Drifting on skis: let the parallel turn skid deliberately, dose the edge angle and control speed that way – with drills, mistakes and a safety check.
Drifting means skiing a parallel turn with deliberately skidding skis and dosing the edge angle so that you shed speed instead of gaining it. You do not cut through the snow, you push it sideways.
Why it works: on hard snow a skidding ski removes a thin layer of snow, much like a plane shaves wood [1]. That resistance brakes you. The models of ski mechanics researcher Komissarov describe side-slipping, traversing and the hockey stop with exactly this principle and explain the strikingly high friction values measured when skidding [2]. The larger the skid share, the more you brake; the sharper the edge, the more you cut.
Drifting complements carving, it is not its opposite. On Learning Level Red the German Ski Instructors Association lists "improve turn steering": vary edging movements (foot, knee and hip tilting) and vary counterbalance movements [4]. If you can vary the edge angle, you can choose between skidding and cutting.
Ski a parallel turn and deliberately keep the skis flatter. The skis skid sideways, the track gets wider. Milestone: three turns in which you can see the skid track.
Alternate between very flat and moderately edged. More edge = less skid. Less edge = more skid. Watch how your speed changes.
Start the turn with some skidding and then edge more in the second half of the turn. That way you brake first and gain hold at the end for the next turn.
Ski sometimes with more skidding, sometimes with more cutting, and feel the difference. The ratio of skidding to cutting is your brake.
Link the drifted turns into a series without making the radii hectic. Milestone: eight turns with the same skid share.
Fix: dose the edge, quiet upper body, do not let everything skid.
Play with the skid share like with a dimmer. Imagine the edge is a light switch with a dimmer: not on/off but continuous. Ski five levels deliberately and remember at which level your speed stays constant.
A practice plan for one session (practice, no study evidence):
Whoever can do both chooses consciously depending on terrain and no longer skis by chance.
A deliberately skidded parallel turn with a dosed edge angle. You push the snow sideways instead of cutting and shed speed doing so.
In carving the ski follows its track on edge and barely skids; in drifting it skids sideways on purpose. Drifting brakes through snow removal [1][2]; carving runs faster and saves energy – that is practice, not a measurement.
Not across the board. In one measurement knee loading was not consistently greater when carving than when skidding [3]. What matters are phase, direction of forces and sudden edge grabs [6].
On ice and very hard snow, in heavy traffic, or when you no longer have your speed under control. There you rather enlarge the radius and ski slower [5].
The Step Turn: Actively Stepping Onto the New Outer Ski