“Believe that you’re going to get to the next buoy,” says Geena Krueger, who is ranked 4th in the world on the Elite Rankings List. “It’s vital to be 100 percent in the moment.” Things happen fast in the slalom course. But just because you have a botched turn doesn’t mean you’re out of the game. Take this photo sequence of Krueger turning four ball at 35 of from last year’s California Pro Am for example. You would have never thought that she’d be able to recover from such a turn. But she remained calm and focused on keeping her ski moving cross course, and completed the pass. “If you’re on the tail of the ski then the handle is probably going to be high and you’re going to have slack,” says Krueger. “Stay strong!”
Krueger says developing really strong legs, glutes, and a core foundation will definitely help when you get behind in the course. In addition to doing a lot of one-legged squats she recommends that your “core workouts entail some sort of balancing act or distraction that requires your entire body to be engaged, such as squatting on a Bosu Ball while doing rotational twists with a fitness band.” Next time you get folded out of a turn and the handle gets away from you follow Krueger’s advice: “I try to use my legs a much as possible! I squat really low, which allows me to keep my back relatively straight and strong. I try to keep the ski moving in front of me while simultaneously trying to reconnect my hips to the handle.”
