DMC's stance?

 

[Beetlenut]

What about DMC's stance?

I'll assume it would be wide, to provide for maximum knuckle-draggage! :wink: ......runs for cover!!