Tips and tactics to improve your Water Skiing

Image credit: SportSG

Water skiing is a sport that can be very challenging for beginners. With the differing speeds of the towboats and the shortening of the rope, it can be difficult for beginners to get a hang of things. Here are some tips to improve your water skiing.

Starting

After the participant has gotten into an upright position, it is important to keep a balanced stance in order to last as long as possible and complete the course. One should keep in mind to align the head with the hips. He should also square his shoulders and knees in order to maintain a balanced and strong stance.

Turning

Turning in water skiing looks very challenging, but can be easily done once one learns the proper technique. The first thing that the participant should do is to lean his weight onto his front feet, before turning. Once done, he should then gradually turn towards the direction he wants to go, putting more weight to that direction. For instance, if he wishes to make a right turn, he should lean towards the right.

Another tip for improving your turns is to ease the weight and pressure of the foot that is in the same direction you want to turn. For example, if you want to turn left, you ought to lean more weight and pressure on the right foot. This method is especially useful for skiers using two skis.

Participants also should aim to keep their muscles as relaxed as possible when turning, as tense muscles can affect the angle which the skis turn. They should let their arms fall away from the body, instead of keeping them tightly locked near the body.

Once the turn has been completed and the participant is attempting to go back into a balanced, upright position, he should take care to slowly ease into that position. Moving too fast into an upright position can cause one to be unbalanced, as well as exhaust more energy.

Jumping

In Jump water skiing, participants should keep their skis shoulder width apart, while bending their ankles forward. Next, they should bend their knees, keeping in mind to let the knees be bent further than the ankles, before bending the waist slightly. While holding on to the handle, one should make sure the elbows are lower than the waist.

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