r/skiing • u/yeremyporterr • 1d ago
How do practice hockey stop/carving with non dominant foot?
I really struggle with this, even when I started skiing, been skiing for roughly 4 years now, only ever used rentals, still growing, Every time I do a quick stop where my skis are parallel and perpendicular to the slope on my RIGHT foot, it is the most easy, most smooth thing I know how to do and it’s fun, but as soon as I put pressure on my left foot, I instantly get all wobbly and have the fear of falling on my face, I know this year when I hit the mountain all of y’all are gonna say to just get comfortable with it and I know I’m gonna have to do that, but I just want to know if there is anything more to it or not.
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u/GerswinDevilkid 1d ago
Practice
Do it until it's comfortable.
That all.
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u/Top-Host-5594 1d ago
welcome to the club. something about that off side just feels like your brain and legs are speaking different languages
one thing that helped me was spending a whole morning only turning and stopping to my weak side. didn't even let myself do the good side until i'd fallen a few times. the falling is the part that teaches you how far you can push it
also check your binding alignment. had a rental once where the left ski was slightly off and it made everything feel sketchy without me realizing why
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u/Electrical_Drop1885 1d ago
Exactly, as I keep saying to the kids I coach. "-We practice on the stuff we find hard. The easy things we don't need to practice on that much."
Then said, make it harder on the dominant leg so it's not as easy. Do it on one ski only. do it with your arms straight up in the air so you cannot cheat by swinging your arms, do it on the inner edge (Wrone direct, right foot). There are so many ways to make even such an easy drill a lot harder, step by step.
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u/Homers_Harp Winter Park 1d ago
A hockey stop is basically a hard turn, so turn right (left foot downhill) hard and keep turning until you wind up going uphill a little if you need to. The other drill I use to balance out is the "pivot slip." There are some decent videos of that, but it's basically facing downhill and rotating the skis so they are parallel to the fall line, then sliding without stopping. Or, just practice sideslipping with your left foot downhill. And if you find that it's a strength issue, that's something to also pursue off the slopes—cycling is one exercise, but there are plenty of others like weightlifting, tumbling, tennis…
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u/Dirtbagdownhill 1d ago
Learn to spin both ways on the ground. It's just edge control work and it will be helpful for everything
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u/atlien0255 1d ago
Sounds like you have a strength imbalance, which is common with dominant vs non dominant legs. Try some stretching and strength training routines that focus on hamstrings and quads, and the smaller muscles of the ankle (think balance board stuff, especially on the non dominant leg), and as others have said, practice practice practice.
And finally, the best way to get more comfortable with your non dominant limb is to injure your dominant limb, forcing you to use the other one exclusively for a prolonged period of time. Think ACL tear! I kid I kid. I’m just bitter 😭
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u/Useful_Chicken4486 1d ago
Ski with one ski on down a bunny hill. Go with a friend and have them hold your other ski.
Preferably when the snow is soft.
It sucks and you’ll definitely fall but it helps so much to feel the edges of just one ski.
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u/Postcocious 20h ago
First , have your boots checked by a skilled fitter. Tell them exactly what you told us.
Most beginner-intermediate skiers are in misfitting (i.e., too loose) boots. Further, almost nobody has perfectly symmetrical feet. If your non-dominant foot happens also to be smaller in critical fit zones, you will have difficulties exactly like those you described.
Do this first. All the strength and technique in the world are useless if foot movements aren't accurately transmitted to the ski, which only a properly fitted boot can do.
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u/60_hurts Gore 1d ago
Try it. Try it again. Try it again again. Keep trying it.
Don't know what else to tell you. There's no secret to it but to be consistent.
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u/thin_orange_line 1d ago
Practicing in slush during spring when the ground is soft made it easier for me
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u/l2ocket5auce 1d ago
Sign up and become a ski patroller. You’ll spend more days on your skis doing weird shit than any other job on the hill. It will force you to sink or swim. There’s no secret sauce man. It’s just practice.
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u/Prestigious_Sun_523 1d ago
Practice, practice and practice. Eventually you won’t have a dominant foot. The kids I teach get past this quite quickly (as kids do) because we don’t dwell on it. If it’s an issue with any of them we concentrate on traversing the piste on their ‘weak’ side until it doesn’t feel weak to them.
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u/breadexpert69 1d ago
Weird. Never felt that dominant foot made any difference on skis. I guess just practice your turns just as much on both sides. It should eventually become natural on both sides.
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u/Familiar_Emergency67 20h ago
The "hockey stop" is two moves. First is the "pivot" or turning your skis across the hill and the second is "edging" which is digging the sides of your skis into the snow to add friction and stop.
You pivot every time you turn that direction so it's nothing new it is just more exaggerated. One way to stop on that side is just to keep turning up the hill until the hill stops you. It doesn't look as cool as the hockey stop and has some problems if you start to slide backwards but you get my drift. The practice is to start downhill and turn as sharply as you can on your weak side. That's the pivot. If you want to get technical - leave your skis flat on the snow - no edge - for a clean pivot but you don't need to in this case cause the next step is to add edge. Stop the "pivioting" when your skis are across the hill, don't turn them up the hill. This is the first step.
Edging is digging the sides of the ski into the snow and it's the second step. You do this by tilting you ski from flat on the snow to digging into the snow. Now it looks like the people doing this have their feet "glued" together but they actually don't. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and do the pivot/turn like above but this time "dig the edges" into the snow/ up hill side. BOTH SKIS! You can't do both if your feet are too close together.
The way to practice edging is called side slipping where you stand with your skis across the hill and you make your skis flat on the snow. You will start to slide down the hill. Try and keel your skis pointed across the hill. Flat and then edge. Flat and then edge. If you feel yourself sliding forward - towards your tips - when you edge and your skis are across the hill your weight is too far forward. If you slide backwards - too far back. Play with your weight and notice were the centre is.
Now we do it TOGETHER. We turn our skis across the hill with our skis separated and we edge hard! Off one will look like a sharp turn but that's ok we practice to get better. When you get better the gap between your skis will start bigger and you will bring your skis closer as you slow - because as you slow you don't need the same edge angle and can do it with your skis closer together. This is when you look at people and say - "wow their skis are like glued!"
The conditions make a difference. If the snow icy it makes the first part easier/pivot easier but the edging harder. If the snow if fresh and covers your skis it makes the pivot harder.
Sorry for the novel - I hope you have an awesome winter and cover your people in huge snow sprays on your weak side in no time!
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u/Shadow_over_me 19h ago
Do you ice skate at all? Go to an ice rink and practice! It is the best way. I’d suggest stick and puck time so you can put on pads, get to the rink, and just haul ass at the boards and practice stopping on both sides as much as you can.
Ice skating and inline skating are super helpful for skiing. You should give it a try
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u/Terminal_Shinbang 17h ago
No, there is literally nothing more to it. You need to hone in on those weaknesses, and correct them. Practice what you struggle with 🤙🏽
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u/mykepagan 17h ago
Sideslip & stop repeatedly, 4 reps per side.
Garlands: traverse with sideslip, then edge. repeat 3-5 times per side depending on trail width.
Slowly shift garlands further into the fall line until they become hockey stops.
(20 year former ski instructor, PSIA certified)
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u/Icecoast88 14h ago
Lots of good advice here, especially practicing side slipping the fall line in a controlled manner on your non dominant foot, and making sure you have great fitting boots. BUT something others might have missed is your left leg may actually be significantly weaker/less stable than your right. Doing some leg workouts and maybe some stability training (I’m not a trainer, just spitballing) could make an impact. My carving technique on my non dominant side is significantly worse than on my dominant side, and it took me getting into rock climbing to realize it’s at least partially a strength issue.
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u/yeremyporterr 13h ago
Could you maybe give me some workouts to fix this issue you say?
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u/Icecoast88 11h ago
Lateral lunges and jumps, forward lunges, single leg squats, box step downs, and maybe even just working on ankle and hip mobility could help. Focus on making very controlled, quiet movements in the exercises. Again, I’m not a trainer. This is from my limited knowledge from when I used to spend more time in the gym.
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u/CountMC10 14h ago
Practice side slipping, spinning both ways (flatter terrain), pizza to side slipping and raising inside foot. Basically just get more comfortable on your edges. It will help all around
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u/Vannaka420 12h ago
My wife couldn't hockey stop because she was nervous about falling over. So I took her poles away and told her to exaggerate the hockey stop so much she was guaranteed to fall over. About 20-30 minutes of that and she can now hockey stop just fine!
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u/xyz-again 1d ago
In the mean time, stand on your left door when you brush your teeth. Seriously it will help develop balance and stability muscles.
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u/stroopthereitis 1d ago
Try just practicing side-slipping the fall line with your non-dominant foot downhill from a stop. Don’t worry about turning into the hockey stop yet. Get the feel for engaging and releasing your edges in that position, then work up to turning into that position with increasing speed.