Just watch! No legs – one leg – one ski only – the ski lifts them out of the turn and then at the very end there is a leg retraction. The only thing the “no leg” skiers can do is work with gravity (falling) and letting the ski lift them back up.
Derin today had her first ever snowplough lesson. Her ski instruction has always deliberately avoided the use of snowploughs until now. Snowploughs should only be used for teaching advanced movements or racing technique and the use of the plough is very different from the conventional approach. The approach today was based on the following model…
Snowplough (Centre of Mass)
The braking snowplough requires the adductors of both legs to be relaxed to open up the hip joints.
First turns are made by simply tightening the adductors in one leg only – to turn left it’s in the right leg. With narrower ploughs then the adductors of both legs should be engaged.
Weight is always maintained on whatever ski is furthest down the mountain so that it can act as an effective brake. Changes of pressure on any ski are due to geometrical effects between the skis and the slope angle – not “transfer of weight”.
Starting a turn when traversing the slope in a plough requires only a slight movement of the Centre of Mass toward the downhill ski. This ski then slowly feeds the skier into a controlled turn. When facing directly down the fall line, the body being held constantly toward the inside ski in the turn, ensures the outside ski can takeover the completion of the turn. The pressure changes on the skis are automatic – just move the Centre of Mass toward the centre of the intended turn and keep it there from start to finish.
In yesterday’s video Derin was lifting her inside ski when making short turns and was not managing to move across her downhill ski during turn completion ( just lifting it instead) despite her efforts to angulate, anticipate and lead with a strong pole plant. Today the unconventional snowplough was used to feed her body with the appropriate feeling of making the complete turn transition (from one turn to another) on the same downhill ski – by just moving her centre of mass and letting geometry do the rest.
In today’s video the snowplough is correct and working but there is still very little movement of the centre of mass. When eventually skiing parallel you can see that the turn completion with an up motion is achieved from the downhill ski – because it is never lifted up off the snow. This sensation is critical for eventually having control in bumps and off piste. We actually took the plough technique directly into some highly unpredictable off piste snow and it worked perfectly at a slow pace. We will do more of this to develop awareness and confidence.