Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) Level 2 Practice Exam

In initiation, the movement should come from the lower body and the edge change, while the upper body stays quiet and stacked over the feet. A very common beginner error is allowing the upper body to rotate excessively during the start of the turn. This twists the torso and shoulders ahead of the feet, making it hard to feel and engage the new edge and often leading to skidding or a late, unstable start to the turn. The remedy is to keep the chest and shoulders still, maintain a balanced, quiet upper body, and start the turn by guiding the hips and letting the skis roll onto the new edge. In practice, think about initiating from the hips and using the edges rather than pulling the shoulders into the turn first. Other issues like excessive knee bending, delaying the edge engagement, or leaning back address different problems and don’t target the common initiation flaw as directly as this approach.