I've been trying so hard to move from beginner to intermediate. I had mastered the parallel turn in one direction but not the other. After I watched this video and practiced the bowtie ankle twist I aced the turns, and within a few runs was racing down intermediate runs. Went from frustrated to having fun in a few runs. Thanks guys!!! Would love to buy you a beer.
This is m problem too, I'm okay one side, but the other I swear is my "peg-leg" and drags out, it drives me nuts. Can't wait to practice this coming weekend!
Oh this that one leg issue thread.. 😂 I am so tired of not able to turn in one direction, my foot just drags around, causing a wider unintended plough and at time causes the front of the skis to tangle and has fun watching me fall.
For me it was the "up-down-turn" sequence that made me unlock the goddamn sliding turns - It's not ideal but now I can ski any blue with plenty of dignity!
Very good beginner ski progression. One of the biggest problems beginners have when starting a turn, especially from a wedge is how to get the downhill/inside ski out of the way so it doesn't lock on that inside edge and block the turn. In this video the instructor said to move their weight to the outside ski earlier in the turn which is correct but how do you do that? When a beginner skier hears that phrase they think they need to push down harder on the outside ski when a simpler solution to accomplish both getting the downhill/inside ski out of the way and moving their weight to the new outside ski is to take some weight off of the downhill ski by starting to flex their ankle and knee of the downhill ski. That move will also flatten the inside ski and make it easier to steer it into the turn. Their body weight will automatically transfer to the new outside ski without pushing down on it. Once the turn is started the old uphill ski will follow and become the new outside/downhill ski. In the ski instructing world we call this "Short Leg" / "Long Leg". Try it and see if it works for you...
i went to a small lift with a friend to ski for the first time and this was exactly my problem. i was abled to turn 'correct' with the outer ski, but the inside ski got stuck on the inner edge. my friend told me to try again v-shaped turns with completely lifting the inside ski, and that reaaally helped me understanding to correctly balance the weight on the outside ski (as you discribed in your comment). as my turns got wider i still had almost no weight on the inside ski and startet to get a feel for when i can turn it while its kinda 'surfing' without edging (i dont know if thats the correct term). far away from doing proper parallel turns after those ten runs, tho :P (im hooked!)
That’s sort of how my dad taught me to ski, he explained it to me like i’m almost taking steps on my skis by transferring my body weight from one ski to another, or like skating (but downhill?), that was how I always approached ir
My own process of learning was a bit simpler than this video. While making wedge turns at higher speeds, I started to have the inside ski catch and throw off my balance. At that point I was already familiar with shifting my weight from one foot to another, so I just took that to the extreme, and completely lifted my inside ski up out of the snow. This is what I recommend to people. It makes you realize that you only ever need to be on one ski at a time, and once you are comfortable unweighting the uphill/inside ski completely, turning it parallel is easy since it isn't even touching the snow. Then you slowly back off the habit of pulling your ski clean off the snow, and learn the maximum amount of weight you can put on it and still swing it freely to keep it parallel and keep the edges from grabbing. That becomes muscle memory, and the whole mountain opens up to you
@@thirdpedalnirvana I wouldn't recommend completely lifting the inside ski off of the snow. That can throw off your balance. Just flex the ankle and knee of that leg and the weight transfer will happen automatically. By doing that you maintain your balance with both skis on the snow.
Just wanted to say a sincere thank you for this tutorial. I went from knowing nothing to parallel skiing's in one day by watching this video and going step by step until I mastered each one. The next two weeks in Mammoth and steamboat will be so much more enjoyable because of you.
THIS IS the single best ski educational video on this subject I’ve ever seen. I was trying to find a way to show my siblings how to ski like this. I couldn’t teach it. I have no idea how I learned nor had a way to teach it.
I’ve been asking instructor for over 15 years. Your drills are amazingly simple and very doable. I specialize in first time never ever skiers. I’ll be teaching tomorrow and guaranteed I’m going to be using your progression and see how it compares with mine. I think the more methods ski coaches have to teach their students the better for learning experience. I want everyone to become lifelong skiers and enjoy being in the mountains and gliding on the snow. You do a great job and I’ll have some of my colleagues watch your vids. Many thanks, our resort is called Stevens Pass and it’s in the cascade Mountains Washington state.
My first time this week, watched a few of these beforehand, just tryin to learn the basics, last night dreamed that you were teaching me in real life -such a charismatic guy, I wish
My experience level is 1 lesson deep. Went very well learning the basic wedge turn and stops but that was all we covered in my first session on the slopes. In the few beginner runs I did without an instructor after the lesson I started to narrow the wedge and try for sharper turns and it felt good. This video fills the technical gap I was missing to progress forward. Can't wait to start practicing these tips. Super clear and detailed instruction.
Totally normal! This sounds silly, but here's what I recommend you do: go to an easy slope and practice two things 1) your hockey stop, 2) rounding out your C turns a little more. Both of those will help you control your speed and the better you get on easier runs the more confident you'll be on steeper ones. Good luck!
Once you get a true feel for the techniques you’ll have to do a run that’s slightly out of your comfort zone. It’s like ripping a bandaid off. I was very nervous for like a year and never pushed myself to that next level. Once I did, I realized how fun it was and that I’d been missing out. Just focus on the technique and fun and you’ll be fine.
@@jerrytravelstead1075 Hockey stops are more advanced than rounding out C turns. The first step is rounding out C-Turns, the more advanced step is hockey stops. Hockey stops are more effective and should be practiced on lower angle slopes. They are key to eventually learning how to ski moguls.
When I was first watched this video the stuff they said -- knees out, bowtie -- made no sense to me. But then I tried it while skiing and all the cues just clicked! Thanks for the tutorial, learned how to parallel ski on my first trip.
Update: I've been skiing several times since watching this video and I can't thank you enough! I feel so much more comfortable on the slopes. With this technique I feel in total control and am able to safely take steeper runs and control my speed much more effectively. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos and share with us.
I took a private lesson at Sunshine AB/CAN and learned the 'staircase' technique: Imagine you're going down a staircase sideways. Keep you your upstairs hand a little higher than your downstairs hand...with that forward - angled lean you're in about the right position and on both edges. Be sure you can see your hands a bit in front of you and you probably won't end up in 'the backseat." That's all I know, and it helps me. Hope it helps you too!
This video leaves off right at the point in my learning to ski where it went from a jumble of different things I had to think about to just one thing, the one thing I have never seen taught in any video. The pole plant which is minimalized in this video became the key to unlocking everything for me. The thing is, if you watch any good skier in a turn you can see that the inside ski is ahead of the outside ski. If you are turning right, then the right ski is ahead of the left. Turning left, the left ski is out ahead. Notice that whichever ski is out ahead, that knee is out ahead too. It has to be since it is attached to the ski, right? But how do you get from one ski being out ahead to the other ski being out ahead? How do you get from one knee being out ahead to the other knee being out ahead? To do that you take enough of your weight off both skis so you can make that adjustment. You "unweight" your skis, make the change, and put weight back on them. This can be done without using your poles, without planting a pole, but planting that pole is like using a key to unlock a padlock. The pole plant happens a split second before you unweight your skis. The pole gives you the tiny lift you need to take the weight off just enough to shift your skis. So to turn right, plant the right pole, lift yourself just enough to slip the right ski forward, then come back down onto your skis and voila! Both of your skis will now be on their right edge automatically. To turn left, plant the left pole, lift yourself enough to slip your left ski to the front, drop back down on your skis and voila! You are now on your left edges automatically. I picked this technique up from a book from back in the 1970's called How the Racers Ski although it took me many years of nervous frightened limited skiing before I figured it out. I get the sense that all good skiers do this and know it inside out but have long since forgotten how to teach it. In this video it would be the very next step, the step after the pole plant.
while pole planting is a really valuable skill to learn and is undoubtedly useful for timing turns and achieving proper rhythm to when you apply weight and "unweight" as you call it, I think what you are describing there is the compression and decompression that comes when you execute turns. As you enter and hit the crux of the turn you gain more and more force as the video discusses (compressing), and when you exit the turn that force decreases allowing you to decompress and spring upwards a bit. You can use that up-down movement to more fluidly change the weight from foot to foot, almost like a reset after every turn.
@@snarkmaiden4397 I'm curious as to why you completely ignore my main point, that being how do you get your inside ski to be the one ahead, the one out front? If your left ski has been out front in a left turn how do you get your right ski out front? If you are a skilled skier you have long since trained yourself on how to do it but why isn't it taught?
Just came back from skiing at Les Deux Alpes and this and the other beginner tutorials made a huge difference - I'm now completely parallel and its the first time after 3 years of learning that I enjoyed skiing - I found that finding a good slope and running that repeatedly helped the most to learn - dont try new slopes or new areas if you want to improve your technique (yes I know a bit boring..) - from the the other tutorials here as well I found getting your hips forward helped to stop backseat issues, really throwing your weight forward when facing downslope and pushing the inner knee into the slope were ground breaking....really great vids but getting your hips forward is the key if you find this hard - I moved my chest forward but not my hips and this makes alot of difference...
This is really good! Thanks for sharing! I took my first ever ski class last Saturday (02.02.19) with ski instructor. I am intermediate level in snowboarding (I can do black slopes), but first time in skiis. I was able to do parallel turns within 40mins following the steps of this video. My instructor was not so technical as in the video and the my instructor's tips were not as detailed. It is good to have instructor though, at least for security/safety and to have two eyes looking at you for body posture correction (like leaning forward, etc..). I am very impressed by Stomp It Tutorials, really good job guys. Thanks!
This was the best tutorial I watched in getting tips in what I was doing wrong and how to get my turns from snowploughing and skidding to parallel turns. From a frustrating morning on the beginner slopes I watched this at lunchtime, went back out and it clicked! Best tips, putting weight earlier on outside ski, and flatten and turn inside ski, knee out, I had a really lazy inside leg turning right and had to really focus and work it first few goes, and then it really started clicking, thank you!!
leveled up my parallel yesterday at Cooper CO thanks to the bowtie technique! super easy to feel that once I knew about it, and then to start turning it earlier in my turns. thank you thank you thank you! also did a bunch of pops! love the channel
Just started yesterday with a tutor. Next time I will have to do these turns. I have never been more excited! I will check you out guys, thanks for the video!
Tell them to look up how to ski on youtube as homework. I have found a ton if really good videos for beginners, and even workouts to make skiing easier. Good luck!
All good but sometimes a few drills will help to get parallel such as tapping the tail of the inside ski or doing fan progressions which may start with tapping the tail of the uphill ski while traversing and then starting earlier and earlier in the turn. This gets em' balanced on the outside ski and lightening the inside ski so they get the sense of being able to move the inside ski around.
Last season, I felt confident skiing Shirley Lake at Squaw Valley but never quite felt comfortable with my technique. Back to basics tomorrow when I go practice these skills on the easier blues. Also going back to using the shorter skis because its the beginning of the ski season. I tried more advanced skis last weekend my first trip out this season and that was a bad idea. I thought I could carry over from the last season, nope!
Just tried skiing for the first time. Ive played hockey, and hockey scating and skiing are surprisingly similar. Mostly the difference is in how much focus is on the outside leg in a turn. Im no expert, but I went from the toddler hill to doind some parallel carving on the big runs in about 2 hours. If you can hockey stop, you can ski.
Great tutorial, will be practised in Valfrèyus tomorrow. The turning skill is a ticket from the beginner slope to a blue pistes. It can be achieved in approx 10 hours. Good luck and enjoy to all!
Great videos. Everyone talks about the outside ski in a turn. I get that and I'm comfortable with how I'm going in that department. However, I have s lazy inside ski. The inside ski always lags the outside ski and I finish up having to do a step with my inside ski to catchup. Any suggestions? Is there a video on a lazy inside ski? If there is, I haven't been able to find it.
I just switched over to skiing after about 20 years of snowboarding and threw a lot of your tutorials in to my memory bank for when I was at the hill yesterday. I was getting really comfortable with my wedge turns and was trying to get more parallel and build up speed but found my inside foot always wanted to stay at an angle as if I was doing a wedge turn. That piece of info at 4:15 might be the key for me as I distinctly remember that foot being way out to the side when it was hard for me to bring it parallel with the outer ski that was initiating the turn.
wish i had seen this before i went out yesterday. i can do parallel turns on perfect fresh powder but it hurts and is a struggle on anything harder. now i see i was not shifting my weight properly. thanks for making this.
Whem i turn almost all my weight is on the outside ski, and my inside ski is almost off the ice. And i envy that nursery slope. Here its way too short and way too crowded with a 20 min queue to get back up again... So i end up on steep bumpy slopes im not comfortable on...
I remember when I finally mustered up the courage to paralell on steep slopes. It was the biggest eureka moment, because I was so scared, but it was so much easier. Now whenever I try snowploughing, I lose so much of my control, and I wondered how the hell I was able to survive on steeper slopes when I was younger because that shit is so difficult.
This is something that you just have to be comfortable with. Learn your limits within your ability, and slowly push yourself towards those limits, gaining that confidence in small increments until you can charge down icey piste with ease.
The first time I watched this video 10 months ago (a couple of weeks before my first skiing experience), none of this made any sense. Now after spending 4 days (16 hours in total) on snow, I understand how fundamental everything said in the video is. I'm still struggling with all the "tricky" parts mentioned but at least I know very clearly what I need to learn.
Really good guys, good camera work; your wunderfull voice's, the sound of boots clcking into skis, the sound of snow were enough music, the backing sound track was hellish. The human voice is way more, way more.
I was starting to feel my snow plough getting naturally smaller as I tried to parallel ski, but then found my tips crossing often which was the cause for falling over. Do you have any tips on keeping shallower plough whilst not crossing the tips?
It's normal, one side of the body usually works worse than the other. If you are right-handed, then turning right is always more difficult to do and vice versa. My instructor said "try, try and try again until it works out." Turns to the left are better for me than to the right ... p.s. sry for my eng it's easy to understand but hard to answer
It should come with time and practice. Starting off you’ll favor a side, but once you ski enough and are comfortable with the feeling, it will come naturally.
MarctheLegend I’ve been skiing downhill for 20 years and cross country since I was 4. I’ve always favored the right side. This years I’m going to make a effort to hockey stop to the left.
Seems like you are just stronger on your left leg and can't get the pressure off your left ski. When your are turning left, remind yourself to put more pressure on your right ski, bend your hip more and keep your body on top of your right ski so you can balance on it.
I'm getting ski lessons but find it sooo hard to go parallel when turning. The other ski (where there's no pressure) just doesn't want to move. After turning I end up not skiing straight across the slope, but more going downwards which makes me go too fast and lose control sometimes. Any tips? When my teacher does it it seems easy but I don't find it easy at all
Jihun B You were right! The day after I posted this comment I realized that you have to lift the other foot a bit (more like bend the knee as you would do when standing on uneven ground), and put a lot of force on the opposite ski. My turns got much better and I'm going to ski again in two weeks. Can't wait to improve my technique! And have fun of course
THe first thing you should explain is this ...a SKI is produced to TURN ...if you look at the top and the bottom ...you will noticed an ARC wide at the top ...tappering in the middle and a bit wider at thed bottom ......these days ...carving skiis make it so easy ...they are much shorter....meaning the arc of the turn is easier accomplished ! quialified SKI INSTRUCTOR from 1973 /4 from NORWAY ...
i'm fully parallel but i have trouble like carving and when i go rlly fast i have my car ig but i get kinda out of control while going fast but i also don't wanna use hockey stop turns my whole way down the hill. any tips?
I specifically don't ever teach the pizza because it is so hard to unlearn. I understand you have to do something with a large group of kids, but if I can get some good one-on-one or small group time, I'll start straight with parallel turns an crashing to stop if needed
