When it comes to downhill Step Turns, you may find your confidence lags behind your skill. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, it’s better to be safe than to get sidelined by injury.

But it can feel disappointing to get to the bottom of a hill and realise it was within your abilities to ski the hill more aggressively, if only you could build up your nerve. If that’s you, and you often snowplow when you could have step turned, then try this simple mental trick.

Count Your Steps

Tell yourself to count your steps. That’s the goal. The goal is not about taking a certain number of steps. It’s about the task of counting. Zero is fine. One is fine. Two is fine, and so on. Be completely neutral and non-judgemental. Just count.

The magic happens when your brain has something else to think about and has less space to think about feeling scared.