How To Handplant With Magnus Granér
Have you been looking to add a different flavour of style to your skiing lately? Well look no further, SkiManGuy (Magnus Graner) is back in the kitchen with a new tutorial, The Forward Handplant!
Handplants may seem difficult and unnatural at first, but rest assured these are a relatively easy trick that you can throw down all over the mountain. Before chucking away on snow, grab your Tramp Skis and practice this technique with our Trampoline Tutorial.
(Narrating/Riding: @SkiManGuy - Magnus Granér. Filming/Editing: @SkiManGuy - Magnus Granér.)
Where To Start
To learn the motions that make up the Handplant, find yourself a flat area to practice. While stationary, shift all of your weight over the tips of your skis and bring both of your hands down to the ground in front of you. Continue to shift your weight from your skis onto your hands until just your tips are still in contact with the ground and your tails are as high as possible.
Planking on planks. This is the point where you'll start your rotation.
From this point, it's time to get your spin on! Only once your tails are all the way up will you want to start initiating your 180 spin. Rotating too early will make it harder to get a proper pop from the Handplant and may throw you off balance while reaching for the plant.
Start by using two hands in order to achieve more stability. As you develop more confidence with this trick, you will want to start training the one handed plant to gain maximum style points!
"It's all about the core"
What looks sick and is more fun than doing sit-ups? You guessed it... the Handplant! Make sure that you're able to maintain a strong core throughout this trick, to avoid crumbling into a mess on the snow!
The Handplant Technique
Dialling in these basic techniques before attempting a Handplant with speed, makes learning this trick way easier and will help you to avoid getting a face full of snow.
Stepping It Up
Although you may always see sick shots of Handplants at the top of quarter pipes, this isn't the only place to throw them. While learning, find a mellow snow bank, where the consequences of crashing are lower.
Snow banks can be far easier and safer to learn Handplants on than quaterpipes.
Once you start bringing snow banks and quarter-pipes into the equation, it's time to get to grips with the final motion of the Handplant... Popping!
Much like the Peanut Butter, the technique of popping off your skis for the Handplant is similar to a Nollie. Whereby you will shift all of your weight over the front of your skis in order to generate your pop. The difference is that you want to follow the forward weight shift until you're able to use your momentum to jump from your skis onto your hands.
Work your way up to the top of the pipe!
Timing Is Key
Getting your timing down is critical to stomping this! When skiing up a bank/ quarter pipe, you're like a pendulum approaching the end of it's swing. Getting your Handplant down during that brief time in which you're weightless is the secret to success.
Make It Your Own
Now that you're looking pro with Forward Handplant's, it's time to start flexing. Find new locations, grabs and rotations out of your Handplant's, to show to control and add style.
Looking good there, mate!
Keen to see more tutorials from Magnus Granér? See what he has to say in his How To Wallie Tutorial.
Ollie Barbour
Ski Addiction
Helping You Ski Better
Want Even More Ski Training Tips?
Be sure to sign up to our newsletter to hear about our latest tutorials as soon as they drop.