Track tip by Steve Hindman, photos by Susan Hindman www.schimages.com
At our fall training, the NW Divisional Track Staff came up with a simple focus to improve our own skiing and to help others – use 2 cycles of leg flexion/extension in each skate or classic stride. It’s simple to see and to work with, and using it will keep you and your students moving forward after moving onto each ski and in position for effective poling and the push off to the next ski.
A key is using verbs to describe the cycles: land on the new ski with a flexing ankle, then glide on an extending leg. At the end of the first extension, you’re up and over your poles in powerful poling position. The second cycle moves you to the next ski with a quick collapse of the knee to move your hips over and in front of your foot followed by a quick and powerful push off onto the next ski from your extending leg.
As you watch other skiers, you’ll see that many never extend after moving onto each ski, which makes it difficult to move completely onto each ski and robs them of poling and push of power.
When conditions are really slow or the hill is steep, you may need to use the first extension to move to the next ski to avoid stalling out. But when you have more glide, “double pump” on each ski to keep you and your ski moving forward.
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