Get on the Ball to Improve Your Skiing!

Fully Up — Relax

What:

Fun exercises to do while standing on an inflatable ball.

Why:

Thigh burner and great balance exercise, not to mention that this is a great party trick and tons of fun!

Setting and Equipment:

Stability ball and an open space with a relatively soft landing (grass, carpet or, if possible, gym mat). Medecine ball optional.

Warning: you could get hurt with this one. BE SMART! Have a clear area around the ball and have two friends spot you if possible. Don't even think about trying it on a hard surface — you may fall off a few times before you master this.

Once you get it, you can have a lot of fun with variations on this. We'll work through this in steps until you can hold the classic downhiller's tuck on an inflatable ball. It looks outrageous and may feel unattainable at first, but I've probably taught this to at least fifty people and most get it eventually. The ones who stick with it for more than a few tries almost always get it. This is one of those things where the worse you are at it, the more important it is for you to master it. Competitive skiers and top rock climbers tend to get it very quickly and the best ones make it look easy. I showed it to Yuji Hiriyama, one of the greatest rock climbers in the world, and he effortlessy stood on the ball, squatted into a tuck and was rock solid for a full minute on his very first try. Unless you've won a World Cup in skiing or climbing, expect it to take a lot more effort for you. If you stick with it though, maybe you'll become like Paul Chek, who can squat 250 pounds while standing on the ball.

First, just play with the ball. Kneel on it. Sit on it and pull your feet off the ground. Balance on it on all fours. Just get a feel for it.

Standing on the Ball

Stability Ball Stand: Setup

Stability Ball Stand: Starting: Note hand and foot equidistant from top

I learned how to do this with no guidance and it took me a few tries, mostly because I was afraid of falling (sound familiar?). I have since learned some shortcuts that get people standing on the ball in no time, but for me the key element was music. I quickly fell off the first couple of times. Then I just happened to start singing for no particular reason and just stood right up and stayed there for a minute or more. Perhaps it was coincidence, but I think the rhythm helped a lot. So before you do anything else, start singing!

Once you feel comfortable with the ball (and have a good tune in your head), it's time to move on to standing on the ball. People commonly try to put their feet too close to the top. You want to end up in a wide stance, a bit more than shoulder-width apart. Start by putting both hands on the ball, about shoulder width apart and about 6-8 inches from the very top of the ball on the opposite from the one you're standing on. Your feet will mirror this position on the opposite side of the ball, so that your hands and feet will make four points roughly in a square, all roughly 6-8 inches from the top. Now bring one foot up, keeping the other on the ground. Play with this position for a second, and then try to pop the other foot up into position. Once you get it, stablize there. Do not try to stand up until you feel stable and comfortable balancing with both hands and both feet on the ball.

Getting One Foot Up

Two Feet Up

Once this feels pretty good, it's time to stand up. Set your gaze on a point well out in front of you, just as though you were skiing. Avoid the tendency to look at the ball or your hands. Slowly roll forward on the ball so your feet move toward the top and your hands and feet get closer together. As this happens, your legs will be supporting more and more of your weight and your hands will just be for balance. Move up onto your finger tips. The position between when you let go with your hands and when you get mostly stood up is the most unstable, so you don't want to linger there, but you don't want your movement to be erratic either. When you're ready, move quickly but smoothly into a standing position.

Rolling Feet to Top: Most weight off hands

Standing

Woohoo! Now you're standing on top of the world. What now? For starters, just try to stay there. At first, you may find you can only hold it for a few seconds. Once you can do fifteen seconds though, you will quickly be able to do fifteen minutes. If it seems hard, don't despair. If you're struggling to stay there, you'll feel your legs start to burn. You're engaging all sorts of smaller balancing muscles that you may not normally use — this is a great thing!

Now, let's get comfy up there. Once you can stand for a minute, it's time to start playing games and get to some exercises that more closely simulate skiing. Then again, this is so much fun, you may not even care about skiing anymore.

Games for Better Balance

You're up there, now what? Well, as it happens, I'm glad you asked, because there are some great little games to play.

• Have a partner walk around and talk to you and, as she does, follow her around. This is just a bit harder because your gaze is shifting. However, if you look at what your eyes are actually doing, they're stopping, moving, stopping, moving, using your peripheral vision to keep your friend in view. Take it up a level. Have your partner walk around and lock eyes with you. Now your gaze moves with the person. Feel how much harder that is? If you're a real champ, you can close your eyes, but that's really hard.
• Have someone hand you a medicine ball and just hold it over your head. Hold it straight out. Do presses with it.
• Still on the ball? Now have your partner throw something to you. A ski hat or a sock works fine. First the person should stand in front of you and throw to your center. As you get good at that, have your partner run back and forth, though still throwing to your center. Eventually, build up to having the person running back and forth throwing to your sides so you have to reach for it.
• Anyone can catch a sock, right? Now it's time to move up to a medicine ball. Ten pounds is good. Sixteen is better! First, get comfortable on the ball. Now have your partner walk up and hand you the medicine ball. Hand it back. Now your partner takes one step back and gently passes the ball to you. Eventually your partner can be standing ten feet away throwing as hard as he can. The key is that your partner must match your intensity. If he throws back as hard as you throw, it's easy to adjust. If he changes the intensity, it's much harder. Once you've got it, you can have your partner run back and forth as before, though with a heavy ball, you won't be able to stick it if he throws too far from your center.
• But this isn't impressive enough as a party trick is it? Take it up a notch by not using your hands at all. You now know about where your foot should go. Put it on the ball and just leap onto the ball. Make sure you have plenty of crash space for this one! Once you get it, though, it's actually probably the easiest way to get on the ball.

Let's go skiing!

What's all this have to do with skiing? Well, it helps your balance, strengthens some small secondary muscles that are important for balance legs and is a lot fun, so that's a like skiing already. But okay, you want ski-specific exercises. Try these:

• Start by doing some squats. Squat down until you can touch with your hands, and stand back up. Do sets of ten.
• Tuck it! This is the business. Very difficult, ski specific and fantastic for leg strength and balance. Basically, sink down into a classic dowhiller's tuck. Your thighs should be roughly parallel to the ground. Don't let your butt sag or stick up. Keep your gaze focussed to the front. Hold it for one minute if you can stand the leg burn and have the balance (it's harder than it sounds).
  
  

  Ball Tuck — Front

  Ball Tuck — Side

Don't stop there

There are so many games you can play while standing on the ball. Use your imagination.

• Start by lying on the ball on your stomach and move to standing without touching the floor.
• Close your eyes (very hard).
• Do a handstand (and send us a picture when you do!)