My newly discovered love of skiing with buckles undone

[bounceswoosh]

I was first exposed to the instructor trick of making you ski with your boots unbuckled almost two decades ago. I didn't like it. I felt crazy out of control, and it just seemed pointless.

Since then, all the people I know who do this regularly are so far out of my league that it never even registered as a thing I could try. "Sure, s/he can do it, but their skiing is in a different stratosphere than mine."

Fast forward to yesterday. When an instructor I trust had us ski with boots unbuckled, I sighed, but gave it a try. It wasn't easy at first, but it wasn't horrific, either. He said that all of our stances improved when we couldn't rely on our boots so much. He also said that he skied absolutely everything with his boots unbuckled for four months one year.

The real eye-opener came when he had us doing 360 degree spins. I've been able to flip around to ski switch, but never smoothly continue the arc to face forward again. I thought, jeez, I can't even do this with my buckles tight - how am I going to do this with no control?? Well, guess what - I did a spin for the first time ever. Just a tiny assist from my pole. It felt amazing. And I finally understood what my instructor meant about skiing without buckles forcing us to get into a more neutral stance. A whole-foot stance. I was able to spin because I wasn't catching an edge from being unbalanced.

This morning, I did all of my warmup runs with my buckles undone. The eye-opener came when I skied the same run again with my boots buckled. Not only was I skiing it more smoothly than with my boots undone (duh), but I was skiing it more smoothly than I had the day before on warmup, or really ever. Unbuckling those boots really did help with my stance.

Today was full of more buckle-free skiing - with drills added on. No buckles plus shuffling. No buckles plus compression, extension, and "showing the tattoo." Obviously you can add any drill on top of undoing your buckles.

From now on, if I do a warmup before my "real" skiing, it's going to be with boots unbuckled. That's how my instructor said he started, the same blue I've been warming up on, and then he gradually worked into more and more.

I will admit that I have Intuition wrap liners, so even with my boots unbuckled, I have some support. Not much I can do about that. But the thing that's great about this drill is that you don't have to remember exactly how it works or wonder if you're doing it right - you just flip open your boots and ski, and you see where that takes you. It's also pretty great because it gives your feet and legs a break. And I figure it will also make me less of a prima donna about having my boots buckled perfectly throughout the day.

 

[snow addict]

Yes, it's amazing for a stance. We also skied with boots strapped together at a fixed distance. And totally true about making you less fussy about buckles

 

[bounceswoosh]

I *should* mention - I've been ungodly sore the last two days, and I'm pretty sure it's from skiing without my buckles. You have to actually be active.

 

[bounceswoosh]

We also skied with boots strapped together at a fixed distance.

/faint

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Awesome news. Sounds like an excellent rediscovery and a great exercise as part of your daily warm up. I should probably wait until I get my boot issues resolved before I try this as I have enough issues with my feet with the boots fully buckled. I fainted a little bit inside at the thought of skiing with my boots strapped together.

 

[santacruz skier]

It's a great drill skiing with boots unbuckled... have done it in clinics years ago. Now sometimes I find myself doing it by accident after fiddling /unbuckling boots at chairlift, then forgetting until I get to bottom of run. Then next run is so smooth with boots buckled. What a concept.

 

[VickiK]

Interesting, I'd always thought that it was dangerous to ski with unbuckled boots.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Interesting, I'd always thought that it was dangerous to ski with unbuckled boots.

It sure could be, especially if you're not used to it. I am an "everything on the mountain" skier and was only doing this (so far) on groomer blues. Our instructor made it clear that we could choose not to do this if we didn't feel comfortable with it. It slows down response times in a lot of ways, but I found myself skiing more slowly, in general. After a few runs I was pretty capable of hockey stopping even with boots unbuckled.

One thing I also tried that gives me most of the feeling: all unbuckled and undone (even the strap), but put the ankle buckle on the lightest possible setting. And that way you don't risk your skis falling off while you're riding the lift ;-)

 

[altagirl]

I have skied with my boots in walk mode and mostly unbuckled for years. I regularly have helpful people point both out to me.

 

[altagirl]

And I do the same where there just enough buckles done so they won't actually fall off my feet.

 

[contesstant]

I do think I also rely on my boots WAY too much to do a lot of the work for me. I am going to start doing this, at least buckle them very loosely to start. One thing that I really don't like about Snowbasin is there is not a mid-to-lower mountain easy blue cruiser. It's top to bottom or top to mid but with some steepish/wild pitches in there to boot. I miss my Mammoth blue cruisers for stuff like this...

I'll be curious to see if some of your fit woes will be resolved by this, too. Again, I think some of us (me being a huge culprit) probably rely on our boots too much to kind of prop us up.

 

[bounceswoosh]

I'll be curious to see if some of your fit woes will be resolved by this, too.

Me, too. If nothing else, it should give me an hour or whatever of full circulation to help with warmth ;-)

 

[Bluestsky]

Since I'm still in the process of packing out my performance fit boots I leave the front buckles are undone, but ankle, top and strap are tight. But the concept of helping to optimize the stance by skiing 'all loose' makes sense. I'll suggest it to my instructor.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Since I'm still in the process of packing out my performance fit boots I leave the front buckles are undone, but ankle, top and strap are tight. But the concept of helping to optimize the stance by skiing 'all loose' makes sense. I'll suggest it to my instructor.

I have this funny feeling this will come back to bite me somehow ;-)

 

[Bluestsky]

Hehehe...he might just say it's a good suggestion and we'll do it when you advance to the next level :-)
Regardless, I'll try to do that on my own.

 

[Skier31]

It is a great exercise for people who leverage against the front of their boots.
If your boots are unbuckled, it is much difficult to push against the front of boot.

Bob Barnes talks about shin contact with the front of the boot and calf contact with the back of the boot as an optimal position.

Glad people are finding it helpful.

 

[bounceswoosh]

I would definitely caution to try this on terrain where you are *very* comfortable to start. We, as a (ostensibly) level 9 class (all terrain, all conditions), did our first run this way on a blue so mellow it could almost be a green. Later I did it on a just slightly steeper blue (Springmeyer). Some of our class left their boots unbuckled for the bumps on Peerless and High A; I wasn't ready for that yet.

 

[snow addict]

This thread saved my day today. No idea why but both feet were cramping today. Out of the blue, very good ski day yesterday and nothing has changed but once I clipped into bindings and started moving it got painful. So after the first really awkward run as i was contemplating throwing in the towel I remembered about this thread and opened up my boots which removed any issues - my boots are usually buckled very loosely but it was just not it today. Still bailed after about 2 hours, but had some good turns at least.

 

[pinto]

My first day of this season was spent in my wimpy little AT boots, and I forgot to put the tongues in. I thought I was going to just fall over, at first, but after a couple of runs it felt really good to get all balanced and everything.

My thighs were quite sore the next day, though, and that doesn't usually happen.

 

[altagirl]

Honestly, this is one of the things I like about tele gear. I rarely drop a knee, but having to use my muscles to maintain my balance seems to work better on my body than having rigid gear where my joints take more abuse.