THE SNOWPLOUGH

The snowplough is where the skis are in a "V" shape, it is a position where there is lots of balance, as well as being a braking position. Although the snowplough is not used so much once someone can ski well, it is the easiest way to start learning to ski.

The Position

To make a snowplough you put your skis into a V-shape with the ski tips about 10cm apart, and the back of the skis further apart. Depending on what you are trying to do, the back of the skis will be closer together or further apart, which changes the angle of the "V" shape you make with the skis. The front of the skis are kept at about 10cm apart because this keeps them close together but yet far enough apart that they won't cross very easily. You may think that this position doesn't look very natural and in honesty it isn't, but it is the position that will give you the most control and stability as you start to lean to ski.

How The Snowplough Works

To understand how the snowplough works you must first look at how each ski wants to act. With the snowplough each ski is pointing in a different direction and as the direction of least resistance for a ski is straight forward, each ski wants to travel in a different direction. By keeping your weight in the middle of the two skis, you put the same weight on each ski (lateral weight distribution), so each ski influences your movement equally. Therefore the direction you travel in will be resultant of the 2 directions the skis are pointing in (see diagram) which is straight forwards. Notice that the weight is also kept over the balls of your feet so that your weight is also kept in the middle of the ski longitudinally as well.

Speed Control

The snowplough is also very good for learning to ski because it is a breaking position. As both skis are traveling in a slightly sideways direction they have more resistance and act as a brake. By making the back of the skis wider apart, more area is shown in the direction of travel creating a larger breaking effect. By making a bigger or smaller "V" with the skis you can control your speed, and even come to a stop.

As shown in the diagram, when the skis are straighter they won't push on so much snow as they go forward, and don't provide so much resistance. When the skis are more sideways though the skis have a lot more contact with the snow in the direction that they are traveling, providing more resistance, and therefore breaking more.

Using The Edges

Also if you bring your knees closer together, the angle that the base of the skis are to the snow will change and the edges of the skis will dig into the snow more (edge pressure), again creating a larger breaking effect.

Below the important parts of making a snowplough are explained, with a run through of how to snowplough in a straight line, controlling our speed, and eventually bringing ourselves to a stop. In the explanation bringing the knees closer together and further apart to speed up and slow down is only included when you want to stop. This is because although it does help with speed control, it is more important to make a bigger or smaller "V" shape with the skis, and this is what should be concentrated on more.

The first thing we need to remember when we snowplough is that we need to keep our weight evenly distributed between the skis at all times, as easy as this sounds it is not necessarily so easy in practise. As you go down a slope your skis will hit small bumps in the snow, and be pushed out of the snowplough position you are trying to keep. It is important not to try and correct this as you will only over compensate, just try and hold your initial position and keep your weight evenly distributed between the skis. The position will correct itself, it just needs a bit of patience to let the skis come back into the right position. We also need to keep our weight in the middle of the skis lengthways, as explained in longitudinal weight distribution, this gives us full control of the skis. If you are doing this properly you should always be able to feel your shins pushing lightly against the front of your ski boots.

Walk Through Explanation

To start a snowplough it is easiest to set yourself up so that you are pointing straight down a gentle slope with the skis in a snowplough position, and your poles pushed into the snow out in front of you so that you don't slide. To start sliding there are a few different things we can do; we can try and shuffle forward until we start to slide, we can move our knees a bit further apart so that the edges don't dig in so much and we start to slide, or we can make a smaller snowplough with our skis so there is less resistance and we start to slide. Or alternatively and most commonly a combination of all 3. Once we have started sliding, we are going to speed up a little bit, so we make a smaller "V" shape with the skis, which decreases resistance, and lets ourselves build up a bit more momentum. Once we have a bit more momentum we are going to slow down a bit, so we make a larger "V" shape with the skis, still keeping the ski tips about 10cm apart, this creates more resistance, and starts to slow us down. Once you have slowed down enough you can repeat what you have just done again, speeding up and slowing down, until you want to stop. You can also try bringing the skis to straight and then back into the snowplough position, if you feel confident enough. To stop we bring the skis into the largest "V" shape that we can, and then push our knees together, so that the edges dig in even more. This creates the maximum resistance possible and should bring you to a stop. Please realise that whatever changes you make while snowploughing won't necessarily have an instant effect, it will take a few seconds to speed up/slow down etc, and a bit of patience is required.

Snowplough Animation

In the animation below you can see the 3D skier:

• Start to slide from having the poles out in front
• Come into a fuller snowplough as speed increases
• Make a larger snowplough to slow down
• Come back to a medium snowplough shape
• Make a smaller snowplough to speed up
• Come back to a medium snowplough shape
• Bring the knees closer together digging the edges dig in to slow down
• Return to a medium snowplough at the end

Common mistakes:

• Leaning back - It is important to make sure you keep your weight in the middle of the ski or the front of the ski will rise up and you will lose all control that part of the ski provided (longitudinal weight distribution).
• Trying to correct the skis when bumps in the snow push them out of position - Just keeping the weight evenly on both skis and trying to hold your initial position, will correct the skis automatically.
• Not making a big enough snowplough - To control your speed properly with the snowplough, you really need to be able to make the flattest "V" shape possible.

More general common mistakes can be found in the Common Mistakes page of the Learning to Ski section.

Tips:

• Until you are more confident with snowploughing, it is always good to practise on a gentle slope with a large flat area at the bottom (or a slight uphill slope at the bottom). This means in the case that you lose control and shoot straight down the slope, you will naturally come to a halt at the bottom without needing to do anything. On a slope like this there should be nothing to worry about as you should always be able to stop safely.
• Don't panic, a snowplough is a relatively slow manoeuvre and changes you make won't have an instant effect. Panicking to early can really slow down learning to snowplough.
• Taking ski lessons will introduce you to skiing exercises based on how people learn to ski in real life, so that you learn to snowplough with the correct technique.

On to the Snowplough Turns section.