A term to never use,,,,on slope and off slope!!

Tony,

You are right on the mark for many reasons.
First no child should go down "without" a guide. A parent or instructor to find best path !
The child then focuses on the back of the leader and not on where to go (often straight)

Second the child is doing all the "mechanics" which must be "forgotten" soon since they are all not allowing ski to flow, ,,,,,,to the slide on snow with grace !

The greatest harm is "mental" since child is fighting speed and slope rather than be comfortable in skiing ( not braking) slowly and using hill geometry to slow down ! A very valuable skill to learn early!

By the way,,I do snowplow sometimes, but is is done in specific context, for a specific reason! It is never done all the way down a slope! My knees could not stand it !

Why begin skiing with all the hard skills like snow plowing! It is so much easier to let skis do all the work. You just have to learn to "suggest to them where to go" .
It is like a marriage. Trying to "resist the force of love" will just cause weak knees, sore back, very very tired muscles!
It is best to suggest with style, patience and form !

As it is said, "resistance is futile" !

I must say I struggle to snow plough these days :roll:

Use of snowplough for occasional control was not the issue. It is whether or not a person is taught this as a first learning tool.

I had dinner on Saturday night with Peter Habeler, from Mayrhofen. He owns a ski school there, (and he was the climbing partner of Reinhold Messner, in the first oxygen-less ascent of Everest)

We discussed this issue. He agreed that the snowplough was an initial learning tool, but that the pupil should be quickly moved on to carve control. Hence we both see this the same way.

On the subject of parental control of young skiers, in my resort, parents would be frowned upon by their friends, if they did not ski one parent above, and one parent below. It would be unusual to see anything different.

Ian Wickham wrote:I must say I struggle to snow plough these days :roll:

It is also VERY hardwork!!! How did I manage to ski for a week with skis at that odd angle?

Dave Mac wrote:Use of snowplough for occasional control was not the issue. It is whether or not a person is taught this as a first learning tool.

I had dinner on Saturday night with Peter Habeler, from Mayrhofen. He owns a ski school there, (and he was the climbing partner of Reinhold Messner, in the first oxygen-less ascent of Everest)

We discussed this issue. He agreed that the snowplough was an initial learning tool, but that the pupil should be quickly moved on to carve control. Hence we both see this the same way.

On the subject of parental control of young skiers, in my resort, parents would be frowned upon by their friends, if they did not ski one parent above, and one parent below. It would be unusual to see anything different.

I've come across Peter, his ski school has a good rep in the Ziller.
I totally agree with both your assessments. Learn, bin and move on.

Regarding kids, does that mean you frown upon single parent families then?

Much of the problem is in how it is taught. A slight wedge with feet shoulder width apart, will quickly become parallel skis. The movements to start a turn are same as those for parallel turns. A wide snowplough, which is constantly used as a brake teaches very little of the movements needed for good skiing. In fact it encourages some bad habits to form. Even experienced racers can't maintain a good stance while snowploughing to smooth out a race course.

The Snow plough is taught for the control of speed, once confidence is gained that you can stop or slow down when required then peps can move on to and have the confidence to gain enough speed to initiate a Parallel turn.

A Snow Plough stop is still better than a Parallel crash!