Can You Learn How to Ski as an Adult? – Skiing is For Everyone!
Winter sports make for an interesting hobby, or even a profession. The only downside is that you have to wait for the winter season, in other words, snow, or even ice in the case of some ice-related sports.
Given that it’s the 21st century, people have found multiple ways of artificially creating snow and ice, thus making winter sports available if not at all times, then for an extended period of time.
Skiing is one of those sports that can be really fast and really dangerous (just think of Michael Schumacher, someone who is very used to speed, yet still ended up in a coma from a skiing accident), but also really tame and fun if you know what you’re doing.
This begs the question, can you learn skiing as an adult? Absolutely, but with caveats, of course.
Prerequisites – Physical Ailments
When you think of skiing, you think of really intensive movements which mostly target the knees. You can easily injure your knees with a wrong twist at high speeds. If you are someone with knee injuries, skiing might be really intensive for you, unless you offset that with strength from the quadriceps muscles. Mobility and flexibility is also encouraged, in order to allow the knees and muscles to make the necessary movements without a possibility of injury.
Working on your strength, mobility and flexibility is recommended at any age, but especially prior to starting a new sport such as skiing, which does put a lot of stress on the muscles and joints.
Mental State – Fear Versus Hype
Whether you are afraid of even stepping into your bindings or on the other hand, you can’t wait to try the steepest route, neither of those will bring you any good. Being calm, cool and collected, will help you learn the most while skiing or doing any other exercise. You must focus on what your instructor is telling, applying thoughts to the motions. Some of the motions might seem unnatural at first, but you will get the hang of it if you put your mind and body into exercising.
Leave your fears and excitements behind. Dangerous sports should be approached calmly and rationally.
Going with Friends Versus Going with an Instructor
Friends will be friends, said Freddie Mercury, and whilst friendly and good, they might not be the best skiing instructors. They might not know how to transfer their knowledge, even though they might be great at both skiing and being your friend. If you happen to have a friend who’s an excellent teacher, then it would be silly not to learn from them.
If they are not great teachers, then an instructor is necessary. You might pay a bit more or run into someone who is not in the best of moods, but you will still be learning from a professional. You should ask around for reviews and recommendations before going for the first available instructor.
Whether you want to learn from your friends or from a trained professional completely depends on you (and your friends and their teaching skills), but skiing as a sport, can be learned at any age, even over 70, if you are healthy and have a relatively normal sense of balance. Skiing is a sport for everyone.