Snow Skills

Snow angels are one of the “cool things” about winter that kids learn early. Turn away from a field of snow, flop backwards, and wave your legs and arms in the same manner. When you stand up, the resulting mark in the snow looks like an angel due to the sweeping of the arms and legs.

The motions that make a snow angel can help you develop strong ski turning movements in your legs. Stand on a flat surface of snow in your ski boots. Set a pole tip on the instep of one of your boots just above the second buckle. Slowly begin to twist your foot around the pole tip without letting the pole wander. Your toe and heel should both be moving a similar distance left and right while the middle of your boot (under the pole tip) stays in one spot. Your boot should be making a ‘snow angel’-like mark in the snow and every part of your leg from the hip down will be moving to create this movement. Notice that you don’t have to move any other part of your body to twist your leg in this manner.

Try this movement with both legs, turning the feet in unison back and forth. Match the movements in each foot so that the resulting marks are nearly identical. Now go for a few runs and make turns that rely on your foot turning such that the toe and heel move about the center of your foot. By focusing on turning your boot as if you were making a snow angel, you’ll discover that the skis turn steadily through the turn with a resulting round turn shape in the snow. The proof’s right there in the snow: steady leg turning leads to efficient, strong skiing!