News from Steve…

Clothing Order: The clothing order is in process and should be available in a week or two. They just asked me for payment so it must be close. You can pay me on delivery. I’ll be sending out a reminder of who ordered what soon

PowerBar Order: A lot of stuff is out of stock on the ordering site. So I’m waiting a bit. Will probably order Jan 20th.

City of Lakes Loppet: I’ve got a few people who want to do the 10K Tour as a group. Let’s get some more. No racing. Just a leisurely tour, everyone staying together and finishing at the same time and have a good time. 10K Tour people get the same food stops and get to finish on the Mall in Uptown just like the racers. Let me know. We will have a veteran skier to accompany you. Anyone interested in doing it on wooden skis? Also volunteers. Jyneen is the club coordinator for volunteers for the COL. Contact her (jethatcher@att.net) if you can help. You get $5 rebate if you volunteer or tour or race.

Next Week: We hope to be at Como next week Jan 23rd. Coach Hank Will be running the show that night. So watch your e-mails for any last minute changes.

Lake Elmo Clinic: We got our snow so the clinic is a go. Get your friends to come out for a one hour free lesson. Check our website for more info.

Web site: I’ve talked to a number of people recently and discovered how few of them ever check our web site or even www.skinnyski.com There is an incredible amount of information on skinnyski and on our Club website. Skinnyski has a major update everyday and minor updates several times a day. You should definitely visit there when you’re looking for a place to ski. There’s lot of stuff on our site as well. Technique articles, photos, waxing info, etc. It is updated at least once a week on Sunday night Surf that web.

E-mail list: Very soon I will send out a spreadsheet that has everyone’s e-mail address on it. No phones or addresses, just e-mail. That way you can contact people you meet on class night.

Video taping: We need a weekend without a big race and with good snow conditions. I’m thinking Vasa weekend Saturday ( Feb 10th). No hard skiing, just short video sessions. More info later. Remember to pick up a USB thumb drive if you don’t have one. You will be able to take your video home that way and watch it on your own computer. They have small ones at Target in the checkout lines for about $6. Everyone who has a PC should have one anyway.

Coach Ed, Steve, and Randee lead a group of about 25 out on our first Como “on snow” session of the season. We skied in front of the parking lot where the snow seemed consistent and with access to hills at each end. It was discovered by several and discussed at length the importantance of properly wax skis. This week’s conditions warranted a cold hard wax, Start green. Swix CH4 or Fastwax white. Training and learning on skis waxed properly always makes for a quality experience. If anybody needs help or has more questions with ski waxing, ask a coach for help and / or advise!

Next a demonstration of the V2 alternate. A faster more relaxed technique and can be almost effortless when done properly.

Some comments and analogies were made. Comparing skiing to sex (?) . . . If you weren’t there, Ed will have to explain that one to you. See what you miss if you don’t come to class!

It was brisk at the start and became “brisker” as the night wore on but as long as you kept moving the cold didn’t have a chance to penetrate! Now that there is snow (minimal at best) in the metro area, get out there and practice your moves. After all, practice makes perfect!

Ski on -Coach Steve

It was a cold, slow and very dark night. All three of those aspects contributed to making it harder than usual to ski. With snow that slow it’s hard to do some of the drills because you don’t have enough glide to do them. V1 was about the only thing that wasn’t too difficult. Sorry if we seemed a little disorganized but with the darkness and large group things just didn’t flow like they usually do. We split the intermediates up into two groups. Those that seemed to have mastered V1 and those that still needed a little tweaking. Everyone was really pretty good and I had a hard time separating the people into two groups. Most of the points were pretty subtle, so which group you ended up in was very subjective. For the most part the V1 I saw through the darkness looked pretty good. I can’t stress enough the position drills we did inside before we went out. You should really practice those positions in front of a mirror. Those are the exact positions you should progress through while V1’ing on easy terrain. Look at the V1 article with stills and video on the web site and then try to replicate those positions indoors. Use a mirror and see what you really look like. Body awareness is a big part of technique. Knowing were your hands and feet and legs are. Then visualize and then go out a ski easy, as Gene says in his report. Skiing slowly while concentrating on positioning and timing is a good way to develop your technique. Since my group was pretty proficient at V1 we worked on V2 for most of the night and then quit a bit early as everyone was freezing. The big thing we stressed was relaxation of the arms and shoulders. Shoulder width or wider pole plants and poling with the lower arms (below the elbow). Light easy wrist flicks for a poling motion. We are trying to learn what I call the “Resting V2” Not the full out “Sprinting V2” That can come later after you can relax and cruise your V2. The slow snow actually made this more difficult than normal so don’t be too concerned if you had trouble. A lot of people’s technique was suffering due to the slow conditions.

Thanks for coming!

Steve

I filled in with the intermediate skate group, working with those who were still struggling with V1. Learning to V1 well depends on putting together a number of pieces, which takes some time and lots of practice (and patience). Hopefully, in spite of cold and darkness and limited snow conditions - thanks Katie for keeping us moving! - class members made some progress. Key points, not in the order worked on:

- Basic ski stance always includes flexed ankles, with more or less flex depending on the terrain. In all skiing, there should be a feel of at least "soft" ankles (slight flex). Knee flex follows degree of ankle flex.

- Ski in a compact way (ski "small"): feet, arms, hands in close to have more efficiency and allow for more balanced, stable skiing. Slow down and ski in control. Faster skiing starts from learning to ski well slowly, and this process helps give one a better sense of growth and accomplishment.

- Skate with skis close to the snow. Lifting and stepping are wasted motions (except in deep snow). The non-gliding ski naturally returns as a result of a good push on the gliding side. Practice this a lot without poles.

- As the terrain goes up, pick up the tempo and take shorter skates. Use your legs (and ankles), keeping the upper body "quiet" (not twisting). Keep the skis moving!

- V-1 Poling: Start glide-side (or strong side) poling by getting the hand up high. Then plant with an ab crunch and impulse on the pole, driving the hand through to the hip. This initial motion is where acceleration and power are created, and allows the other pieces to fall into place (legs, weight shift to the other side). Pole straight down and through while keeping the shoulders as level as possible (a little lowering of the shoulder will happen naturally - a big dip is counterproductive). The off-side pole hand should be about mid-chest height. Having it up high inhibits the torso's motion.

- Poling 2: Turning your elbows out to the side at least to diagonal like a butterfly swimmer raises and opens the torso for better use of upper body muscles. However, there should be no stretching or tension ("chicken wings").

Take each piece and devote part (or all) of a practice session to it, and enjoy as the ability and ease of skating grows.

Happy practice!

Gene

Only 4 people raised their hands identifying themselves as classic skiers, so we figured we'd have lots of time for personal attention. But on the way outside, we picked up 9 more skiers, and eventually 2 more found us out on the Glacier. So with the wide range of abilities, we tried to keep the group moving, and improving. We spent a lot of time just skiing back and forth beneath the lights. The set tracks were very glazed and washed out, so they didn't offer much control, so we set more tracks in the loose snow. They worked much better to achieve more kick. So as the skiers skied, Arvid and I would pull out individuals for personal correction. After a while, we reverted to simple reminder calls:

Arms back: full follow-through of the arm swing, to maximize the glide time Kick, kick: bend that knee more to get a stronger kick, which will give more distance per stride, and more traction on the uphills Knee, knee: lead with the knee; drive the knee forward, not the toe, to better position yourself for the next stride, and also correct a too-upright posture.

Sometime after 8:15, some of the folks departed, but 8 of us headed around to the other side of the course, to check out conditions. Found bare patches in the tracks, and slick skate/herringbone lanes, and a bit of a headwind. Decided we had selected the best place on the course for class. Also got to ski in the dark when the lights were turned off. But Steve was waiting patiently for us to get back (9:02), and admitted that we were the hardiest group out there. Actually, he just confirmed that cold temperatures were more of a problem for skaters than classic.

But I'm so impressed with the sisu of our group. Everyone has pushed themselves to do more than has been expected, but no one has made stupid decisions. I fully respect those who chose to walk down terrifying hills, or remove themselves from the dangerous ice crust of last week. And I'm in awe of those who have braved the Elm Creek Freeway at rush hour, and lived to tell about it.