First off, for skis, the best skis will have stiff-ish tails, but a pretty even flex throughout the entire ski (no 'hinge' points). A slightly softer tip, and plenty of tip rocker will help a lot as well.
Here's a few tips:
1) Analyze the slope angle of the take-off and landing. The easiest will be a near-straight take-off, and a steepish landing, with a runout that slowly transitions to flat. The hardest will be a downhill takeoff to a near-flat landing. Your take-off speed will amplify the difficulty, here. Think about how your direction of travel (take-off slope angle) will change the speed at which you impact the landing zone (the effective directional speed, perpendicular to the landing slope angle).
2) Get a little bit of speed before you launch, but not too much. Stop-and-plop is much harder to land than when you have some downhill momentum, but a high speed take-off can get you going too fast on landing. Just a little bit of downhill momentum is usually enough.
3) If you can, squat down before take-off and pop off a bit on take-off. The more you control how you enter the air, the more control you have once you're in the air. This will also help take your mind off of the fear when you see over the edge. A lot of people will lean back on take-off out of fear. This is a reaction, not an intentional movement. Don't do it! Commit!
4) On take-off, have your arms stretched out away from you. It will help you keep your weight forward. You can bring them back towards your body once you're in the air if you want, or leave them out there for landing if it's a small huck (see #6).
5) For larger hucks, after the pop, bring your legs back up to your body. It will help keep you aerodynamic and avoid being pushed out of position/control by air resistance.
6) For landings, extend your legs at the last minute and compress them as you impact. Use your lower body as a shock absorber, like you would in a mogul run. During this manuever, really make sure you have your arms (and weight) forward. This will make sure that your legs compress into your chest, without throwing your weight backwards and pushing you into a backslap. This is very important, as your legs compressing into your chest will absorb a HUGE amount of impact force, much more than you can absorb solely with your leg muscles. It also helps with reducing the impact forces on your spine. Don't worry about catching a knee to the chest - it really doesn't happen.
7) When you land, keep your chin up and be looking at your next few turns. Not only will this prepare you for a fluid landing into your next few turns, but it will also help avoid catching a knee to the face (do not look down!). Also, keep your jaw clenched or wear a mouthguard for bigger drops. You do NOT want to bite through your tongue or lips. If I feel like going big that day, I usually keep a mouthguard in my ski jacket pocket for quick access.
8) You generally want your tails to hit first, in order to lay your tips down gently, without burying them in the soft snow. You'll do this NOT by leaning back (big no-no), but by dropping your heels (or lifting your toes). As you land, you'll rotate your ankles forward, so that the tips come down gently - the impact of your tails first will do this to some extent, automatically. Skis with soft tails will make this more difficult, as they'll fold up on you and you'll end up wheeling out. If you land too tail-heavy, you'll likely backslap, but this is a lot better than going over the bars and tomahawking. Once you get used to hucking, this is THE hardest part of the technique to dial-in, in my opinion - getting your balance just right, and landing somewhat on your tails, without backslapping/wheeling, but not too tip-heavy that you go over the bars. The softer and deeper the snow, the more difficult this is to do (but the less backslapping hurts, so most people err on this side of the coin - the ultimate 'I give up' move is a butt-check or back-check).
9) The harder the snow, the less you'll want to land tails first. With hardpack landings, you'll be landing with the angle of the ski pretty much equal to the angle of the slope (no tails first!!!), perhaps even almost tips-first - you want your weight forward to be in the attack stance the minute you land. The idea here, is that it's impossible to bury your tips into hardpack, and the last thing you want to do on hardpack is backslap and be trying to get out of the backseat while scrubbing speed. This is a perfect recipe for a backwards twisting fall and a torn ACL.
10) The flatter the landing, the steeper the take-off, and the faster you're going, the more you'll want to land tails first. Use your tails to help absorb the impact. The best example of this, is Eric Hjoriliefson's last POV. The line starts at 1:50 and ends around 2:05:
http://unofficialnetworks.com/bc-spines-eric-hjorleifson-pov-48470/
In the last air of the triple, he's coming in super hot with a steep take-off and a flatter landing. Right before impact, you see him drop his tails very aggressively. His shadow shows exactly the form you need to have when stomping a drop like that, taking most of the impact on the tails of your skis, and possibly backslapping.
His shadow in the first two airs of that line actually show pretty good examples of how you should compress on landing, with your head up, arms forward and knees coming into your chest.
Trampoline practice will help with your absorption technique, but won't do much else for you. Foam pits will help your take-off skills (the pop and controlling how you enter the air), but won't do much else for you. Honestly, if you understand the basic principles, the best thing to do is just get out there and do it in snow with your skis on. Don't waste time on trampolines or foam pits. Don't overthink it, as hucking talent is almost all muscle memory and practice, there's very little technique to be taught until you start hucking over ~40', where the forces are large enough on impact that you'll need to learn how to land without getting hurt in case the landing isn't quite what you thought it was going to be.
Edited by Brian Lindahl - 8/9/12 at 12:37pm
