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Snowplow Turns - Are They Finally
Dead? |
For nearly forty years I've been teaching beginners in the ski school.
Their main form of sustenance during the early learning process has
been the snowplough or wedge - that ungainly, somewhat contorted
position where both legs and feet twist inwards and make the skis into
a \ / shape. Depending on the amount of \ / the skier can control his
speed, stop and even turn.
As far as I'm concerned the snowplough sucks.
Back in the late fifties the observant gurus who wrote our teaching
manuals discovered that very small children naturally adopted the
snowplough position. Made of rubber they could career down practically
any slope at eye watering speed without ever coming out of it. It was
only as they got bigger that they started to ski parallel.
Before I get kebabbed on a ski pole let me say that when the manuals
were being written the snowplough was a jolly good idea. With skis up
to two feet longer then than they are now it was almost impossible for
a beginner to turn on a ski without the snowplough, but now there are
much simpler and more effective ways to turn the short and hugely
responsive modern skis.
Well, why do we still teach it to beginners? Goodness knows. There are
perfectly adequate alternatives. My theory will certainly not be a
popular one among ski schools. Keep the snowplough and you keep the
pupil. After all, the longer you have a pupil doing something that
extends the teaching process, the longer he will keep you in business.
There was the ski evolutif system invented by a Frenchman in les
Arcs back in the seventies who started putting beginners on short skis
and teaching them parallel straight away, progressing to longer ones
by the hour. This died pretty soon and I'm not entirely sure why.
It's my fault that I've waited this long to come out. Until two years
ago I was on skis that were 207cm long. The ones I have now are a foot
shorter at 175cm, and both the similarities and differences in
performance are extraordinary. Because they are so much shorter there
is no longer any need to start beginners off with the snowplough. Very
simply, all they have to do now to slow down is twist one leg inwards
until they stop. If they want to turn, they can twist alternate legs.
So is it time for the snowplough to go in the garbage can? No! The
snowplough is still very useful on narrow paths, very busy pistes, and
approaching lift queues, but it should be taught to adults at a later
date.
As a final thought let me throw this in. A month ago I went on a course
to upgrade my qualifications. The mainstay on that course was the
snowplough and I couldn't do it! In September 2010 I'm due for a new
hip as both have advanced osteoarthritis. Bizarrely, I could do
everything else - the bumps, steep off piste in thigh deep powder snow
and all sorts of different turns down the piste - but not the
snowplough.
This was obviously a sign from above. The time has come to ban the
snowplough and bin it!
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