The Punch Bicycle Turn
I first started playing around with this teaching tool when teaching kids to transition from “Mr. (or Ms.) V” which was a stable wedge to “Mr. (or Ms.) H” with the skis parallel.
Let’s start with your body position on the skis. First, your shins should be pressed hard against the tongues of your boots, and your butt must be forward of your heels, or at least over them. Do NOT bend at the waist because then your rear goes aft. BTW, flexible boots help.
Hands out in front of you as if they were on the handlebars of a bike (hence part of the name), and your feet shoulder-width apart. From a traverse, plant the pole 10 – 12 inches to the outside of the front tip of the downhill ski. The pole plant can be just a tap or a hard stab. Which you prefer doesn’t matter because this is a timing device to start the turn.
As you plant the pole, press forward and slightly into the hill with your knees, and then relax the forward pressure. This causes you to rise, and as you do, “punch” with your outside, or uphill hand in the direction you want to turn. The up motion unweights the skis and the punch causes your shoulders and most importantly, your hips, knees, and boots to rotate through the fall line. In the beginning, the punching movement needs to be exaggerated, but over time, the movement becomes natural and not aggressive.
Start on gentle slopes and start linking the turns with the mantra, “Plant, down, up, turn the body and down.”
Coming out of the turn, hold the traverse until you are ready to make the next turn. The longer you hold the turn into the hill, the more you will slow.
The result of this technique should be round turns. Initially, the turns will be sloppy in that you are skidding the tails of the skis as you come around. However, as you learn to roll your knees into the hill to edge the skis, you will feel this glorious feeling in your legs as the skis carve. The sensation comes from the resistance, i.e., the skis are not sliding down the hill but are making two clean lines in the snow, which if you stop and look back, you can see. Because the skis are on edge, you should be more stable.
You can watch me do this on the racing trail at Crested Butte.
And OBTW, this type of turn works on hard-packed snow and frozen granular because the ski edges will cut into the snow holding you on the line you want to ski.
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What book flex should an intermediate be in? I’m in 120’s (you know, overestimating one’s ability, gotta be aggressive thinking) Age 73.
Marc, My only concern with this technique is that it “invites” the turn initiation with an upper body rotation rather than with your suggested pole plant, that stabilizes the upper body, as your chest moves down the hill over your skis taking a shorter radius with hands open to the fall line for the next pole plant.
Marc, Those are not carved turns – they are entirely skided. The first turn is initiated with a scissor. Your stance is much narrower than the shoulder width you espouse. It’s a very narrow stance. Dick
Marc,
Thanks for the guidance. As an older skier who spends more time skiing closer to home in the Middle Atlantic, I see more ice. I would like comments on what to do when that scraping sound comes up because the snow has been scraped down to boilerplate. To end the slippage I have pulled my skis up and come down on the most dramatic two edges available. That helps but does not stop all the side slide. We are not Olympians who can run on skis tipped at 45 degrees. I am looking for a series of thought instructions when conditions are poor.
G. S. Brown
Yes, on super easy terrain… if we can get the student to ‘feel’, rather than ‘think’… I personally do not use a pole ‘plant’ working this exercise… the poles do not turn the skis… Many beginner skiers will actually get ‘pushed back’ and get on their heels using a pole plant… pole plants are great for moguls and steep terrain but not, IMHO, useful just cruising… WC skiers, driving at the most efficient way, rarely use a pole ‘plant’… But back to the idea of ‘biking’ down the hill, using one foot at the time (I tell my students it feels like biking in sand on the beach)… or biking up a hill… one foot at the time). Almost like climbing a ladder… Also, think accelerating a car through a turn… you go in cautiously and then start accelerating your way out of the turn… use your ‘big toe’ and push the pedal… building up pressure on the ‘spring board’ to get the power to switch to the new (uphill) outside ski…
Again, all learners are different and the bigger the tool box…
This kind of turn I have been working on as a way to get back to basics. Minimalist like. The body flows in the same direction as the skiis with neither rotation nor anticipation. To turn simply flatten skis for a second or two to get them going down hill (pivot?) and roll onto the top ski to get the carve. Add the other elements as required, as with upper body separation, on steeper slopes.