My son won't snowplough

A snowHead

Just my two pennies worth, take every opportunity to learn every technique you can from good teachers, you never know when they might be useful, a number of years ago I helped a young woman with one mornings ski lessons under her belt, get down a 4km blue run (that her boyfriend had started her on) in a blizzard, the only way to do that was let her hold onto me as I snow ploughed in front, you cannot beet it for slow controlled turns on gentle slopes, mind you I was tempted to shove a skistick somewhere on the BF's anatomy where the sun didn't shine for being so stupid !

Many techniques are no longer taught for a number of reasons but it's often because those techniques can cause injuries if not done properly, e.g kick turns, very handy on steep narrow slopes when someone below you has crashed and you don't want to ski into them, likewise reverse snow ploughs for watching your friends ski towards you, side slipp (forwards and backwards) and so on.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@D G Orf, What a fortunate young lady to have you happen along!

Side slipping is my no 2 panic mode option rolling eyes

ie where I really can`t snow plough if panicky Laughing

I agree its a very useful technique. One you can use without having to move too quickly unlike some other techniques which seem to require more speed than I am willing to endure! rolling eyes

You need to Login to know who's really who.

@mrtimmybrown, Glad to hear that your son has now managed snowploughing. Regardless of some teaching methods that like to avoid snowploughing it is another skill in your toolbox that has its uses even for experienced skiers e.g in continuosly controlling your speed as you come up to the end of a queue or a skilift turnstile.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@CaravanSkier, actually I think she was unfortunate to have had an idiot boyfriend taking her up a mountain in a resort he'd never been to after she'd had just one skiing lesson..... I couldn't not help, I only came across them in the blizzard because she was crying her eyes out and I thought maybe someone was hurt. The choice was help her get to the next station stop myself or ski down to a lift and try to get some help back up the slope, for me it wasn't a hard choice to make, but the run was easy, I don't think I'd have tried if the slope had been steeper

You'll need to Register first of course.

@D G Orf, I wonder if he remained her boyfriend after that! Laughing

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I can imagine she told him what she thought of him.

After all it is free

@CaravanSkier, so did I Laughing

so many opinions already. I am being a bit redundant, but I hate the concept of teaching kids to snowplow. Its a waste IMHO, as you tell them to throw it away in fairly short order. Maybe just my experience, as all kids are different, but my daughter just wanted to follow me, and she totally skipped the pizza and french fry stage, and was able to competently hockey stop by 5 or 6.

Then we enrolled her in ski school a few years and guess what they taught....the snow plow. They are so flexible they can almost be horizontal with their skis (tip to tip). So then i had to un-teach the snowplow and get her back to parallel. She is now an awesome skier but it took longer than needed. I would just reward speed control and allow them to figure it out. I never used a harness, but skied with her between my legs to get her comfortable with moderate speeds. So much fun.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Utter nonsense being talked about the snow plough being a "bad" thing to learn. Clearly none of you have ever done any race training/racing - it is a very common and powerful exercise, often deployed at low speed, to develop turn initiation and balance skills. My daughter spent quite a bit of her summer doing snow plough exercises at ski race camp last year, as have I in the past.

There is nothing to "unlearn" and children will be safer on the mountain having the full range of tools in their box, of which a good snow plough is one. Interesting to note that not many people can do it properly, and lots of those who poo poo it actually use a bit of "pizza" to initiate their turns without realizing it. In fact I would go as to say that most (at least British!) recreational skiers do this.

That being said it is of course entirely possible to learn to ski without starting with the snow plough, and a very small number of ski schools have tried this technique. The vast majority of ski instructors, who frankly know better, use the snow plough for beginners. But clearly lots of intermediate, occasional skiers feel they actually know better than the professionals. Each to their own but I do see more kids more out of control on the slopes than there should be, and I wonder if the two are linked (such kids often seem to be following a loud, not very competent but clearly unaware of it, British man). Really funny to hear such boors yelling at their kids to get their skis parallel when they themselves would benefit from some lessons on how to initiate a turn completely parallel!

snow reports

I am always awed by the rock-solid snowplough demonstrated by piste rescuers when they come down a steep slope with a casualty on a sledge. If it's good enough for them........

@zikomo, well ill presume that this is directed at me, since I dont see that many people against snowplowing. I suppose I concur that it is a useful, and necessary tool in skiing. Stem cristies certainly were based on a modified and shorter initiation of the snowplow where the legs close the triangle quickly and effortlessly. I will again state that I have experience with one child and watched her and her friends learn pizza vs french fries for several years from 6 yo to maybe 8 or 9. My view was that they were taught to snow plow far longer than they needed to be taught this technique. It was certainly easier for instructors to control the overall speed of groups, but there were many kids that essentially had their tops together and tails at a complete 180 degree (straight line) position as they were going faster and faster. What is the point of that???? even if we wanted to use that positioning, we could not at an older age.

Its a great way for beginners to feel control over the their speed, but I have seen too many become reliant on it and it can be phased out earlier especially for kids that pick things up so easily.

You know it makes sense.

@Redwine, my experience (not with much with kids, but I believe it applies) is that the snowplough naturally disappears when the skier develops good lateral balance skills (more weight on the outside ski) and the confidence to go a bit quicker (which makes it easier to develop lateral balance). When that happens the snowplough gets smaller, and skis match to parallel earlier in the turn until the skis remain largely parallel from start to finish of the turn. If an instructor is holding a skier at the snowplough stage for too long I'd argue that is a problem with the instructor not the snowplough.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

When my 7 year old grand-daughter, just finished 5 days of 1.5 hour lessons in a group of 2, played with me at being a ski instructor, at Christmas (I was the learner), she admonished me for overtaking her on a flattish path and then admonished me again when I snowploughed to slow down and drop back behind her. "You've finished with snowplough now" she told me sternly. rolling eyes

Help!!

My son won't snowplough

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Bend ze Knees