If you’re trying to improve your ski technique, the classic hockey stop, or short radius turn is something you’ll definitely want in your arsenal. In this video, our head coach, Guy Hetherington, will explain exactly how to do short turns. We hope this video helps whet your appetite to join one of our Whistler ski courses this season. We combine technical ski drills with all mountain skiing at Canada’s biggest and best resort. We hope you can join us.
Short radius turn drill from Alltracks Head Coach, Guy Hetherington
Video Transcript
Guy Hetherington:
Guy Hetherington here for Alltracks Academy from beautiful Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia. Today I’ll be introducing the first in a series of ski tips designed to deepen your understanding of ski technique and raise your level of personal performance. have a great season and we hope to welcome you to Whistler real soon.
The type of balanced grip you see at the end of these turns can be achieved in a low performance drill called the classic hockey stop. When you first start this drill, precision is far more important that performance. There are many components to this drill but I’ll start off with a basic snowplough. Take a look at the final form and then I’ll break it down for you.
So let’s break this drill down into each component and then build back up to final form. It starts with the most important thing which is a solid snowplough stance. I’m looking to have equal weight on both feet, shoulders over the knees and pole tips dragging over the snow.
The next step is to add a bit of timing with a bounce and a pole plant. So a maintain my solid snowplough stance, adding a bounce and a pole plant. From here you should take the opportunity to relax your inside leg at the top of your bounce and match your skis.
The last part of this drill once your skis are matched is to allow your hips to move up the hill, gain a little grip with your ankles and knees, come to a crisp, clean stop, with a strong pole plant – just like this.
The key to improvement here is repetition. Practice this drill until you can do five clean stops on either side before ramping up your speed. Once you’ve done that, you can add this movement pattern into your short turns and you’ll be skiing clean, well-balanced short turns for the rest of the season.
Have a great season!