Your Feet and Skiing

Tiny Moves, Giant Payoff

Most skiers spend a lot of time thinking about their legs, their core, or their skis… but almost no one thinks about what their feet are actually doing inside their boots.

And once you start paying attention, it can completely change the way you ski.

Your feet and ankles play a much bigger role on snow than most people realize. They help you read the terrain, control your edges, stay balanced, and steer through every turn.

Even though boots limit how much movement is available, the strength and mobility inside your foot still matter. They set the foundation for everything that happens farther up the chain.

Today, we’re breaking down how your feet function while skiing, the muscles involved, and a few simple things you can work on now to improve strength, balance, and control before your first day on snow!

How Your Feet Work While You Ski

There are four main roles your feet and ankles play:

1. They connect you to the snow

Your feet sense vibration, snow texture, ice, and subtle changes in terrain. Those signals help you react quickly and adjust before the rest of your body even knows what is happening.

2. They help you balance

Tiny movements in your feet prevent you from needing giant corrections at the hips or upper body.

The small intrinsic muscles inside your foot make micro-adjustments that keep you centered over your skis, even when the snowpack changes.

3. They help set your edges

Edge engagement starts at the feet. We move the foot in many ways, in every turn we evert, pronate, and externally rotate 1 foot and invert/internally rotate and supinate the other foot.

Those movements continue up to the knee, the femur, and the hip, but the initiation happens down at the foot.

4. They contribute to steering

Part of your turning comes from rotation within the foot and ankle. Even with boots limiting movement, the muscles inside the foot still help guide the skis through the arc.

Muscles Outside the Foot That Impact Your Skiing

Several muscles in the lower leg act on the foot. These play a big role in edging, pressure control, and staying forward in your boots.

The Peroneus Longus

This muscle helps evert the foot.

Think “inside ski inverts, outside ski everts.”

When you tip your skis onto their edges, this muscle helps start that movement.

A fun fact from recent research: the wider your skis are, the more this muscle works during turn initiation.

The Tibialis Anterior

This is the muscle on the front of your shin that pulls your toes up toward your nose.

It helps you close the ankle joint and get into a forward, pressure-ready position at the top of the turn.

If you lack ankle mobility or tibialis strength, two things can happen:

1. Your heel can lift inside the boot.

2. You compensate by hinging forward at the hips instead of flexing at the ankle.

   
   

Many skiers who struggle to “get forward” are actually limited by their ankles, not their technique. Improving ankle mobility and tibialis strength can make a massive difference.

Muscles Inside the Foot

The intrinsic muscles inside your foot act like fine-tuning tools. They control tiny adjustments that keep you stable so your hips and knees don’t have to work overtime.

A few key ideas:

“Eagle clawing” the toes pushes you into the back seat

Some skiers grip with their toes inside the boots for stability.This pulls pressure off the ball of the foot and shifts weight backward, making it harder to initiate clean turns.

The big toe and little toes should move independently

If you can lift your big toe without lifting the others (and switch back and forth), you have good intrinsic control.If not, practicing this daily will help strengthen the foot and improve balance on snow.

Toe strength improves balance

Research shows that stronger toes reduce fall risk in older adults.For skiing, stronger toes help you stay centered, respond quicker, and connect more efficiently with your skis.

Actionable Steps to Improve Your Skiing

1. Work on calf flexibility

Stretch with both a bent leg and a straight leg to target different muscles in the calf group.Aim for about 10 total minutes of stretching per muscle group per week.

2. Strengthen the tibialis anterior

Simple exercises like toe lifts or controlled dorsiflexion help improve your ability to get forward in your boots.

3. Train intrinsic foot strength

Spend a few minutes practicing toe control or using towel scrunches and foot doming exercises.These help you maintain pressure through the ball of your foot instead of gripping with your toes.

4. Spend time barefoot or in different footwear

Changing the environment your foot moves in helps strengthen it naturally.

5. After every ski day, give your feet attention

A quick calf stretch and a few foot strength drills can make a noticeable difference for the next morning on snow.

Want more help preparing for ski season?

Our 8 Week Ski Ready Program is open and I would love to have you join!

It is designed to build the exact strength, mobility, balance, and endurance you need for a confident and powerful ski season.

Have a WILDR day!