News from Steve…
Breaking news: COL event start times on Sunday have been delayed one hour to give it more time to warm up. Watch Skinnyski.com for the latest updates.
Clothing: The clothing is lost in transit. We are looking for it. They said they delivered it but I never got it. Stay tuned.
City of Lakes Weekend: Lots of events going on this weekend. Registration and Ski Fair on Saturday. If I find the clothing by Saturday you can pick it up on Saturday incase you want it for the event (I’ll let you know). Though it may be too cold. Skijoring, Sprints, Luminary Loppet all on Saturday. Then the race on Sunday. Unfortunately they’re predicting very low windchills on the weekend. So we’ll see. http://www.cityoflakesloppet.com/events.php .
Mora Vasaloppet: The Vasaloppet is next Sunday the 11th. A bunch of us ride up together and then also carpool to the start. That way you can avoid riding the buses. It’s the Only Way to Fly” We could also use another driver to shuttle cars back to the start. If you want to come up and watch you can help shuttle cars and follow our Professional Race Support Team (Jyneen) to all the best viewing places. Your fellow club members/racers will be grateful for your help and it’s a fun atmosphere.
Video taping: Let’s make a stab at video taping Saturday Feb 10th at 10am at Como. Then we’ll go upstairs and view and critique your form and you can take the files home if you bring in a USB drive. If you don’t know what that is, drop me an e-mail. In many cases this is a real eye opener. I’ll also try to have video of World Cup skiers for you to compare to. This is very important for intermediates and advanced as it’s really the only way to detect the small imperfections in your technique. Sometimes what we see are just style quirks and they really aren’t a problem, but we all want to look good. Beginners can get an idea of what they are really doing and then are able to understand the coaches comments.
Pizza party: Tuesday Feb 20th 6:30 upstairs at Como. Pizza, door prizes, awards. Friends and significant others and well behaved kids welcome to a limited extent. RSVP your intentions and any special dietary needs. Also anyone who want to bring cookies, snacks, salads etc that would be great. Pizza and beverages provided. Still a few weeks off, just a heads up.
We had a small turnout on this cold night. Too bad as the snow conditions were pretty good. The ground was well covered, albeit a bit slow, but it made for good teaching conditions. Most groups quit a bit early as feet and fingers were getting cold.
Well, I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the conditions at Como. We were surprised to find snow in selected areas and very little traffic as many people stayed home. It was cold but the brave hearted were there.
Randee and I split the 8 maybe 9 students up into two groups. I took the more comfortable student out and we tried to keep moving as much as possible, stopping only in-between exercises. We concentrated on balance knowing that once good (comfortable balance is accomplished that the technique is much easier to learn. Harold George, John (and the other guy (sorry I forgot your name)) all became increasingly better as the night went on.
Remember to start each ski session with skiing with out poles for 10-15 minutes practice good weight transfer. Also, that Russian V2 exercise is good for practicing balance as well.
The snow was slow and the surface consistency was not predictable but that’s good for practice. After all, not all races courses or trails are in pristine condition all the time. Varity is the spice of life!
Until next time - SDS
We had a large group of beginning skaters that divided into two groups. My group had 6 hearty skiers this chilly night.
After a warm-up of skiing along the glacier to the far hill, we worked on V1 technique on a canted trail, poling on the side of the uphill ski. Skiers paid particular attention to placing and stepping up onto a flat ski, checking to see if their knee was lined up over the ski as a cue to how complete they were transferring their weight onto the ski for best glide and control. On the hard sometimes icy snow, this was especially important for a stable ski.
Next we worked on open skate technique and switching the poling side in response to the cant of the trail. From this we added transitions from open skate to V1 on a gentle hill. Once folks had the timing and moves of this transition we progressed to using the steep hill.
This was a opportunity to practice increasing the tempo, getting a lower and wider stance, and stepping up the hill on a flat ski. Skiers practiced this without poles first to see how far they could go on leg power alone by improving their technique. Adding the poles we also worked on quick recovery and shortening the poling stroke. All this increased their distance using V1 before transitioning to herringbone skate technique to make it to the top without stalling out.
The night ended with controlled turns down the hill and skiing "home" with a few practicing their V2 technique.
With only 7 students and 2 coaches everyone got a good critical analysis. We used the hill on the south end of the meeting area to analyze V1. We skied in front and behind and along side each student and pointed out the good and not so good moves. This sort of one-on-one approach really worked well. Quite a few of the people were very good at V1 and the only way I was going to be able to give them any more feed back is via video tape. So we’ll take care of that on Feb 10th. I did fine tune a few things but all in all people were doing pretty good. If you’re still having trouble with the V1 timing. Think about it this way. Fall onto the strong side pole and ski and then skate back to the week side. The fall makes you think about the skis and poles hitting at the same time. Forget about the skate off to the strong side for now. We’ll add that once you get the timing down. Again: Fall to the strong side, skate back to the weak. Work on that and then we’ll help you add a skate to the fall movement. Finished up the night with V2 and Field Skate. Practiced the Russian V2 (double pole twice on each side) to teach staying on the glide ski long enough to get the poles to the waist. Also remember to ride your heels in slippery conditions. It helps your skis track straight. Also remember the crunch down a bit on the poles and rise back up to the other side. This rise also helps your skis track straight as it drives them into the snow. Two more weeks. Be sure to come out even if you haven’t made the other classes. Get your money’s worth on instruction and then take the rest in pizza.
It was a cold and dark night in Como land. The advanced skate group took advantage of the less than crowded ski course to do hill work, V2, field skate, and "V4" workouts. We started on the glacier hill working on uphill technique, both V1 and single stick (aka the birkie shuffle). We even did a group "follow the leader" exercise of birkie shuffle to practice going up a hill in a slow single file and double file line.
After our hill work we moved over to the flats and worked on V2 and V2 alternate/field skate. Everyone made significant improvements in their technique. Key things to remember are to bring the hips forward during the pole recovery to ensure good body placement over the ski and to get ready to maximize the poling motion power. Also you want to bring your recovering foot under your center of gravity to assist with a smooth weight transfer. You do not want to shift your weight if the recovering is outside of your center of gravity as this will result in a jerky side-to-side lunging motion. A good training technique that helps over emphasize this is to try to touch your heels at the end of the foot recovery. (Again, if this makes no sense to you and you want a demo, see coach Hank at the next class). The final key thing for these two techniques is to let the gliding ski ride. You want to be able to ride on a flat ski and let it do some work for you. Letting the flat ski glide for as long as you can is a good way to test if you are really balanced too.
We then did a couple laps on the glacier side of the course in an Indian Sprint fashion.
We closed with a "V4" drill. Basically this is a V2 with two double pole motions per side. This is NOT a race technique. However, it is a good drill to help you practice your balance on one ski. If you can ride a flat ski long enough and with enough stability to be able to double pole twice on one side you know you have a good measure of balance.
A great night was had by all.
This past Tuesday, the three of us ganged up on two classic skiers, making them do lap after lap after lap. And we saw improvement. But it was rather chilly, and conditions for classic weren't nearly as good as for skating.
But on thinking about the previous week, Arvid provided the following list of pointers for classic skiers to keep in mind. These should all be reminders, which key up specific drills or exercises we did during dryland or on snow:
- Balance. One-ski glide.
- Kick, with forward lean.
- Weight shift, ski to ski.
- Body position, slightly hunched.
- Pole use and timing (pressure as the arm comes down)
- Double poling; quick crunch and push.
- Downhills, with step turns or snowplow.
This has been a very frustrating year for us classic folks. Conditions have not helped us to get in the long, stable practice that is needed to really see improvements. And we haven't had the beautiful snows that really entice us out to ski every night. But we still have a few weeks to accomplish a bit more!
shad.holland@gmail.com
Thanks!