Skidding or steering, which kind of snow plow, what kind of snow plow, or maybe even a snow plow or direct parallel? Not important. What we want to achieve is important; what is the goal of teaching beginners?
Learning to ski differs from many other sports like tennis, golf, basketball, or gym fitness.
Skiing partly consists of movements, but the skier's equipment is a vehicle that they must not only learn to manage but also drive, moreover standing on it, without a steering wheel or handlebar, both in traffic and on slopes.
A beginner needs to learn the required movements for the given learning stage, but more importantly, along with this, develop habits and spatial orientation for controlling the direction and speed and navigating in traffic.
A ski instructor must consider that bad "driving" habits may develop sooner and are more harmful than bad motor habits.
The first hours of a beginner are decisive in terms of their future on skis.
That's why the development of conduct habits is at the center, and exercises and skiing techniques are nonessential. The outcome is important, not the means.
For instance, a snowplow turn is not a goal, just one possible way for a controlled turn.
So, the general goal for a beginner is to control their skiing on a blue slope with confidence; that is, they can choose their direction, ski where they want, and avoid any obstacle at the appropriate speed for the given turn.
All this with the possibly best functional, healthy movements that can be good fundamentals for developing more advanced skiing without bigger bypasses or dead ends.
So, beginners must learn to control their direction and speed.
In skiing, we can turn only at an ideal speed, so if we prioritize speed control over direction control, we won't be able to turn.
However, turning is the most effective and safe way of speed control and stopping.
The correct order is to teach turning first, then learn how to stop and control the speed with a turn.
On the other hand, if the nursery slope is gentle enough and ends in a run-out, then the speed will always be ideal; speed control and stopping can not be an issue.
If we kill the speed, we kill the turn.
As an instructor, not a good practice is to picture speed as a monster or enemy to be feared. With this, we develop fear and block as a reaction.
Speed belongs to skiing; it is our friend, and introducing it is better than scaring it off. We must introduce it to beginners without fear and teach them how to manage it.
If we have problems with the speed, the terrain is inappropriate. Correcting a bad choice of terrain by teaching bad habits is another mistake.
How does the turn control the speed? Shape of the turn, skidding or steering
First of all, let's clarify that a turn means moving forward along the ski's length on a curved path with a continuous change of direction of travel but not turning around our axis. Turning around, skidding (sliding), and traversing is not a turn. In general, we must teach beginners to always move forward, never sideways.
Control means we do what we want. We can ski exactly where we wish to ski, and we can ski exactly as fast/slow as we want.
The turn can control speed.
Skiers can gain speed in the fall line, but when turning, they practically do not spend any time on the fall line. We move across the slope for most of the turn, so we do not gain a higher speed. On the other hand, steering involves significant snow drag, efficiently reducing the speed.
To understand the difference between a "turn" and "turning around," we need to know the difference between steering and skidding (sliding).
According to the dictionary, skidding means when something (esp., a vehicle) slides unintentionally on a surface (or slides along a surface) so that they have no control. (In skiing, "skidding" usually refers to the action of the ski sliding sideways on the snow.)
On the contrary, steering is to control the direction of a vehicle.
(There is a difference between skidding and drifting. Skidding happens unintentionally; drifting is an advanced intentional action.)
So, the main difference is that with steering, we can ski in the direction where we want (that is, when we want to ski to the left, we will ski to the left), and when skidding happens, we move somewhere else than we originally wanted to (we want to ski to the left, but we skid to the right from our original intention).
In skiing, there is a common belief that skidding is required to steer the ski in a new direction.
On the contrary, for a beginner, skidding is a failure of steering; moreover, skidding ruins a properly steered turn. Skidding is against steering.
Skidding usually happens toward the fall line, where the skier can gain speed. So, it seems like a kind of braking, but it tries to solve a problem generated by itself.
Steering moves along the ski length on a curved path; skidding is more to the side of the ski.
Steering leaves a clean, round, and curved path. Skidding distorts the shape of the turn; usually, the cross sections are straight, but the track at the middle of the turn is wide, blurred, and pretty straight.
So, the purpose of a beginner lesson is to teach you how to steer and avoid skidding.
Sliding can be a skill for an advanced skier, but not for a beginner.
Teaching steering instead of skidding
Of course, we must first teach basic skills such as gliding straight, ski management with scooter exercises, some lower leg and ankle activities, etc.
Steering is made with the foot-leg (lower leg) rotation based on a pivot point of the inside hip area, but it is more than just some movement elements.
A significant component is thinking about the direction and the end of the turn, so we have to extend the movement in space and time. Rotating the foot crosswise in the direction of the turn is not enough because it results in simple braking or a hard edge catch. Steering should include an intention aiming at a target of the endpoint of the turn.
For a beginner, every turn should last until they stop. (Later, when linking turns, they can finish the turn earlier, but they need to be sure they can make the turn until a complete stop.)
In this sense, steering is a rotational movement of the foot and the leg, and at the same time, interpreted in a broader context, an intention along the length of the ski towards the end of the turn.
With this wider context, we can develop spatial orientation and forward-thinking "driving" and safety habits from the first moments.
In this case, the steering is the main point from the start of the turn, and the skier starts the turn without the additional intention of braking.
On the contrary, skidding happens in a direction other than the endpoint of the turn, toward the side of the ski and downhill instead of along the length. In the case of skidding, the main point of the skier at the start of the turn is braking first and changing direction only after braking. Regarding spatial orientation and forward-thinking, skidding means a narrower scope than steering.
Changing the attitude of a skier from the skidding approach to steering one can dramatically improve their confidence and safety.
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