To make your turns rounder in shape, in all sizes of turns we will have a look at your overall STANCE. If your stance is too narrow, that is to say your feet are too close together, your steering efficiency is reduced drastically.
To demonstrate this restriction on your steering hold your arms straight out in front of you so that your arms are parallel to the floor. Now with your hands palms up and your two thumbs touching try to turn your hand from left to right. You will notice that you have a limited amount of range as all of the turning action is happening from the wrists! Now do the same exercise, but this time widen the distance between your thumb by having your arm both parallel to the floor and to themselves (this will produce a gap of about 5 to 6 inches between your thumbs). You will notice as you know turn your hands from left to right the range of movement has increased drastically. The reason for this is that the turning action is now coming from the shoulders and not the wrists. Now if we say that your arms represent your legs, that the hands are your feet, your wrists represent your ankles and the shoulders are your hips, one can see that the same principles apply. By widening your stance on your skis you will be able to increase the range of your turn, but also your feet will begin to work independently of each other in the turn.
Now with this wider stance established for your turn create a lead change by moving the inside toe piece (up-hill ski) ahead of the outside toe piece (downhill ski) at the initiation of your turn. This change will allow your body to align properly and if this stance is maintained and combined with strong steering, you will feel the ability to steer a rounder arc through the bottom portion of your turn.
When attempting this for the first time use moderate terrain at a moderate speed. Then as you begin to master this change try it at higher speeds and more challenging terrain. You can also add variation by changing the size of your turns. The efforts at the initiation phase of the turn will feel mechanical and unnatural at first, but once again with more miles on the boards the will start to feel more subtle.
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