Uphill Diagonal Tips

Find a nice gentle uphill, 50 to 100 meters long. The steepness of the hill will depend a lot on technique,  snow conditions and fitness.
Re-wax if needed, as you must have grip in order to climb efficiently.
As always when coming to any hill, you are first of all double poling, then slow down a gear into single kick poling, and then into diagonal, hopefully you will not need to go into the low gear which is herringbone.
The steeper the hill, the more your tempo increases
We will talk about the running diagonal sidestep at a later time, which is faster then herringbone as well, which is used for passing, o yeah!

Now some of the keys points that we dwelt on from yesterdays class are the following:
-Complete weight shift at the end of leg push
-Feel the hip drive into the heel, which will help with both glide and locking of wax into the snow, remembering to both feel and hear the wax lock into the snow. With out a stable base from which to leap, our uphill diagonal will be timid.
-The knee is slightly bent, and you should feel the angle change at the ankle, with the hip behind the ankle joint, and then the hip comes forward over the ankle joint, and then a sudden flexion (BOING), extension of the leg just fractionally after the hip is ahead of the ankle joint. This is where all the dry-land ski bounding should be helpful. Some think of the belly button coming forwards, for imagery.
-The pole assisted push will help in that forceful leap up the hill. Remember when we did the practice with only left ski, left pole on?
-Your recovery foot should be landing well ahead of the other foot, and remember there should be no ski slapping, though ski shatter is different.

Now lets talk more about the arms as they help with weight shift and going up the hill. As always poles are for push, not for balance!
-Hands are shoulder width apart
-The pole plants across from the weighted foot but this will vary slightly depending on the speed of the snow, length of pole, steepness of the hill and arm strength. Arm angle at pole plant is around 90'
There is a strong loading onto the poles, first with gravity, then body weight before driving the elbows back
-The pole baskets should never past the hands
-Be sure that your push is straight forward and back, no tenting or tripod-ding, i.e. the hands are too close together, and the pole baskets are being planted too far from the skis.
-Planting your pole baskets further back will help if you are tripod-ding or if your hands are too inwards of the shoulders
-You drive back with bent elbows i.e.like elbowing someone in the gut, and as soon as the hands reach the hips, its time to bring the hands forward
-As technique changes, we no longer use the triceps much in the arm drive, just the Lats. For many the elbows are no longer in line with the hands but but the elbows are out, like a bench press. A word of warning when trying the elbows out be careful not to injure your rotator cuff muscles.

Have fun go SKI!