The shifty in skiing: twist skis and hips about 90° against the upper body in flight and untwist before landing. Progression, mistakes and a safe landing.
A shifty is a trick in flight: you twist skis and hips about 90° against the upper body, hold the twisted position briefly and untwist before landing. The honest answer to “What’s the point?”: the shifty is your entry into controlling your position in the air. Whoever can do it safely has laid the foundation for all twisted tricks.
For shifty technique there is no verified study that I could read. The steps are practice knowledge. The safety side, by contrast, is well documented, and here it matters more than technique: the shifty needs a jump, and jumps are risky.
How hard is it? It requires a clean straight air as a prerequisite, plus body tension and orientation in the air. How long you need, no study tells. Plan weeks of ground drills and hops before you go airborne – that is experience, not a study value.
Stand on flat ground, twist hips and legs about 90° to the left or right while the shoulders point forward. Twist back. Milestone: standing, you twist back and forth 20 times without tipping. Number and angle are experience, not a study value.
Hop lightly on flat terrain, twist in the hop, land straight again. Milestone: you land the hops five times in a row with both skis parallel.
Find a small roller without a take-off edge and repeat the hop with a shifty twist. Milestone: you land with both skis straight in the direction of travel.
The FIS code requires you to look at the terrain beforehand and have a plan [1]. Choose the smallest kicker in the park that you already land safely as a straight air. Milestone: you land the shifty cleanly five times in a row before you make anything bigger.
How small is small enough? Small enough that you still have time in the air to think about the landing, and that a mistake looks like a harmless thud (practice). If you wonder whether the kicker is too big, it is.
The decisive part: twist skis and hips back into the direction of travel before touching down. This is the part that decides between a fall and a landing.
Try the shifty on the ground first – with video. Stand on a flat surface, do the twist and twist back, and film yourself from the front. Do you see the shoulders pointing forward while the legs are at 90°? That is the position. Exactly this position you practise on the ground before going into the air (practice).
Second trick: look at the landing spot while still in the air. Whoever turns the head early in the direction of travel pulls shoulders, hips and skis back more easily. This is a practice cue, not a study value.
A trick in flight where you twist skis and hips about 90° against the upper body and untwist before landing. The shifty is the entry into twisted positions in the air and requires a secure straight air on a small jump.
On the ground, then with hops on flat terrain, then on a flat roller and only last on the smallest kicker that you already land safely as a straight air. The FIS code requires you to stabilise skills before moving on and to look at the terrain beforehand [1].
Yes, as soon as you want to go airborne, because you need a jump. The precursors you practise on the piste. In the park injuries are more severe than on the piste, with a higher risk for head (1.31) and back (1.96); so wear a helmet and start with the smallest kicker [3].
Untwist skis and hips in time, keep your knees bent and avoid backseat with a straight leg – a known ACL mechanism. You can deliberately tense your leg muscles on landing: in a pilot study freestyle squad skiers managed this when instructed to [4][5].
Press: Nose and Tail Press on Snow First, Then on the Box