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Yeah, I think up until the skating revolution, most people thought of cross-country skiing
as classical skiing, fairly bland sport, striding through the woods, in tune with nature, and
that's all really good and that was great for the people who are participating in it.
But there's still a lot of people who didn't really get too excited about that image, who
now with skating can get really excited about the dynamicness of it, the speed, the excitement,
the thrill, and it's really, I think, when we look back on this, we're going to find
that skating is the best thing that ever happened to the sport.
It really has attracted a whole new group of people to the sport that probably wouldn't
have been in the last year.
So there's no doubt about that.
Alright Carrie, what a great ski that was.
Oh yeah, that last two was fantastic.
In the past few years, skating has dramatically transformed cross country skiing into a completely
new and exciting sport.
That's what this program will show you.
You learn to ski faster and more efficiently on your skinny skis.
So let's go have some fun.
Well I love the diagonal stride.
It's really part of me, it's part of my roots, it's part of my childhood, it's part of skiing
and it's always going to be part of skiing.
I don't feel skating threatens the diagonal stride.
The diagonal stride technique is a lot more subtle than the skate technique.
I think it takes longer to learn and it takes more hours, months, years of experience to
perfect the diagonal stride than it does to perfect the skating stroke.
Plus, not only that, but the diagonal stride has the whole realm of waxing attached to
it that skating doesn't have at all.
The skate is not new.
It's amazing that the skate didn't happen before it did, I think.
We always skated on skis, but we only use it as another technique.
We never thought of skating as a dominant technique.
The light bulb first went on in my head when I had it driven down my throat.
In 1980 in a river race in Sweden, we were trying to set a record for 30 kilometers.
That was the whole point of that race.
Bjorn Rizby didn't wax his skis and he started 30 seconds behind me.
He came by me in a marathon skating like I had an anchor tied to a tree.
That's when I saw him skating and I started to copy him.
It was so much faster, I just couldn't believe it.
That's when I said, hey, I want to take this and see where this can go.
Skating has evolved rapidly during the last few years.
Now we have a range of techniques that apply to certain speed and terrain considerations.
Our program will arrange these strokes on this speed progression scale in order of their
speed progression from slowest to fastest.
The herringbone at the low end of the scale for the steepest uphills and the tuck, which
is used when the downhills are too steep for skating, are the two non-skating techniques
that will bookend our speed progression scale.
So from left to right, each column denotes a certain terrain type.
Then, the symbol at the top of each column represents the primary technique most commonly
suited for that terrain situation.
Since each technique can be valid in a variety of terrain types, the symbols which fall below
are those strokes which at times are as efficient as the primary.
First, when the hill is too steep to do any skating at all, we must herringbone.
Then the first skating stroke, still for quite steep uphills, is the diagonal V, which is
simply herringbone with glide.
Next comes the most versatile, widely used stroke with the greatest speed range from
uphills to flats, the Basic V1.
For when tracks are set and where the whole skating revolution began, used from gradual
uphills through flats to gradual downs, Basic V1's first cousin, the Marathon Skate.
Now for the fastest of the V1s, with a delightful rhythm, best suited for rolling terrain because
of its adaptability to subtle terrain changes, the fluid and powerful Waltz V1.
Picking up speed and switching modes to a new timing of the V2s, we begin with a stroke
with a more limited range of terrain use, but which is perfectly suited for wide open,
straight ahead flats and graduals, the Basic V2.
We come now to the most popular of the V2 strokes, the one used most in racing and the
fastest one can skate while using poles, the Mach V2.
You'll hear it called several different names from Gundas Skate to V2 Alternate to the V1
Off Timing, but I liked Mach V2 because of the implication of speed and excitement, especially
as you learn Mach V2's waltz.
And finally, when we have too much speed to even use our poles, we must switch our emphasis
to arm swing and rely on our legs for all our power.
Looking like speed skaters and performing the trickiest skate for balance, we're doing
the No Pole Skate.
As the hill steepens, any skating becomes inefficient and it's time to get out of the wind and into
your tuck.
We're going to start our instruction by learning three of the most basic and widely used strokes,
ones that you need for recreational skiing or racing.
They are the Diagonal V, the V1 and the Marathon Skate.
Let's start with the Diagonal V.
The speed progression scale begins with the Diagonal V category, which includes the herring
bone.
These strokes are used in steeper terrain.
The Diagonal V is important because for a recreational skier, it's the easiest, least
energy cost way to go up a hill.
And for a racer in steep hills or hills with soft snow, it's the most efficient way to
go up hill.
Okay, nice preview to the Diagonal V. The Diagonal V is just a herring bone with glide.
So you learn this stroke by herring boning where your opposite arm and leg hit the snow
at the same time.
Simple as that.
And you start gliding that ski and you're Diagonal V-ing.
The uphills on today's racing courses are so steep that it really forces the use of
the Diagonal V and the herring bone a lot more than we ever used to.
Your pole and ski are hitting the snow at the same time and there's a complete weight
shift.
Okay, there's the opposite pole and leg hitting the snow.
There's your complete weight shift.
And then when the hill gets too steep, you go into a herring bone.
Now we come to a very versatile stroke, the Basic V1, appropriate for several different
terrains, from moderately steep to relatively flat.
Well, Kerry, the most important things about the V1 is that we have three points of contact
hitting the snow at the very same time.
Our dominant leg in this case is going to be our right.
So our right foot and our two poles are going to hit the ground at the same time with a
full weight shift, completely unweighting the other leg.
And then back over to glide.
So we've got right, glide.
Right skate, glide.
Okay, that's great timing, Kerry.
Now we're going to see what happens when we add the glide to that dominant leg.
Let's step through the learning process again.
Only this time we'll use our left dominant.
Walk first until you have your timing.
Left.
Once you get that timing, you can start to glide, slide that left ski.
Learn the stroke using whichever dominant side feels the best.
Your eventual goal is to be proficient with both right and left dominant.
This is a good example of a strong left dominant.
You notice how Kerry has a staggered pole plant, meaning her non-dominant right pole
is landing just before her dominant pole.
This is fine, it's just a matter of style difference.
There it is.
The right pole hitting just before the left.
These strokes are very strong, powerful strokes with a low body position, but still notice
that each stroke has a definite work phase and glide phase.
But the glide phase still provides a very relaxing and recovering period.
The final delivery of power is accomplished by flexing the ankle and towing off.
There are two primary methods for switching dominant legs.
Let's look first at the early switch.
So now we've seen both the right dominant and the left dominant.
And most people do prefer one side or the other, but it's important to develop both
sides so you don't tire out one side of the body more than the other.
So there's two kinds of switches, the early switch and the delayed switch.
And they relate to the speed of travel.
When you're going at slower speeds in the V1, use the early switch.
Faster speeds, the delayed switch.
Let's start with the early switch.
Now in this early switch, we'll be switching from left to right.
So starting with left dominant, three points of contact, left, left, left and right.
So we're switching immediately to the right.
So now let's see this switch in action.
Switching left to right, let's step through this again to get the early pole timing.
We'll switch every third stroke.
On the double pole before the switch, there is less follow through with the arms.
This enables you to get more quickly over to the other side without losing momentum.
With more speed, more follow through with the arms will be possible.
For faster speeds in the basic V1, the delayed switch is the best way to switch dominant legs.
So now we've done the early switch.
No problem, right?
No problem.
But now we get a little more speed.
We're onto the flats now.
We're out of the uphills.
We need a delayed switch, meaning we're going to use one extra leg stroke instead of coming
in early with the arms.
So starting with our left dominant, we will go left, left, left and switch to right, right.
Alright great job.
Let's go out and have some fun with this.
Starting with our left dominant, we have left, left and switch to right, right, right, right,
right and switch to left, left.
Three points of contact.
Left, switch to right, right.
The rhythm of this stroke starts to get really fun and it will whet your appetite for some
of the more advanced strokes later on.
We'll use this stroke at faster speeds because we have more momentum.
So we need our poles less and rely more on leg power.
Once you feel comfortable with the delayed switch timing, try a lower body position and
add more power to the skating strokes in between the switches.
Where tracks have been set, the marathon skate is a good choice, especially for flat terrain
and gradual uphill.
So now that we've learned the V1, we've got the marathon licked because it's all the same
moves.
We have three points of contact hitting the snow at the same time.
In this case, we'll have a right dominant.
So it's three landing at once, a lot of weight commitment onto that dominant leg.
So when you make that weight transfer, that commitment to your dominant leg, you'll feel
some pressure in your thigh.
You never want to have this foot landing behind this foot.
Always at least in front of or even with this plane here.
And throughout the stroke, that's true.
You never want this foot to get behind the foot in the track.
So now let's go look at a marathon skate and you'll see how close it really is to the V1.
We still have three points of contact hitting the snow at the same time, only now it's not
quite a full weight shift, maybe 80% of our weight.
Our non-dominant is simply gliding in the tracks instead of at an angle as in the V1.
When tracks are set, the marathon is a very important technique.
They provide a directional control of the skis which can save energy, especially in
difficult snow conditions.
Also, the snow in the track is often faster than out of the track.
Tracks often take the shortest line around corners as well.
When tracks are set in a recreational setting, the marathon stroke is the most considerate
one to use because it does the least amount of track damage.
So there you have it.
We've shown you the three techniques that are most basic for recreational skiing and
racing.
You'll want to perfect these first before moving on to others.
In the next section, we're going to show you some more advanced techniques, a Waltz V1
and the V2s, the Basic V2, the Mach V2, and the No-Pull skate.
Now as we move across the speed progression scale, we come to the fastest of the V1s,
the Waltz V1, ideally suited for rolling terrain.
So now the first stop in our advanced section is going to be the Waltz V1.
Think of these strokes in a speed progression.
The slowest speed was the diagonal V, and then as you picked up speed, you moved into
the V1, the marathon.
Now as you go faster in each of the modes, the V1 and the V2, you use your arms less
and less.
In other words, the faster your speed of travel, the less you use your arms.
If you're in the V1 mode, going up a hill, you might be changing sides every five strokes.
As you go faster, you might be changing every three strokes.
You can remember in the last section, we did the delayed switch.
Okay now, the Waltz V is really a continuous series of linked delayed switches.
Okay to get the timing of this stroke, Carrie's going to start with her left dominant.
Left two three, right two three.
So as with all of the V1 strokes, every time her dominant went down, so did her two poles.
Three points of contact at the same time.
V was just continuously switching.
So let's walk through the timing of this.
We have right two three, left two three.
Right two three, left and switch.
Right and switch left.
Still a V1 stroke.
We still have three points of contact hitting the snow at the same time.
We're just switching our dominance continuously.
The Waltz is an extremely fluid and powerful stroke and it's so adaptable to terrain changes.
It works best in rolling and undulating terrain because you can improvise timing changes like
no other technique.
It can be molded to fit terrain having constant and yet subtle changes in pitch.
The
yellow background color indicates that we've moved into a new family of skating techniques,
the V2s.
The basic V2 is a preferred stroke for flat terrain.
Okay so that does it for the Waltz V1 and all of the V1s.
We're now ready to move into V2 and that is the next step on our speed progression scale.
In the V2s, the stroke is initiated with double poling followed by pushing off of the dominant
leg.
That is different from V1s where we have three points of contact hitting the snow at the
same time.
So that's the basic difference in timing between V1 and V2.
So let's start with the basic V2.
Okay you can come into the timing of this by starting with some nice big double poles.
And in the middle of one of your double pole compressions, push out with the skating leg.
Push off with the skating leg.
Okay good Kerry.
Now let's go see what this looks like at speed.
To get the timing of this stroke you can call to yourself, pull push, pull push, pull push,
pull push.
This is a symmetrical stroke using both sides of your body equally.
Again starting on the stroke with some double poles and now we're into the stroke, pull
push, pull push.
We use both sides of our body equally.
Alpine skiers find this stroke easy to learn because this is basically the same stroke
they use to get across flats or up to the lift.
This stroke is not good for uphills.
Sometimes you can use it in a very gradual uphill in fast snow conditions but generally
this is a technique for faster speeds in flats.
Now we progress to the Mach V2, the most common V2 racing stroke.
This is an ideal technique for maintaining faster speeds on flats as well as gradual
downhills.
Now we're going to really cook.
We've got the Mach V2 here and this is the fastest of all the V2 strokes where we're
still using our arms before we go into the no pole.
So if you can remember we talked about we use our arms less and less the faster we're
going in each of the V1 and V2 modes.
So now where as last stroke we used our arms every skate, this stroke we're only using
our arms every other skate.
Okay let's start with a few big double poles and then call to ourselves pole skate skate,
pole skate skate.
You can see that this is an asymmetrical technique, one side at a time is dominant.
Here we're doing a dominant right.
Also take note of the role that arm swing plays to lead you back to your dominant.
In this case our dominant right leg serves a dual purpose of being both the dominant
and the gliding leg.
Our non-dominant side also gives a very strong second skating stroke and that puts us right
back over to the dominant side again for glide and a new stroke.
This is as fast as you can go using your poles and it's only efficient at the higher speeds
on flats and gradual downhills.
Since there is one dominant side working at a time in this stroke, learn to use both sides
just as you did in V1.
You'll then discover that there's an early and a delayed switch as well as a waltz Mach
V2.
Here comes the delayed switch here from right to left.
Now we're back over to the left.
The last of the skating strokes and the one we used at the fastest speeds is the no pole.
Now as we move forward on the speed progression scale we're going too darn fast to even use
our arms.
So we go to a no pole skate.
Now even though we're not using our poles, our arms are still very instrumental.
Like a speed skater uses their arms.
The arms swing way out in front over the opposite gliding ski.
Okay so let's take a look at that critical arm swing from the front.
The arm swing follows the gliding leg.
There's a complete commitment of weight onto the gliding leg and this is the trickiest
of all the skates for balance because you're on your gliding leg for a long period of time
and you are traveling at the fastest speed of all of the strokes.
This stroke is usually used on gradual downhills and as a way to gain as much speed and momentum
as quickly as possible before dropping into your tuck.
This stroke is a lot of fun to perform.
Notice that there's a definite work phase and a glide phase.
Now notice the importance that arm swing plays in maintaining momentum.
Our final technique on the speed progression scale is the tuck.
The tuck is most appropriate on steeper downhill grades.
Now we've really gone off the end of the scale.
We can't even use our arms or our legs anymore.
We're going too darn fast and now we're going to get into the real excitement of cross country
skiing of going downhill.
Wind resistance is going to be what determines how low you get in your tuck.
Now as we watch Carrie here she starts off at slow speeds.
There's no need to get down into a low tuck.
But now she's starting to pick up speed and as she does watch how she gets lower and lower
to get more and more out of the wind.
There's many different ways to turn cross country skis.
For skate turns skate against the outside of the turn with all your weight on your outside
ski.
In parallel turning the same principle applies.
Weight your outside ski and push off.
Push off that outside ski.
Now let's get up a good head of steam and go for some faster turns.
You'll need your arms to help with balance but keep them high and in front of the body
to minimize wind drag.
Our fully weighted outside ski is what will carve us the fastest, cleanest turn.
The key to a crisp, clean turn is to carve the ski and slide them as little as possible.
Now that we've seen each stroke as it relates to the speed progression scale, let's talk
about how to get from one to the other.
So far in our program we've shown you the skating strokes in their order of speed and
terrain but rarely will terrain changes be so orderly.
The fun begins as we learn to transition between strokes.
This is truly the most creative part of the learning process.
Here are some examples of transitions you might encounter.
Because terrain changes will constantly differ, you'll be challenged to improvise as you go.
Often you'll find yourself shifting up or down two, maybe three strokes to handle a
given transition.
The more hours of experience you have with these strokes, the sharper your instincts
will become in choosing the right strokes for the right times.
Now, let's take a look at a few off-season training methods.
There are many exciting dry land training methods for getting in shape during the off-season.
If you're serious about racing, which this section will assume, I strongly believe in
specificity and simulation, particularly during the fall season to prepare for racing.
I also feel training should have variety, as well as being fun and exciting while doing
maximally tough workouts.
My training was centered on simulating World Cup-type terrain, which meant lots of very
steep uphill training.
But what goes up needs to come safely down.
This is one of my favorite ways, which allowed for the rhythm of a race course to be more
easily simulated.
And of course, it's always nice to train in good company.
Having someone follow me with a car was another way I could get down.
Towing was another method I often used to be able to train with a companion.
Sometimes I towed my daughters on their bicycles.
It makes for a tough, high-resistance, and very specific workout.
Skateblades are so versatile that classical techniques can also be closely simulated.
Two-wheeled roller skis seem to be the most popular for skating.
They work well in moderate terrain, but tend to bog down if the hill gets really steep.
For classical training, I used the lightest three-wheeled roller skis I could find.
I used roller blades for skating.
I found they most closely simulated proper skating technique in the very steep race course-like
uphills I trained in.
Here's a fun one, and it makes you as tough as nails.
Having skis on my feet helps me simulate hill running technique better than the traditional
method using poles only.
This is a great one for those cold, rainy November days when roller skiing just doesn't
cut it.
With skis, you get the thrill of going downhill while saving your knees from pounding back
down.
Wet grass has the best glide, but brown dry grass is also fast.
Dry green grass isn't so great.
Try skiing at the beach or in sand dunes.
Wet sand has surprisingly good glide.
Although running by itself isn't very specific, using poles will help.
Also less specific, but somewhat valuable for skating and great for adding variety to
your program is cycling.
So now let's take a look at some indoor strength training.
Here's a slide board to train the leg muscles for skating.
Lubricate the surface with silicone or Teflon.
I like to do my strength training to good music with a motivating beat.
Use a fan to help keep you cool.
This is my V1 machine, the toughest one.
I try to stick as closely as possible to the principle of specificity in all my training.
Sometimes I went for short high resistance power building workouts and other times I
went for low resistance endurance workouts.
Now here's a roller board for the double pole muscles.
I train for strength two to three days per week.
For the diagonal stride and exergeny, a portable friction device that can be wedged into a
door is about as close as I used to be able to come to simulating the diagonal stride.
I only wished I'd discovered the Nordic track about ten years earlier.
As we move into the future, we're going to realize that skating was one of the best things
that ever happened to cross country.
Although many skiers have chosen to embrace either skating or striding, I'm confident
that most skiers in the future will want to be active in all techniques.
Snow conditions, ease or difficulty of waxing, hilliness of the trail, physical conditioning
and one's mood will be what determines whether to skate or stride.
But it's all skiing and I believe it's good for cross country to broaden its horizons
not only for those already involved but for all the new people who have taken up cross
country skiing because of skating.
Oh yeah, don't forget the most important thing of all, have yourself a blast.
Turn west for relief from your saltwater beaches, past the lagoons and the hills made of sand.
Go upwards and on through rainforest escarpments and likely as ever you'll soon feel the weather
of that beautiful place called the South Tablelands.
So take me back where the snowy river rises and divides and the gorse and the heather
all grow.
Where the ice melted waters are the sons and the daughters of the springs and the streams
that are fed from the snow.