Inside hand

A snowHead

Last day I was skiing I was making a conscious effort re hand position, when not physically pole planting trying to keep both hands within vision. My turns and skiing felt significantly better while concentrating on keeping the inside/uphill hand up and forward.

I suspect it may just be a variant of the Schloppy/camp teapot drill but it felt very effective for something very simple.

So anything else mindblowingly simple to improve skiing ( at an all mountain level) or is there something wrong in my assumption that it just works (probably as a trigger to get forward rather than something magic in the hands alone)

A snowHead

I was told it's the shoulder (upper body) that matters. Hands being the extension of shoulder...

I used to have a bad habit of leaving my uphill hand up the hill. I could tell my upper body was turned towards up the hill. It took some asking around to arrive at the simple (in retrospect) solution of pushing my uphill HAND down the hill. That, has the effect of keeping my shoulder square facing down the hill. A lot of things seem to work better as a result. Very Happy

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I always think of trying to keep your hands in your peripheral vision - hand position can also be described as "driving a bus", or think of having a hula-hoop round your waist and holding it out front.
When planting - cock the wrist forward, plant the pole & ski past the tip but don't leave the hand behind.
On steeper slopes, bumps etc turning your wrists outwards helps to plant the poles wider, which in turn helps to project the upper body down the slope more.

When I was learning to telemark, hand position is more critical as the downhill lead-ski effectively causes your hips to turn towards the hill, so it is v. important not to leave the uphill hand behind. I used to consciously punch my uphill-hand down the slope, or point at the tip of the (downhill) lead ski, to ensure that the upper body didn't rotate uphill.

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I've been taught that your hands and arms should should be just in your peripheral vision and not stuck out in front.

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Yep peripheral vision is what I meant but it definitely helps if you're conscious about the inside hand it seems to me on terrain where your default position might be to drag.

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Absolutely spot on. I was just about to post exactly the same, but you beat me to it. I also have a tendency to leave one hand behind (my left), particularly when it's going a bit pear-shaped, so allowing that shoulder to rotate and rise up and back, so I also fall back onto my heels - and so aggravating the upcoming disaster. This largely corrects both problems. The tip was given me by Pet S-G last year, and he also got me to spear the mogul I was about to turn around way more aggressively, which really gets you into an active posture for handling the bumps. It's done wonders for my skiing in the last year - and that of several people I've skied with over the last few months too Wink

. It's been particularly useful drilling "hands into vision" into my head as a learned reflex in improving recovery procedures.

When skiing slalom this is also helped by the fact that the backs of my gloves are of a particularly revolting bright colour (just like Shoenfelder's Wink

), but the downside is that coaches then get obsessed about what my hands are doing as that's all they can concetrate on rolling eyes

.

After all it is free

fatbob,
I'm really bad from dropping my inside hand, causes the weight to get on the inside ski and the turns to be far less effective - also means it catches on the gates - ouch!! Shocked

Anyway a really good coach I know has a good exercise for getting hands in the right place and also promoting correct angulation that involves pretending you are picking up suitcase, as you come into the turn you reach down to "pick up the suitcase" then once you've got it push your hands through as if you are lifting the suitcase forward. Remember to pick the suitcase up on the outside of the turn though!! wink

Pole planting does not necessarily help unless you remember not just to leave your hand behind after the plant but push it forward - another instructor friend had a good if slightly un-PC pole planting exercise which involves "stabbing a sleeping dwarf" (don't worry a pretend one if that makes it any better!) then when it "sits/stands up" you punch it in the face - thus causing your hand to move forward... Shocked

PS Just so you know to ignore this completely, I'm not an instructor or coach of any sort wink

yep - i find punching the hand forward after the pole plant is really useful, especially on steep stuff where my natural instinct still makes me back away from the slope sometimes.

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Easyski once said something a while back that really resonated with me. when teaching kids she doesnt talk about making turns but "going around corners". And when going around a corner you should always "reach around the corner with your inside hand first"

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fatbob, it works for me too. I don't think it's just about the danger of dragging the inside hand though, but it's hard to get into the backseat if both your arms are out in front of you (think kick-boxer stance stylee).

Being able to see your hands is also a good assist in keeping the upper body verticle while trying to angulate from the hips.

Just my 2p.

Help!!

Inside hand

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