ISIA Speed Test Technique: Carving When It Counts

Technical skiing is the foundation the whole test is built on. It’s the first of the six TTPPEE factors for a reason: if your skiing can’t hold a clean line at speed, no amount of tactics, fitness or fancy equipment will rescue the time. Good ISIA Speed Test technique isn’t about looking pretty on the piste; it’s about carrying speed through a giant slalom course without scrubbing it away.

Speed comes from a clean turn, not from pushing harder

The single biggest misunderstanding we see is that speed comes from effort. It doesn’t. Speed in GS comes from a clean, carved turn that finishes early and lets the ski run between gates. Skiers who try to force the issue by pushing, twisting or hauling the ski round end up skidding, and a skidded turn is a slow turn. The faster you want to go, the cleaner and more patient the turn usually has to be.

Strip it back and the technical job is three things working together: carving cleanly so the ski cuts rather than slides, managing the pressure that builds through the turn so the ski grips when you need it most, and controlling the edge so you can adjust your line without breaking the arc. Get those three honest and consistent and you have the engine the rest of the test runs on. They’re also what lets you read and ski a smart race line, because you can’t ski a good line with technique that won’t hold it.

The two faults we fix most often

1. Not enough weight on the outside ski, especially early

This is the fault we correct more than any other. When your weight isn’t committed to the outside ski early in the turn, it becomes very difficult to release the turn early, and the whole turn shape goes slow. It usually traces back to how the edge angle is being created. The fix is to roll the ski onto its edge at the very start of the turn and move your weight onto the outside ski early, before the ski is pointing down the fall line. Done right, pressure starts building on that outside ski nice and early, which sets you up to execute a powerful, fast turn rather than a rushed, skidded one.

The movement that makes it possible lives in the ankles: you need flexion and tension there to roll both skis accurately onto their edges at the beginning of the turn. We build this on shallower terrain with a garland exercise, so you can repeatedly rehearse an accurate, intentful start to the turn without the pitch rushing you. Groove that start, and everything downstream gets easier.

2. Getting caught in the back seat

The second recurring fault is letting yourself get pushed into the back seat, with your weight too far back. It typically happens as the skis point down the fall line and accelerate: the ski surges forward and the skier gets left behind. The answer is to anticipate that acceleration and move with it: stay forward, keep shin contact with the front of the boot, and hold a strong core as the ski heads into the fall line so your shoulders and hips don’t get left behind. Stay over your feet through the fall line and you keep the ability to work the ski all the way through the turn.

Drills we actually use

One of the simplest ways to encourage weight on the outside ski is the outside pole drag, dragging both poles through transition. It keeps the skis grounded through transition and helps you create a powerful build phase into the next turn, rather than floating from one turn to the next with no pressure.

To feel pressure management itself, we’ll often slow the turn right down in a snowplough. Skiing slow, deliberate plough turns lets you feel the lighter and heavier phases of the turn and learn to influence them by stretching and bending the legs. It sounds basic, but that same skill of controlling when the ski is loaded and when it’s light is exactly what higher-performance pressure management is built on.

The real test: when the snow turns nasty

Here’s the part that catches good skiers out. Plenty of instructors carve beautifully on a soft, grippy morning piste. The speed test won’t always hand you that. When the course is firm, rutted and icy, good-enough technique starts to skid and the time vanishes. The skiers who pass are the ones whose carving holds up precisely when the conditions get tough: clean edge grip and pressure control that don’t desert them on ice. If your technique only works in nice snow, that’s not really a pass-standard technique yet. Training in firm, demanding conditions on a real race surface is how you build the version that holds.

It has to be repeatable

One good turn isn’t the goal. The goal is a good turn you can repeat under pressure, gate after gate, on tired legs. That’s where the technical factor meets the physical one: clean technique that collapses by the bottom of the course won’t get you the time. The aim is efficient, sustainable skiing that looks the same on the last gate as the first.

How we build ISIA Speed Test technique

Technique is best built on the right terrain, in the right conditions, with eyes on your skiing. On our ISIA Speed Test camps we use video feedback, targeted drills and full GS sets on proper race snow to groove carving that holds up when it counts, and we’ll be honest about what’s working and what isn’t. If your technical foundation is solid, the rest of the test has something to stand on. Get in touch to talk through where your skiing is now.