Whether on skis or on a snowboard, there is a common misconception with a lot of riders that rotating the upper body is necessary to start a turn. This week’s tip will reference leg steering and how it can be much more effective than upper body rotation.
I had the opportunity to teach a few snowboard lessons over the weekend. Prior to going up the hill, we did a little refresher on fore/aft pressure on the board. We explored shifting our weight from the nose to the tail and then made sure we all found the sweet spot where our weight was properly centered over both feet.
In a static position, we then played around with the concept of front leg steering at the initiation phase of the turn. We did this by keeping our center of mass stacked over both feet in the center of the board, and then letting our front knee and leg guide us into our turn on our toe side, and then back out on our heel side.
One thing that I noticed in the majority of the students was that, while most of them could understand this concept on flat terrain in a static position, when we got to the hill and in a traverse, it was a different story, as many of them immediately shifted their weight toward the tail of the board.
The effect of this aft movement was that the nose of the board did not have enough pressure to engage in the snow when they wanted to start their turn, which led to shoulders and arms having to be flung around in the air in a wind-up motion so that the lower body would turn to catch up.
Though this specific example was with boarders, I’ve seen this movement with skiers, too. Skiers being in the back seat with pressure on the back of their boots instead of the front leads to their center of mass being behind their feet and too much pressure on the tails of their skis. When in the terrain park practicing butters, this is certainly an effective way to ride, but in our everyday skiing, it leads to our tips being slightly off the snow, which makes it harder to turn.
While upper body rotation may be one way to get the skis or board to turn, it is not the most effective way, especially as the terrain gets steeper. For skiers, turning the legs under a quiet upper body will allow you to make more efficient turns. For boarders, staying balanced over both feet and initiating the turn with your front leg will allow you to make quicker turns as the pitch of the run increases.
Practice these movements on gentle terrain. Then, as you grasp the concept, take it up a notch to steeper terrain. You’ll hopefully feel more balanced as you use leg steering to make your turns, and you’ll certainly be less tired at the end of the day from not throwing your upper body all over the place.
If you have questions, comments or a specific topic you would like to see covered over the ski season, email Tex at justin@wellsgroupdurango.com.
