Some such sentence as “This is very slow,” repeated to oneself as one goes over any difficult ground, is a more potent spell than might be imagined.
BRAKING
If you wish to reduce your speed or stop, you can, as a rule, if you are not going fast—and sometimes even if you are—do so without altering your course, by making one or both skis move more or less broadside on. Although I am only now about to describe the different ways in which this may be done, you should begin to learn them at the very outset—or even before you try straight-running, if you are very nervous—and should certainly not attempt to run very fast until you can brake perfectly by every method described in this chapter, and are fairly proficient in the turns to be described later on.
Single-Stemming or Half-Snow-Plough.—For this find a moderate slope on which the snow is neither very soft nor so hard that you cannot possibly traverse it without side-slipping—an ordinary practice-ground in its normal state is just the thing.
Stand with your skis horizontally across the slope; weight the lower one; lift the upper, and place it pointing steeply enough downhill to slide perfectly freely, with its tip quite close to the other’s, but far enough behind it for the upper foot to be exactly above the lower one ([Fig. 28]).
