Learn short-radius turns: short radii, small edge work and rhythm on medium to steep terrain. With milestones, common mistakes and safety notes.
Short-radius turning means linking many short turns rhythmically: you keep speed small in the fall line by finishing each turn quickly and starting the next right away. That keeps you in control even on steep slopes.
The steeper it gets, the shorter the turns that keep you safe.
Honest about the time: whoever rides the skidded turn on blue runs usually needs several days for short turns until the rhythm sits. That is a rule of thumb from teaching, not a study figure.
The basic idea comes from the DSLV curriculum: a turn consists of transition and steering, and in the transition you shift your center of mass forward into the new turn direction [1]. In short turns this happens constantly. The DSLV adds movement flow: end movements become new lead-in movements, so the phases overlap [1].
The association also warns: the harder the situation, the narrower the room for effective movements [1]. On a steep run you therefore have less tolerance for error than on the beginner slope.
On a medium-steep slope ride turns and switch faster from uphill to downhill edge. Milestone: you change edges without sliding straight between the turns.
Deliberately make smaller arcs. The center of mass moves early into the new direction [1]. Milestone: ten turns in the same small radius.
Say the beat to yourself, for example "left, right, left, right". Movement flow arises when each end movement is the lead-in of the next [1]. Milestone: you hold the rhythm over 20 turns.
Go to a red slope. Your body must now build more pressure, the turns get shorter [1]. Milestone: you ride a red run continuously in short turns.
Vary speed and radius: sometimes higher and wider, sometimes lower and tighter. Milestone: you ride 30 turns without a pause and can stop at any time.
Short-radius turning is rhythm, and rhythm can be trained. One exercise: ride 15 turns at a beat of two seconds per turn, then 15 at a beat of one second. You quickly notice that the radius has to get smaller when the beat gets faster. The DSLV describes movement flow as an overlap of phases [1], and exactly this overlap you practice here. The timings are exercise suggestions, not study norms.
A second exercise: ride a line on a medium-steep slope and keep the radius constant even when it gets steeper. Then you notice where you unconsciously get bigger. Whoever recognizes that can correct it.
In the warm-up it helps to do squats and lunges so the legs are ready for the rhythm. That is practical knowledge.
This guide does not replace a course. It applies to secured, groomed runs, not to terrain off the piste.
Do not focus on the turn but on the transition. The turn arises from the change. If you make the change fast and soft, the rhythm comes by itself.
The best short turn has hardly any pause between the edges.
Short-radius turns are short, rhythmically linked turns with short edge work, mostly on medium-steep to steep terrain. With them you control speed in the fall line.
First speed up the edge change, then reduce the radius, then find the rhythm. The DSLV describes the transition as an edge, weight and turn-lean change [1]. Practice on medium-steep slopes before you go to steep terrain.
Steep enough to challenge you, but not so steep that you lose control. The DSLV warns that the room narrows as difficulty rises [1].
On steep terrain and in narrow passages, because you keep speed small. Long turns build more speed in the fall line.
It helps. The legs work constantly. A pilot study found larger joint moments in the snowboard turn [2], but it is small and does not prove a training recommendation.
In short-radius turns the board may skid under control, in carving it moves exclusively along the edge. Short-radius turns are thus the more robust way to ride steep runs (practical knowledge).
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