Are you a leftie or a rightie?

I'm away on my last trip of the season on Saturday and want to really crack this problem with my technique and I know this is the place to ask.

Do you find when turning that one side is better than the other? Is it a left turn or is it a right turn? With me it is a left turn and I assume that it is due to me being right footed and hence my right foot is better and more co-ordinated. I find when turning right I cant really get on my edges, and only feel comfortable doing a heavy skid turn which kills all momentum. I know it is all down to practice but I was wondering what is the best exercises to correct this technical error?

On snow I'm fairly equal. On the drylope on my new skis i'm fairly equal. On dryslope on my old skis I can't turn left to save my life. Work that one out!

AJ, you are a one :thumbup:

Maybe your old skis are just two left skis?!

You would think. But swap them over - still can't turn left! I even tried them again the other week after skiing on my newer skis for a while. Still couldn't turn left. It was almost at the point of being dangerous!

ellistine its probably your googles again heehee :lol:


AJ Adele

I believe googles on the forehead can have that effect. There's a term for it that I can't quite recall at the moment :wink:

AJ, you are a one :thumbup:

Oi, Keith, you cant call them googles, thats my word, you nicked that off me in Mayrhofen..... :hunf:

Anyway, I used to find I could turn one way fine and the opposite not so well. Since I changed my skis and improved my own technique, I can now no longer notice any difference, and put it down to not skiing properly before, and also through being tired in my legs.

I do think though that one way does feel more natural than the other. I am left handed, and find that turning to the right feels slightly easier than turning to the left. Something to do with my left ski being the outer ski? I dont know.

Anyway, more importantly, does Ellistine GOGGLE for things on the internet?????

Just about everyone goes through an intermediate phase of turning more easily to one side or the other. Had to do a mental throw back, but my weak turn was left, strong one right. Don't know why, I am right handed.

Have previously suggested that our learning manifests in plateaus, ie a year comes around when we take a noticable step in capability. So I am fairly sure that there is a confidence/capability/speed level, where the difference disappears to the point where it cannot be noticed.

Then age steps in.

The bad news is, that when the knee joints start to fail, then for different reasons, a weak turn may appear. For normal skiing, I still display no difference in L/R turns, on steeper/fast/heavy deep/unpredictable slopes, my dodgy right knee leads to a weaker right turn.

I knew I should have kept the exercises going.......