When you look at a diagram of the American Teaching System's Skiing Model (fig. 1 below) you see three circles that overlap inside a big circle. The three little circles represent rotary movements, edge-control movements, and pressure-control movements. The big circle represents balance-and it's larger than the others for good reason. Of these four fundamental skills of skiing, balance is easily the most important.

Rotary, edge-control, and pressure-control movements are difficult to execute if you're not in good balance. When looking at the diagrams in which the Skiing Model is applied to various levels of skill development (fig. 2 below), the little circles seem to be the center of focus: they change size and the way they interact, thus it appears as if our growth as skiers depends on fine-tuning these movements.

But trust me, if you're going to play these circle games with your students concentrate first on the big one, the one that seemingly stays the same. Improving your students' balance will pay big dividends as they develop the other elements of good skiing.

When skiers have trouble tipping their skis on edge, steering their skis through a turn, or dealing with the effects of uneven terrain, the most common cause is an inability to stay in balance. Balance is not simply the birthright of good skiers, it is a skill that is learned and must be constantly practiced if the skier wants to improve. That's why, with students of all ability levels, I key in on balance--and sometimes it's as easy as having them pick up their toes.

Try this exercise: stand up and slightly lift your toes. You should feel the muscle in your shins tighten. This muscle, what a doctor would call the tibialis anterior but your students would merely refer to as "the muscle that runs along the outside of the shin," is the key to balanced skiing. These little shin muscles help control a skier's balance by maintaining constant flex, or "closure," of the ankles. This closure is very important because subtle changes in ankle flex can result in large movements of a skier's center of mass. So when a skier lifts his or her toes, those muscles automatically go to work to maintain balance.

As a way to ski, this may seem a little too "stiff in the ankles," but play around with it. You'll find that even with the shin muscles firing and the ankles flexed, you still have good range of motion to turn your feet and tip them from side to side. Also, keeping a little more flex in your ankles will help you maintain the angles in your knees and hips. That's because in order to feel balanced over your feet, a small flex in the ankles requires a complementary amount of flex in the knees and hips. Think about what happens if you bend with your knees or absorb with your hips when your ankles aren't flexed. You're in the back seat, right?

To help your students understand how important their ankles are to balanced skiing, have them ski for a while on terrain that will challenge their ability to stay in balance. Once they have felt the effects of being somewhat out of balance, ask them to stop and focus on "loosening" their ankles as much as possible, rocking back and forth in their boots so they can feel a full range of motion. Next, have them try to keep their ankles that loose while they ski. They'll soon find that with loose ankles it's difficult to keep an even amount of pressure over the length of their feet.

After stopping once more, encourage your students to rock back and forth and gradually tighten their ankles until they feel themselves drawn to a centered position. They should now feel an even pressure from their heels to the balls of their feet. To anchor this feeling, ask them to slightly lift their toes and then ski that way. By skiing with their toes slightly lifted, they'll discover that it's easier to maintain their balance over their feet.

Once they have the hang of this, focus on developing other movements in their skiing. I think you'll see that by first addressing the balance issues, some of their rotary, edging, and pressure-control movements will begin to fall into place. And let them know that if they ever think these fundamentals are a bit out of sync, maybe it's time for a little "toes up."

Rob Sogard is a member of the PSIA Alpine Demonstration Team and a supervisor and staff trainer at Utah's Snowbird Resort. He is also the chairman of Intermountain Division's certification committee.