3. HAND POSITION
Many women don’t have the faintest idea what to do with their hands while skiing. Women sometimes ski with their hands hanging unused at their sides. Or they might hold their hands up awkwardly, elbows held tightly into their bodies. Some women use their hands to steer around each turn. I’ve had the most success teaching hand position using the “lunch tray” analogy. Having a student pretend to hold a tray places the hands at belly-button level, a little wider than the hips. Te shoulders relax, and the elbows bend slightly but don’t touch the torso. Once a student has her hands at the right height, be
sure to mention that the wrists should be cocked back slightly so that the pole baskets are slightly behind her but her hands are still in front. When skiers attempt to keep their poles straight up and down, their hands end up too high in an attempt to keep the pole tips off the snow. Expert skiers naturally position their wrists and hands such that the pole tips are angled slightly behind. Tis isn’t necessarily intuitive to many blue-square skiers. Now lose the word “position,” which implies the hands are stuck in one place. Your student’s hands need to move a little, like the rest of her body, albeit within a small range.
The Drill Have your student hold both poles together about a foot in front of her belly button, parallel to the snow as if the poles were the lunch tray. Have her make turns downhill, starting with short-radius turns, then progressing to larger turns. Watch for too much body rotation or for hand dropping. When the turns are quick, her body and hands should face down the hill. As the turns get bigger, her body and hands follow the turn more but never so much that a hand crosses over her skis.
Troubleshooting Hands still in the wrong place or held too stiffly? Get rid of her ski poles for a run and do some hand jive. Have her clap her hands in front and back, wave them overhead, or place them on her knees, turning all the while. Dance down the hill! It’s fun. It makes your client more aware of what her hands are doing, and she’ll be more relaxed.
For skiers who hold their elbows too close to their body, a pole drill (see insert) can help reinforce proper positioning.
4. POLE PLANT
Most women (and men) think of the pole plant as a forward movement of the wrist, then a stab of the pole tip into the snow – which, actually, puts the pole plant too far forward by the ski tips. I tell my clients to plant their down to the snow. If your student is pretending to hold a lunch tray (see above), the point on the snow is halfway between the ski tip and binding.
Te steeper the slope, the farther down the hill she
should reach with her pole tip, not farther forward. I avoid the box analogy in which one plants the pole at the corners of a box. It’s a good concept, but the box tends to shrink after a turn or two, putting the pole plant too close to the ski tips.
The Drill Have the skier stand with her skis across the fall line on a fairly steep slope that’s within her ability level. Have her sideslip a short way, then set an edge hard while simultaneously touching the downhill pole to the snow. Next, have her release the edge and sideslip a little farther, then set the edge and pole plant again. Do a half dozen on one side then switch to the other side. Once this is mastered, add a pivot-turn after each pole plant. Morph the move into normal turns, using a pole plant each time.
Troubleshooting
Learning proper pole-plant technique helps women escape the blue- terrain blues.
Te most common mistake students make is planting the pole on the inside (uphill) rather than the outside (downhill) of the turn. I cure this simply by having my client follow me, copying the placement and timing of my pole plants. In most cases, if she sees it, she gets it.
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