Why To Use Ski & Snowboard Simulators
Using Ski Simulators to Learn to Ski
For lots of people, the idea of going on a skiing holiday is terrifying. It's not just the thought of sliding down a mountainside, but having to learn to ski whilst out there, particularly if you're going with people who already know how to ski.
These fears are understandable, but they don't have to stop you going on, or enjoying skiing holidays. By using a ski simulator, you can effectively learn how to ski before ever touching down on the slopes, easily removing the fear of embarrassment.
Sure, there are dry ski slopes, but they don't effectively simulate the feeling of being on a real slope, certainly not as effectively as a ski simulator.
What a ski simulator offers that dry slopes, or even indoor snow centres don't, is a realistic simulation of the g-forces Alpine skiers experience. As such, ski simulators are a much better way of learning to ski before embarking on your first skiing holiday.
Not only are they good for learning to ski, but because they simulate the experience of skiing so well, they also help build up your muscles to get used to skiing. So by the time you hit the slopes on your first skiing holiday, you'll be able to get your money's worth out of your lift pass, rather than getting tired out by unfamiliar movements.
By the same token, once you've been on your first skiing holiday and are hooked on the sport, maintaining use of a ski simulator means that you can keep up your muscle tone, fitness and technique all year round. The more you train on a simulator, the less tired you'll get when you're actually on the slopes, and the better you are at skiing, the more you'll enjoy your skiing holiday.
Nothing will compare to skiing on the real thing, but for the novice skier worried about how they'll get on, using a ski simulator can make a tremendous difference to your confidence, and once you've got the hang of it, the simulator can help ensure you have the best possible time on your next skiing holidays too.
How Ski Simulators Can Help You Train for More Difficult Ski Resorts
The scope for using ski simulators to learn to ski is clear. However, they are also useful for people who are already fairly proficient skiers, but want to improve their skills so they can tackle more difficult ski resorts.
As any skier already knows, the slopes at any given ski resort are stubbornly individual and the difficulty level of skiing there changes in tandem. Some resorts like Kitzbuhel, are far better suited to intermediates than anything else, not having the nursery slopes to really make it easy to learn to ski, and not providing quite enough thrills for the more advanced skier. Others, like France's Alpe d'Huez are large enough to provide slopes to suit pretty much any skill level.
This difference in difficulty level of different ski resorts is largely down to nature. After all, it's the mountain itself that is difficult or easy to ski down.
Skiing holidays can be very expensive, and so anyone who wants to become a better skier, and go to a more advanced resort for whatever reason; whether it be that the scenery is supposed to be amazing, or just because they want to become a better skier. Rather than taking innumerable trips to Kitzbuhel or similar to really master the intermediate slopes, before moving on to somewhere more advanced, ski simulators provide an excellent way of training to improve skills and endurance between ski holidays.
Once you've mastered the slopes at a resort known to be good for learning, or even for intermediate, a ski simulator offers the chance to train your muscles to get used to harder slopes, but also to learn better techniques, and to maintain them when they might otherwise start to get lost between trips abroad. They are much better than just going to a dry slope, as they much more accurately simulate the stresses and strains involved in skiing down a harder slope such as the black runs you find at some ski resorts.
Using a ski simulator in this way is particularly useful for anyone who wants to go on a ski holiday with friends who are more proficient skiers. It offers the opportunity to really improve on skills and endurance so you can join them on the more difficult slopes at whatever ski resort they favour.
