Timeless Tips: Javelin Turn

By Ron LeMaster

1967: You need balance, courage and most of all proper angulation for a good sharp parallel turn. All these qualities can be built up by a little acrobatic exercise which I call the Javelin Turn, but which is really an exaggerated, intentional crossing of the fronts of the skis. There is no other exercise that illustrates so clearly how the hip must be placed for angulation in the parallel turn. In normal parallel skiing, the inside ski, boot, leg and hip must lead the turn. In the Javelin, the inside of the body has to lead or you will fall.
To practice the Javelin turn, start off as in any parallel turn, and then pick up the inside ski of the turn. As the turn progresses, keep pointing the tip of the lifted ski farther and farther to the outside of the turn, so that by the end of the turn, the lifted ski is at right angles to the tracking ski. Make sure to keep the tip of the lifted ski well off the snow.

Two or three Javelin turns early in the day will get you set in the correct, powerful “lead with the inside” that is the secret of a really good carved parallel turn. —Arthur Furrer (Ski School Director, Bolton Valley, Vermont)

2019: The exercise described here has been in constant use by savvy instructors and coaches since it was described in the pages of SKI Magazine by Art Furrer in 1967. A Swiss “trick skier” who was featured many times in SKI during the 1960s, Furrer named the maneuver after the model of ski he promoted at the time: the Hart Javelin.

To this day, the Javelin Turn is the go-to exercise for developing good hip angulation and its concomitant countered posture, in which the pelvis and torso face somewhat toward the outside or downhill ski. That posture is a key element of what American instructors commonly refer to now as “upper and lower body separation.” Javelin turns also demand that the skier balance over the outside ski, another important skill.

This article first appeared in the January-February 2020 issue of Skiing History.