The Fastest Way to Improve Your Skiing? Film It

If you want to improve your skiing, you need to get video of your skiing. So this video is all about how to help the camera person and the skier shoot good video, make it worthwhile. We've got a few tips, so let's get into it.

I would go as far as saying that getting video of my own skiing has been one of the most helpful things to accelerate my own skiing journey and progress. So I tell this to all my students too, most of whom I work with remotely. I never get to ski with them in person. There's a big difference between the ones that actually do get video of their skiing versus the ones that don't. So the ones that video themselves accelerate and learn and improve constantly and throughout the season get so much better than the ones who don't take video and only rely on their feelings. And there's a big difference between real and feel. So this is the reason you need to get video, even if it's of a drill, of you freeskiing, whatever it is, get video, start comparing because you become a better self-learner as well. This is the other thing I find with video, you start to recognize the things that go wrong and you get better at it. If you don't do it, it's like your head is in the sand. So take these tips, get better video and become a better skier.

So the first bit is communication. You want to make sure that you as a skier and the cameraman knows What to do? The cameraman puts up his hand to make sure the camera is ready, and then the skier determines when to go by putting up his arm or pole. This because the skier has to decide when it's safe to go.

So the skier can also position the cameraman a little bit. You have to think of some signals, can be different for everybody. I like to do this if I want him to go that way, or this if I want him to go the other way.

Next, you want to consider terrain. So ideally you want a big wide open run that is easy to see the skier from top to bottom. The biggest mistake I find is filming in rolling terrain, and the reason for this is because the skier disappears from sight, so you don't really get the whole run filmed. The other awkward one is when you have sort of funny fall lines that are going to pull the skier off to one side or the other, so ideally wide open, consistent pitch, So what about if it's a really crowded run?

Well, I can tell you, skiers come in waves and it's always going to be quicker to wait 30 seconds, maybe a minute, than to go down to the chairlift and do another lap.

Next, let's have a look at some tips for when you're the camera person. I think a lot of people like to film it in portrait mode, but when you're skiing down, you know, you're skiing a lot like across the run in sort of a wayward motion, so it's a lot better to film it in like a landscape view like that.

And what about zoom? I prefer to zoom in the camera quite a bit and not touch it anymore, so I have an easier time focusing on the skier rather than having to zoom in and out during the run.

Now in terms of the camera settings, I set my iPhone to 4K high quality and 60 frames per second, and that's because if they're far away, 4K gets a bit more information, they don't look as grainy, and then the 60 frames means when you slow it down You can see more things going on. That's my preferred settings if you want to get into the details of getting better footage. Now, what about shaky footage? How do you avoid shaky footage?

Yeah, so I've certainly had some shaky footage in the past. I think a couple of important things are make sure you catch your breath when you come down, because if you're kind of like breathing really heavily, then the camera will be very shaky. I'd recommend holding with 2 hands like this. Make sure you're not covering the camera itself, and you can also tuck your elbows in And that'll sort of give you a bit of, like, a bit of an easier way to, like, hold it really steady.

What are the tips for the skier?

So a couple tips for the skier would be to go directly at the cameraman, and if you're going to pass the cameraman, pass him at the front and not in the back.

What about the confidence? Because people often get camera shy and ski worse.

If you find yourself camera shy, try to make a habit of filming yourself a lot with your friends and colleagues. So it becomes a routine and you'll get used to seeing yourself on a camera roll.

Yeah, I'd say also on that point, if you're a bit nervous, it can be good to just kind of take a big deep breath and like relax yourself because you don't want to ski too tense, like that will affect the way you're skiing. So like be aware of it and take a big deep breath.

Everybody except you has seen you ski. You may not like the video, but this is what is happening. This is how you get better.

Now my tip for confidence skiing in front of a camera is most of the time you're not doing it for Instagram. I get, I have to do that, the pressure. What you're doing it for is to improve, and so have one focus, like what am I trying to change? Am I trying to go faster? Am I trying to get more edge? Just keep that one focus in mind, and when you look at the video, you're just looking at it whether that thing has changed. So one focus, have that as an intention, and just and stick yourself on that and you won't get distracted with being camera shy.

Now all of these tips for the cameraman and the skier basically utilize what everyone has in their pocket nowadays, a camera phone like my iPhone here. That's all you really need. One thing I want to point out if you're using one of these is angles. So do we shoot from the side, from the front, or from the back? Well, really I think it's helpful to get footage of yourself from all these different places Because the different angles help you to see some different things. I think probably the best, most useful one is have the camera person halfway down a run and you ski towards them, past them, and then away. This way you get an idea of what it looks like from the front, the stance from the side, and then as they go away from the back, you see different things. Personally, when I'm skiing with friends and taking video, I like to swap phones with them And leapfrog. So for example, I might stand at the top, they ski away, halfway down they take out my phone, film me coming towards, past, and away, and then I film once more again them coming towards me. That way we all get a little bit of footage from all the different angles and can really see like a full 3-dimensional big picture of our skiing. The other really great angle is follow cam. It's one of my favorites. And with today's camera phones with built-in stabilization, you can get some fairly decent footage without needing a gimbal or someone with super steady hands. However, the skier needs to be quite skilled, confident, and be safe because they're going to be watching what the phone is doing as well as what's in front of them and the skier. So just be careful with that one. Follow cam footage is really nice because you feel up close and personal, and it's quite easy to see something constantly because you're almost at the same distance. The ski is not getting closer and then further away. You're, you're close the whole time, so you can see what the skis are doing on the snow perhaps a little bit better, and you get an idea of motion. It's funny, when you take video without follow cam, you'll always feel like you're going slower. Like, you look at the video and you go, wow, I'm moving really slow. Like, come on, pick it up. It's just the effect that video has. It also doesn't ever look as steep when you're just filming from far away. Now, what about if you haven't got a friend around to actually film you? Well, a few years ago I discovered 360-degree cameras, this Insta360 series where you have an invisible selfie stick so you can hold the camera out in front and it captures video in all dimensions, so it basically shoots back at you and you can see enough to analyze your own skiing. Has some drawbacks in that you've got to hold like your— the pole in one hand, so it can kind of make it awkward for pole planting. But overall, it is a super helpful way to be able to get video anytime you need. Plus, on the positive side, it actually helps you improve your balance because you've got to kind of learn to ski with a really steady hand. So it teaches you to keep a quiet upper body. So the Insta360 cameras are awesome. I'll leave a link below so you can check those out. They're also fantastic for giving to a friend because you can voice activate the recording. So without them having to take their gloves off, you can give them this camera, the pole, and they can just follow you. And because it's got AI stabilization and it captures everything, they don't need to be, uh, really great camera people. They just got to follow up fairly close, and you can get some side angle footage, whatever. And the skier holding the camera can still stay safe because They can focus on what they're doing and just hold the camera in the general direction. So Insta360 cameras, I think they're an absolute game changer when I found them. Highly recommend them if you don't have a friend around or if your friend has a shaky arm. I mean, I even gave this camera to my son when he was 5 years old to film me. I'll show a clip right now of, of what that looked like going down a run. So it's pretty much foolproof.

Alright, so that concludes our tips for getting video of yourself skiing. Make sure you do it, we've all done a ton of it and I think we can say it's helped our skiing, yes?

Yes, for sure.

What you feel and what you see can be totally different, the more you do it they get closer together. So save this video, check out the tips, get out there, practice as the cameraperson and the skier and it's going to help you become a better skier and have more fun on the snow. Speaking of that, let's go off, let's make some turns. See you next time.