Short Turns

Part of the key to advanced skiing is versatility: having a large assortment of different techniques to deal with differing conditions. You can now build on your basic parallel turns to provide yourself with a short radius turn for narrow or steep slopes. If you practice this material, you should be able to hug the fall line, performing linked short swings, one turn flowing into the next.

Anticipation puts your body under torsion which starts to unwind the moment your skis are unweighted.

Anticipation is a powerful technique for making the initiation of your turns more fluid, powerful and balanced. A simple analogy is that of your body as a spring. When you anticipate, your shoulders and upper body face down the fall line, committed to the turn, while the pressure on your edges keeps your skis and hips tracking across the fall line. This puts your body under torsion, tightening the muscles of your abdomen.

The moment you plant your pole and unweight your skis, the spring unwinds to relieve this muscular tension, steering your skis towards the fall line and initiating your turn. A critical ingredient of this is the pole plant, which times the unweighting and helps you to balance.

If anticipation consists of winding up the body's spring and using its release to initiate your turns, counter-rotation takes this one stage further. You actually use the muscles of your abdomen and thighs to inject power into your steering. This means rotating your skis strongly one way while your upper body rotates the other way to compensate (hence the name).

Make sure that you don't overdo it. It is easy to fall into the habit of unweighting and throwing the skis round by counter-rotating every turn. This is ugly and tiring, and will slow down your progress.

Counter-rotation uses the muscles of the abdomen to accelerate the unwinding.

Anticipation

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Preturn

You are now ready to introduce rebound unweighting into your parallel skiing. The mechanism for achieving this is called a preturn check. This is a quick, aggressive swing to the hill, which sets your downhill ski's edge and provides the power for rebound unweighting. A preturn also serves to introduce anticipation into your skiing.

The pre-turn parallel is a direct development of the skills you have learnt in the downhill stem turn: the only difference is that the skis remain parallel throughout, with the uphill ski shadowing the edge set of the downhill ski.

Start in the standard traverse stance.	Flex down to release your downhill edge and perform a quick, aggressive swing to the hill. Keep your shoulders facing downhill, anticipating the turn. As your edges check, plant your pole.
Rebound and begin your turn, rolling your skis onto their inside edges and into the fall line.	Continue to turn in a controlled, parallel skid. Keep your weight firmly over your outside ski.
As you complete the turn look ahead and anticipate your next pre-turn.

Tip

• The sharper and more aggressive the preturn check, the more effective the rebound unweighting.

Downhill Stem Turn

SPEEDING UP THE START OF YOUR TURN

Recreational skiers utilising the downhill stem turn.

Short radius, or short swing turns involve turning your skis quickly, and that means very pronounced unweighting. One way might be to perform such exaggerated up-unweighting that you are practically jumping off the snow. A far more effective method is to master rebound unweighting, which uses your edges and forward momentum to provide the power. Not only is this less effort, but it also allows you to introduce a strong rhythm into your skiing, as you use the end of each turn to drive the next rebound.

The downhill stem is the best way to learn rebound unweighting. It may seem frustrating at first to go back to stem turns, but downhill stems will help you quickly get a feel for the short, sharp use of your edges which will open the door to parallel short swing turns.

Even when you have moved on, you may still find a use for downhill stems: when you need a little extra stability in the moguls, or when you need to lose a little speed coming into a turn, you can always put in a quick downhill stem. It is a good safe turn for the steep, or if you are carrying a rucksack. This may not be the Ferrari of turns, but if you need a Jeep, this is it.

Unsurprisingly, you start the downhill stem turn by pushing your downhill ski into a stem. The ski slides out smoothly until the edge bites and it seems to stop dead momentarily. This is called checking; the point at which your ski grips is called a platform, as it provides a solid base against which you can push. As your momentum carries your weight forward and up from your skis, you plant your pole and initiate the turn. It is completed, as usual, with a controlled, parallel skid.

Begin in a traverse on a moderately steep slope in the standard traverse stance	Flex slightly to release the edge of your downhill ski and push it out into a stem until the edge bites	Plant your pole and rebound, unweighting both skis
Match your inside ski and steer your skis into the fall line.	Flex down and complete your turn in a controlled, parallel skid

Tips

• When you first attempt downhill stem turns, it may be unclear what is meant by a platform. Keep your downhill ski flat on the snow as you slide it out, applying its edge sharply only once it is stemmed. The resulting sharp check should leave you in no doubt.

• Even while your downhill ski is in the stem position, keep your uphill ski tracking smoothly. It should have very little weight on it at this stage of the turn.

Exercises

• Practise forming platforms while traversing across an uncrowded slope. As you traverse, flex down, release the edge of your downhill ski and push it into a stem; plant your pole as you feel the edge bite and rebound of the resulting platform. Can you feel the weight come up off your feet? Keep your uphill ski unweighted and tracking straight across the slope throughout. Perform half a dozen traverse platforms as you cross the slope, followed by a downhill stem turn.

• Try linking your downhill stem turns. As you finish each turn in a flexed position, with your weight on your downhill ski, push it straight out into the stem for the next turn. You should be able to get into a rhythm: stem and plant, up and turn; stem and plant, up and turn.

Short swing turns

Once you have mastered the use of the preturn to inject rebound unweighting into your parallel turns, the time has come to try short swings, the ultimate short radius turns.

Short swing turns are a very dynamic way of skiing the fall line. Taken to the extreme, your body from the waist up moves exactly down the fall line, while your legs turn under you, providing resistance and control. This type of turn is also called a knee-crossover turn, because it feels as though you are whipping your knees rapidly from side to side under you.

Start with a preturn parallel, and as you finish each turn, allow your skis to skid into another edge set. You should be able to hit an easy rhythm: check and plant, up and turn; check and plant, up and turn. Once you are comfortable with the rhythm, speed up the turns, by setting a stronger edge and rebounding earlier.

LINKING SHORT-RADIUS TURNS Start with a preturn, using plenty of anticipation As you rebound, project yourself forward and up. Begin to steer your skis through the fall line as they pass under your body. Perform another powerful check. Rebound. Check

Tips

• Vary the amount of force you use on your edges with the type of slope: a steep slope requires a powerful edge set; a shallow slope requires less, and can be skied more smoothly.
• When you rebound from the edge set, project your weight forward as well as up, especially on steeper slopes. This stops you getting thrown back on the tails of your skis, which makes it difficult to steer through the final part of the turn.
• Rhythm is everything.