Change skiing stance

[Mikekk]

Has anyone ever tried to change from right foot forward to left foot forward?

[Horton]

Yes but try writing with your other hand if you want to know how hard it would be.

[lpskier]

I disagree with @Horton. Writing with your opposite hand is much easier.

 

A friend of mine had back problems for years. Long story short he saw a new doctor that happened to know something about skiing. Told my buddy to swap front feet. It took a summer for him to get the hang of it, but his back pain is gone and I think he is a better skier. He skis only open water so there are no scores to compare.

[Dirt]

@lpskier that is funny. A friend of mine who I won't name came out to ski with us when Stillwater was still open. Dr. Fritz Harsch"s chiropractor had recommended he switch feet skiing.

We laughed at him until he got up, made his opener and five additional passes.

I don't think many of us could make a deep water start.

[Rednucleus]

This would be a fun topic to have everyone try and report back on results - or injuries!

[Zman]

@Rednucleus Cool. You first!

[ReallyGottaSki]

I suspect it works for those who clearly started skiing with the wrong (for them) foot forward in the first place.

Usually heavy rear bias and water breaking off the ski behind the front heel.

[ScottScott]

I tried getting up on a wakeboard wrong foot forward once. It took 3-4 tries and a lot of cussing. I can't imagine getting up on a slalom wrong foot (opposite of what i'm used to) forward.

[Ryota]

Tried before once and ran 52k/18m with gates. I was proud of myself!

[Jordan]

Well, just like handedness, some of us are very one foot dominant and some are to varying degrees ambidextrous.

 

So, for some it won't make that big a difference while for others it will be nearly impossible.

[BraceMaker]

I tried it quite a lot one summer free skiing. After breaking my femur it took me a long time to get used to skiing and I broke my front let so it was hard for me to get weight back onto it and I just couldn't get my weight back onto it. So I tried LFF for almost every set that summer. What ended it for me is that I never could get an offside turn to work.

[jakecuz23]

I tried to ski with my feet switched just for fun, I spent 30 mins trying to get up and was unsuccessful. Way harder than I though it was going to be.

[RRGR]

I'm not a great skier, skied the course @ '15 off 32/34/36 quite a few years ago, and only free ski now. I had a pretty bad ankle injury last year, so I am going to try switching feet (from LFF to RFF).

 

I learned to slalom LFF, right handed, right foot/leg is definitely dominant (a bit stronger, and most certainly better balance), skateboard LFF, snowboard/surf RFF, golf right, hockey stick left, etc. So I am hoping RFF won't be too bad.

 

new ski set up should be here next week, and the boat comes out in early May, so we will see...

 

Ill try to remember to update, and take some videos (as requested on other threads).

[customski]

I'm going to try next free ski day.

[liquid d]

Be sure to reverse your grip.

[Orlando76]

I’m most likely going to switch and honestly try LFF after destroying my leg in October. Its going to be a year, more like 18 months from accident until I’ll be able to attempt skiing. I’m afraid my right foot just won’t be up to par again. My left foots strength and dominance has improved. After 18 months will my muscle memory in my right leg deteriorate enough to be successful at switching? We’ll see. Bad thing is when I won’t ski again without a release and almost all releases/bindings are foot forward specific.

[BraceMaker]

^not the mob

[Orlando76]

@BraceMaker true, that’s why I said almost all. But with the MOB I have to use hard shells which are all specific or soft shells which helped get me in this situation. And from what I understand soft shells aren’t wise with a release.

[wilecoyote]

I did it a few years ago, due to knee injury and it took very little time for it to feel natural but I do think I'm in the group who started skiing with the wrong foot forward. I'm a 15offer so not much at stake in my case.

[BraceMaker]

@Orlando76 soft shells are fine so long as you can convert the laces to not let your foot out. For instance on many soft shell bindings like radar or Connelly sync you may need to cut the bungie's and then restring with paracord.

[BraceMaker]

Nice thing is you could buy a set of soft binders and swap between left or right foot bindings in a single set.

[customski]

So over the last month I've tried rff instead of lff. Its fun and I've got up to running the course at 30 mph. Apart from the fun I'm finding using the muscles on the other side of the body beneficial. Got a long way to go to match the left side but it certainly makes you think and takes some seriousness out of it.

[braindamage]

I made the switch while a teenager. My dad said that because was right handed I should ski rff. I switched to lff after reading an article in waterski magazine during my 3rd summer and immediately improved. That was a looong time ago.