In this instructional video, Tom Gellie demonstrates how the snowplow (wedge) stance—typically seen as a beginner’s position—can be repurposed as a focused drill to improve short turn performance. He explains that the critical element of a short turn is a strong, balanced edge at the turn’s end, and the snowplow allows skiers to repeatedly simulate that end‑position quickly on gentle terrain. The drill emphasizes keeping the ski tips close together, applying rapid, progressive edge pressure on one foot at a time, and maintaining the hips inside the ski edge to create a stable platform. Gellie highlights the importance of a distinct steering phase followed by an edge‑lock phase, and he points out common errors such as hips drifting outside the edge, skipping the steering brush, or locking the edge too early. He also describes how the snowplow shape promotes upper‑body/lower‑body separation, helping the skier feel the thigh/hip muscles engage while the core stays active. A demonstration by Demelza Clay shows the transition from the snowplow “veidel” into a parallel turn, reinforcing the progression. Finally, Gellie advises practicing on a run that transitions from flat to steeper, removing the wedge at the end of the drill to finish in parallel, and he promotes his Big Picture Skiing platform for further lessons.
Chapters
I have a tip for you that is really going to help your short turns, and it starts with using a snowplow. And a lot of people think that a snowplow position is just for beginners or to stop as you come into the lift line. However, I love using this shape and position to help working on my short turns. So here's the thing, in a short turn the most critical thing you're after is a position of a strong balanced edge at the end of the turn, where your skis are pointed enough that it slows you down and gives you a bit of deflection. Okay, so it's this point and the end that I'm really most concerned with. So I can use the snowplow to just simulate more rapidly, more quickly, end position, end position, end position. I can practice so many times on terrain like this, which is usually underutilized and you're just straight lining to get somewhere. Use this terrain to help work on it. So a fantastic thing about the snowplow position too is you can work on one leg at a time, the outside foot the outside foot, this quick motion, which is definitely what is occurring when you make a good short turn. So the key thing is get yourself in a snowplow with your ski tips nearly touching, like basically try and keep a tennis ball width between here, don't let it open apart. So if I maintain the snowplow position, now I just want to focus on this position of edging and edging and pressure on one foot and then the other. So watch me as I come down here, practicing on this really gentle slope. So I'm maintaining the tips close together, so that's my legs turned inwards, simulating the end of the turn, and then I'm going to make a rapid pressure to the edge, tilting my ankle, rolling my thigh inwards more to get some edge grip. This is not it. I'm not looking for skidding to slow. I'm not looking for skidding to slow down. I'm looking for my steering angle to be set, edge lock. Steering angle to be set, edge lock. One problem I'm going to anticipate now is that your hips are going to be on the outside of every turn. As you follow me down here from the back, notice how my hips are inside of my snowplow shape at all times, and that's what gives me strength and alignment when the ski grips. So here's the problem: as you go to grip, your hip's on the outside, outside, instead of being on the Inside, inside, inside. Not on the outside, not on the outside, but rather inside of the edge. Another problem you might be making is when you go to initiate it, you don't have a little steering phase and then edge it, you just lock it on the edge. Remember, this is to simulate the setting up for that really important end of the turn. As I'm setting up before the edge locks, there is this pivoting motion that is occurring. So here's the common problem: while this is an exercise, it doesn't help me with my short turns. I want to steer, edge set, steer, edge set, steer, edge set. It is this going from a steering brushing ski to a solidly locked ski that is the feeling I get when I make a short turn. So not just stroke straight on rolled, but rather guided, gradually pressured, some max pressure edge.
Here's a top-down view to help you see my hips be inside of the ski edge before I set it, as well as the little steering phase and the edge set phase. If you're wondering why you'd bother keeping this triangle snowplow shape, then I'll do my best to explain why I do it right now. For me, this inside leg kept in the snowplow shape helps to stabilize my pelvis and upper body.. It helps me to create separation between where the skis are going to learn to eventually go and where my upper body is going. Another way of thinking about this is thinking about your inside leg being in sync with where your upper body is going, so you can learn to teach your outside leg to move separately. This upper and lower body separation is a key skill great skiers learn to develop, and using the snowplow shape is one of the easiest ways to learn to feel how to do that. The feeling that I get from creating this separation is really felt around the thigh and the hip muscles. So I want you to try and work out what this feels like for you, not to overdo it. Notice how small the snowplow shape is, but definitely get that sensation of a difference of turning the legs against where your pelvis and upper body is going. I also really feel that my core stays engaged so I can really work the lower legs against the upper body. Here we can see my good friend Demelza Clay demonstrate the snowplow veidel, as it's called, going into a short turn. This is perfect terrain that Demelza can work from the snowplow shape into a parallel turn. Notice how she makes that steering movement, stabilizes the upper body using the inside leg to help, and then gets that edge-set sort of sensation right through the end as she's coming up here, and here, and right here. This is the progression we'd recommend, going from the snowplow Vadl, keep the feelings and start to bring your skis parallel.
Once you've fixed a few of the common problems, find an area where, like the ideal run is where it goes flatter to steeper, and you can actually work on the snowplow, finish position on the easier part, as you roll over you just take away the wedge and make your skis parallel. So watch me as I go down here, working on the guided steered position to the edge, remember I'm just focused on that end point and the feelings I get from the drill of right here solid, turn across the hill, right here and solid, and when I go into short turns that's the only thing, keep it simple, Follow me. Okay, so in summary, the snowplough is not something just for the beginner level. Utilise it on some easier cat-track runs to help work on your short turns. Remember, keep it simple. It's just simulating the end position where you really need a strong platform. On a steeper run, the thing that goes wrong is the ski is not on a strong platform, you get out of bounds because it's not gripping, you're not in the right place. This snowplough short turn exercise can help you just focus on that part. So work on that, fix the common problems, and then just start looking for the same feeling. Don't overthink it. Feeling at the end, feeling at the end makes things much easier. I think you're going to find it way more fun to now ski some short turns. Thanks for watching. If you like the way I coach and teach, there are so many more videos on the Big Picture Skiing website. There's a free trial. You can check it out risk-free, but go find out about carving, moguls, basic parallel turns, and I keep adding videos every single month. So join the growing community of people improving their skiing faster than ever before. I look forward to seeing you in the Big Picture Skiing community soon. Thanks for watching.
