"secrets" for cross county ski stridng on "classic" skis -- with focus on groomed set tracks
-- by
Ken Roberts
what's here
see also
"Secrets" of advanced
striding
The most frequent bothersome equipment problem for
Classic striding is buying skis that are too stiff.
So with waxable skis, when I want better grip, I find there is usually no harm
in applying the grip wax over larger portions of the base of my ski -- not just
the "wax pocket".
A typical problem is touching the non-pushing ski to
the ground for balance while still pushing with the other.
Another is leaning on a near-vertical pole during the leg-push.
So I can get a little better grip any time just by
pressing my toe. And better glide by pressing my heel.
This "offset" timing lets me use my pole
for balance-recovery and for longer stronger push -- without hindering grip friction needed for my
leg-push. Improves my glide, too.
Then I drop them forward onto my poles for
stronger push -- but only if I'm using the "offset"
timing of my pole-push.
It's tempting for athletic skiers like me to get more
leg-push by emphasizing the explosiveness. This feels powerful,
but it has undesirable side effects. It's more energy-efficient
and better for muscle stress and endurance to try to lengthen and smooth the
"kick".
Key differences from striding on gentle terrain: (a)
extra down-force beyond body-weight is
good; (b)
focus on maximum effectiveness of the strong leg muscles; (c) pole-push is simultaneous with leg-push.
Serious racers work lots on poling in the off-season,
and can go amazingly fast, even go up hills just using their poles. Poling
gets past the grip versus glide compromise of classic leg-push.
Poling offers a surprising number of opportunities for
smart tricks to increase power and speed.
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About these "Secrets"
OK -- I know that nobody is deliberately keeping any secrets about
Classic striding. But when I was trying to learn effective
striding technique on groomed set tracks, I read some books and websites, looked at videos, asked questions to
experienced skiers, and I didn't get these ideas right away.
Then I slowly discovered them one by
one -- from unexpected tips from other skiers, from analyzing videos of
elite racers, from trying out nice-sounding concepts and finding that
they didn't work for me.
Each idea seemed simple once
I learned it. Each one helped me. And each time I felt like, "How
come somebody didn't just write that down in plain English someplace
where I could read it?"
So they felt like buried secrets.
I guess sometimes the experts have been doing these
things right for so long, they forget they ever had to learn them
once. I decided I should write them down (mostly in the first
half of 2002) while I'm still
freshly learning them myself.
These are not all the most important things about classic
striding: To get more of those, take some lessons, watch an
instructional video or two -- see our Resources
for Learning page.
I learned these while practicing on groomed set tracks, most of them
also apply to ungroomed snow -- but the last three ideas are less
relevant to soft snow where the poles just sink in, and resists each
attempted step and glide.
If a couple of these "secrets" fill in
some gaps for you, great. Or if they help you ask some new questions,
great. If you've got some other "secrets", or some
improvements for one in this list, great -- please send us mail.
What is "advanced"?
Learning and practicing these "secrets" assumes that you
already understand and execute the "basic" techniques of
Classic cross country skiing, including things like:
-
how to stand and walk on skis
-
how to turn on flat terrain
-
how to fall safely and then get up
-
how to handle downhill slopes
-
how to handle curves
-
how to manage
the risks and
dangers of skiing
If you do not have these basic capabilities down solid already,
then do not try to practice or learn these "secrets".
Instead first take some lessons at a cross country ski center, and dig
into some of the Resources for
Learning.
Not because I am some expert authority or technique guru.
What I've tried to do is to present
-
my story of how I stumbled across each "secret".
-
experiments you can try with your skiing and your equipment, to
see if each secret works for you.
-
analysis from basic physics and biomechanics, which you can decide
if you agree with.
-
observations from videos of expert skiers and elite racers, which you can view in slow
motion and find if you see the key observations I did.
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What is "Classic Striding"?
Classic striding is the usual motion technique used by competent
cross country skiers when skiing in narrow set tracks, using both legs
and arms, keeping both skis always lined up straight with the skier's
motion.
It is also called "kick-and-glide" or "diagonal
stride".
Classic striding is very different from ski skating, where the skis
are angled out to the side from the direction of the skier's forward
motion (and thus a much wider groomed trail is required).
Classic striding is also different from the popular technique of
"shuffling" on skis in the narrow set tracks. Shuffling
is basically just walking on skis with some help from the ski poles.
The key difference is that in Classic striding there is an emphasis on
pushing off on one ski and then gliding on the other ski. For
more on how striding compares with other techniques, see
What
are the different forward motion techniques on Classic skis?
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