Fore/aft balance is where your body sits along the length of your skis. PSIA's first skiing fundamental is controlling your center of mass over your feet to direct pressure along the ski, so 'staying forward' really means staying centered: hips over your feet, weight over the whole sole, and never settling back onto your heels and tails (the 'back seat'). It is not leaning onto your tips; folding too far forward is a fault too. The back seat also matters for safety, because it is part of the fall pattern linked to a common recreational knee injury. From the side, a camera can estimate whether your hips sit over or behind your feet; boots hide the ankle, so treat shin and ankle readings as a rough guide.
Shins on the tongues
Flex your ankles until your shins rest on the front of both boot tongues, and feel your weight spread over the whole sole of each foot, a touch toward the balls of your feet, not on your heels.
ankles bent into the tongues, heels not carrying the load.
Keep that shin contact light and steady. Don't crush the tongues and hold it. Contact is a guide to being centered, not the goal; pressing hard for long keeps you over-flexed and limits how well you can use your ankles.
a light touch you could keep all run.
Stay centered, not back
Stack your hips over your feet. Seen from the side, your head and shoulders sit over your hips, and your hips sit over your feet, not behind your heels.
hips over feet, not trailing behind.
Match your back angle to your shin angle. If your shins tilt forward but your torso stays upright, your hips drift back. Tip your chest forward until your back is roughly parallel to your shins.
back and shins leaning the same way.
Carry your hands forward and slightly out to the sides, where you can see them. Forward hands help keep your mass over your feet. If a turn pushes you onto your heels, reach forward to re-center.
hands in your side vision, never behind your hips.
Drive from the ankles
Bend your ankles, knees and hips together. Bending mostly at the hips puts you in a 'seated' position with your weight over the tails. Over-flexing the ankles and folding the torso too far does the opposite and pulls your weight over the ski tips.
all three joints soft, none doing all the bending.
Keep adjusting. Fore/aft balance is not one fixed pose. Use small ankle and leg movements to move back over the middle of your feet whenever the snow, the slope or a turn shifts you forward or back.
small corrections, never frozen.
Stay out of the back seat
Keep your hips above your knees and your arms forward. Vermont Ski Safety links a common recreational ACL injury (the 'phantom foot') to a fall where the skier is off balance to the rear, hips below the knees, uphill arm back and weight on the inside tail of the downhill ski. They also describe a second pattern: landing off balance to the rear, tails first, where the boot can drive the shin forward and tear the ACL.
hips over feet, hands in front.
If you feel yourself falling back, go: arms forward, feet together, hands over your skis. Don't fully straighten your legs as you fall, and don't try to get up until you've stopped sliding. Any knee pop or giving way: stop skiing and get it checked.
reach forward, not back.
Feel it
Shins lightly on the tongues, weight over the whole foot and not on your heels, hips over your feet, back roughly parallel to your shins, hands forward where you can see them. It should feel balanced and ready, not like leaning on the tongues. Signs you've slipped back: hands drifting behind you, weight sinking into your heels, a 'seated' feeling. Signs you've gone too far forward: chest folded down over your knees and weight piled onto the front of the skis.
Fix-its
- Sitting in the back seat: hips behind your feet, weight on your heels Feel your ankles flex into the tongues with your weight over the balls of your feet, and bring your hips back over your feet.
- Bent at the hips but upright in the boots (the 'seated' position) Bend the ankles too, so your shins move to the tongues and your hips come forward over your feet.
- Folded too far forward: ankles and chest over-flexed, weight over the tips Stand a little taller through the hips and torso until your back angle matches your shin angle.
- Leaning back and to one side, one ski tip lifting Keep your upper body steady and centered over your feet, facing down the slope. Pick a distant object to look at.
- Legs tiring fast from a low, crouched stance Stand fairly tall with a slight bend in every joint. A low stance tires your muscles quickly.
Drill
- Standing still on flat snow, rock slowly forward until you feel the tongues, back until you feel your heels, then settle in the middle with your weight over the whole foot.
- Straight run on a gentle slope with a flat runout: lean slightly forward and slightly back as you glide to find the center of your feet and skis, then hold the middle.
- Straight run, exaggerating flexing and extending your legs while staying centered over your feet.
- Straight run, lifting the tail of one ski off the snow, then the tip. Switch skis.
- Film a glide from the side. Check: hips over feet or behind, back angle vs shin angle, hands in front.
Sources
- PSIA — Skiing Fundamentals, from the 2014 Alpine Certification Standards (PSIA-NW handout)
- PSIA Education Foundation — Alpine Level I Study Guide, Steps 2 and 4: Walking, Stepping and Sliding; Straight Run (1996)
- PSIA-AASI Northwest — The Elements of Awesome Stance
- PSIA-NW (B. Jacobson) — Early Season Training with PSIA-NW Divisional Staff
- Vermont Ski Safety — Tips for Knee-Friendly Skiing
Last checked 2026-10-26.