The Writer's Muse: Remember there will be a drawing at the end of the year for prizes for those who submit articles to the Newsletter. So if the Muse strikes you or even if it doesn't tell us about your Wintertime experiences. Anything goes. Who got ski socks for Christmas? Let's hear from you. Give Shad, the editor, some help in filling the space in the newsletter. I'm running out of stuff to write about too.

R&G Race Support Crew: I have a few volunteers. Who else is interested? We need to get organized by the end of Jan to support the City of Lakes Loppet. Remember if you volunteer to help at that race or participate you get a $5 refund on your club dues. Doing the R&G support crew counts as well. Duties would be managing equipment and clothing at the start of races. Taking racer's warm-ups over to the clothing trucks. It's gets cold standing at the start line in nothing much more than long underwear, so it's nice to keep warm with a wind-breaker and then throw it at the start. You can also be out on the course to hand up water bottles or take discarded clothing. (Usually pre-arranged with an individual) Or at the finish to help "Brain Dead" racers with their equipment. It's always nice to have an extra pair of hands at the finish especially when it's cold. Show em why this is the best club in the Cities. Join in the excitement of race day. We'll try to get some sort of bibs and signs so we're visible.

Steve's Report

Somewhat low turnout due to the Holidays I think, but fantastic skate conditions. No one wanted to go home. We were out there until 9PM. We broke into two groups by having the students climb out of the back bowl showing us their best V1. Then we split those off that looked like they needed some work to concentrate on that technique. The rest went with Kurt and Tom. I took the V1 group. We first took everyone and lined them up on the back bowl hill. Then they all assumed the strong-side V1 position as a static pose. We talked about how important it was to get in that position on each stroke of the V1 as they climbed the hill. The goal here was to demonstrate how to develop power while climbing. We exaggerated the strong side stroke by basically hanging on that pole (The Hang Pole) and hauling your body up the hill and then skating to the other side. A lot of people find it easier to do V1 on hills very one sided. That is we don't worry too much about skating to the strong side we sort of just fall to that side, double pole and then do a skate to the weak side. If you can develop a smooth flow with this approach it will get you climbing with ease. Once mastered we'll work at adjusting the skate motion so it's even on each side. (Think: Fall to the strong side, skate to the week side) Several people were still sitting back too much and as a result could not develop the power on the strong side to climb efficiently. I kept telling people to lean into the hill from their ankles but that's hard to do when your poling. So I took their poles away. This forced the students to lean forward in order to climb. Now everyone was in a much better climbing position. Then we added the poles and tried to stay in that position. We worked on this by just carrying the poles but only using them on a stoke here and there. Trying to keep that same forward lean as the poles were added every 5th stroke or so. Try it, you'll find it helps you stay forward when poling on V1. Then we went and found a strong side left hill to work on the same things. The back bowl hill is a strong side right hill.

You may notice I talk about V1 a lot. It's an important technique. You'll never be able to ski on a hilly course without mastering V1. it's also your "Bread and Butter" technique when you're tired or the snow is icy, slow or deep. So in other words just about all the time. Technically it's probably the hardest technique to master as it's very asymmetric and somewhat un-natural. Keep working at it V1 is your friend.

Kurt's Report

The entire intermediate skate group skied the north part of Como, until we got to the back side of the downhill area as a warm-up. Then we split into two groups: Steve Thatcher worked on V1 and uphills with about a third of the group. Tom and I took the rest over to the front side of the downhill ski area, then through the bridge and back to the large flat practice area. Our group worked on V2 and V2-alternate (field skate) for the rest of the evening. Everyone had a good motion and good balance so we worked on the fine points, mostly.

We encouraged everyone to bend at the elbows -- so that when they pole plant, the elbow is roughly at a right angle. This gives one more power by engaging the upper body and using one's weight to push down. We did a bunch of exercises to challenges ourselves. First we all tried V2, 3 or 4 times across the flat area. Then we worked on more elbow bend and getting long glide with a slow turnover rate. We also tried skiing on one foot and lifting the other off the snow, poling a few times and then switching feet as we went back and forth. This helps one feel what it's like to commit to one ski, so that your center of gravity is balanced over the ski. Next we tried V2 without poles, which I think is kind of harder, because the V2 hand motion without poles is just a 'flick' when the hands pass your thighs on the downstroke and then a long linger when your hands are up by your head. We also tried to skate V2 without poles and use big pushes, skiing like a sprinter would (or, as I like to think of it, speed skating with invisible poles). Both Tom and I felt that the group has really caught on and is doing V2 technique with style!

We did a number of similar progression-type things with the V2-alternate. Everyone got a chance to try both their dominant and non-dominant side, with poles and without. The V2-alternate rhythm is: launch, pole-skate. In one case I did see a skier using (without poles) a left-dominant lower body motion with a right-dominant upper body motion, which is minor error but an easy one to make. Just remember the right-dominant technique as follows: when pushing off with your left foot (right foot not yet in contact with the snow), the poles plant, the arms descend, and the right ski touches the snow as the hands pass the thighs. The right hand at the pole plant is a little higher than the left (1 to 2 inches or so). The right forearm is a little closer to vertical than the left one. The arm position at pole plant is about half-way between that of V2 and V1 (although this is somewhat a matter of opinion). This means that as you watch someone skiing toward you, the V2-alternate uppe r body motions are less laterally symmetric than V2 but more laterally symmetric than V1 (by 'laterally symmetric' I mean the left and right are mirror images of each other). Easier to show that to right out!

By the way, we should thank the snow gods for the nice conditions on Tuesday night!

Words from the editor - Shad Holland

Last Tuesday was possibly my best class ever! We did a fairly long ski loop right from the start. The conditions were great, the temp wasn't bad, and I did my V1 up the hill well enough to move to the V2 and Openfield group! My V1? I always thought that the V1 was my weakest link. But a few pointers so far this season have gotten me to start doing them better. Holding my stong side hand closer to my ear, not by putting my hand there but by leaning over the ski to get there, has really helped. Also the crunch and head motion (an oval as you complete the V1) really help! So a huge thanks to the coaches for teaching me how to V1 better than I ever have in the past. So after being excited about getting put into the fast group.....we practiced the V2 with Tom and Kurt. It was awesome! My glide was good (hint...I use Fastwax Pastewax SlickPro) and the snow was great!

One suggestion on writting in the newsletter. Tell us about your class experience. We get info from the coaches viewpoint, let's get some from the skiers viewpoint. Also, let's give our awesome coaches the credit they deserve.

I want to mention my experience using Fastwax Pastewax since Steve has brought in up in the last two newsletters. See Newsletter #4 for his instructions. It's good stuff and I only use the SlickPro. It is fluorinated and tends to last a decent amount of time. If I am going to do a long ski, I will usually wax with Sport Wax (non-fluorinated) traditional wax, then put 1 or 2 layers of pastwax on top. For shorter ski days, I will just throw on 1 layer of pastewax and be good. Shorter meaning 15K or less. 2 Layers will last longer though. Also, when applying I do use the iron. I do not touch the ski with the iron, I will just run the iron as close to the base as I can while set at about 250 - 300 and I rub with the heat pad right behind it. This works really well for me and is still quite quick and not as much effort as typical waxing. Then I take a fine brush (blue in my case) and go over the wax a few times to get all the excess off. I am not a waxing pro, but this has really worked well for me for quick waxing. For races, I take a bit more time and put on a couple of layers of traditional wax before a pastewax. On really cold days, I just put on traditional non-fluorinated wax and no pastewax since it's fluorinated. Usually blue traditional wax if it's below 18 degrees or teal if it's below 10 or so. I purchased white this year, we will see how that goes if end up using it. Anyway, if you are newer to skiing and don't get the waxing thing yet, experiment with a few different options. This one works for me, but may not work for everyone. Their website is here Fastwax

See you all next Tuesday!