Skimetric Academy

Adalbert Leibetseder is a passionate man. An extreme
perfectionist by nature, he is fascinated (you might even say obsessed) by the desire to transform every skier who walks through his door into a skier who can perform at the absolute peak of their ability.

The problem, he believes, is that each one of us has a unique
body alignment which means that we all stand differently on ski equipment that is mass produced. The solution, he says, is "to bring ground zero up to the level of the sole of the foot".

Travelplan director Toby Withers completed the Skimetric
programme at Mount Hotham this month.

Adalbert's method is threefold. Firstly, he analyses our natural stance and balance on each foot, and our current skiing style. Toby stood in a variety of positions, on both feet and then on each in turn whilst Bert took notes. Then they went outside and skied one run together. Bert watched Toby from every angle and recorded his turns on video.

Secondly, he counters any anomalies (and most of us have them!) in our alignment using supportive remedial aspects and ski-specific custom footbeds so that every one of us stands on our skis with the same perfect alignment. He guarantees this to within 1/10 of a degree. Toby's right foot was 2.5% pronated and his left foot 5%. After Bert had finished creating individual
platforms for each of Toby's feet, Toby felt unstable in his new position on his skis.

Finally, and crucially, Bert then shows us how to ski again. Our muscle memories have spent as long as we have skied compensating for our structural imperfections and Bert takes time to help retrain our confused muscles to the newly adjusted position in which we no longer need to make
unnecessary movements to compensate for our natural misalignment.

Toby is an expert skier, but for the first few turns he looked like a beginner. That didn't last long though. Pretty quickly, his muscles adjusted to the new set-up and realised that they actually had a far easier job now that the correct skeletal position was going to absorb the forces of skiing
for them!

I used to be able to carve as fast as Toby. Now I can't. The Skimetric programme has bumped him up to another level: he actually now looks like a professional ski racer...

...and I am booked in for the Skimetric treatment at Mount Hotham in a month's time.

Often it is something very tiny which prevents us from being the best we can be. An ever-so-slight pronation of one foot for example, which weakens the left hand turn. But in Bert's hands, these kinks can be ironed out; and the results are dramatic, whatever your level of skiing. Bert's own skiing style is flawless, making him a compelling advert for his own programme. Over
the last 40 years he has clocked up a stunning array of racing wins and instructing awards in his native Austria, the USA and Australia.

Photos and article courtesy of Lowdy Brabyn