Last night we did some exercises to try and bring your hips forward past your ankles, as you initiated push unto the poles.
One of the first exercises was to have you face one another on dry-land with hands held up at shoulder level, and you fell forward about two inches with the angle changing at the ankles. Your partner caught you, and pushed you back, and you repeated several times, until you had the feeling of the hips falling forward and your butt did not stay back, with a very slightly bent knee.
The next exercise was to put the poles real close to your body and the hands were held right beside the shoulders. You fell unto your poles, first gravity, body weight, then crunch of the stomach, then slight collapse of the knees, all while the hips were ahead of the ankles. I call this chicken pecking, as your hands do not move more then 6 inches. Feel the crunch in the stomach, feel the stretch in the stomach muscles before the crunch. If you are doing it right, your stomach muscles might get sore after 10 minutes or so of going back and forth on the grid.
The next exercise was to put your hands forward with the elbows bent at around a 90' angle. Elbows are forward from the body. Now do the same pecking as the last exercise, but the hands will move around a foot. Always concentrate on the feeling of the hips forward of the ankles when the crunch and poles hit the snow, and the butt not staying back. At this point, this is where you need to decide if you are going to use elbows out in the pecking or elbows behind the hands, as in the old days. Once again I remind you that elbows out, may hurt the rotator cuff muscles.
Now it is time to put everything together, with hopefully the hips coming forward of the ankles, when pole planting. If your triceps start hurting, you are not doing it right. Nowadays the elbows drive back using the lats, just past the trunk and the hands go only as far back as the the thighs, and then whip forward again. We no longer throw the imaginary apple back behind us. Think elbow drive both forward and backwards, and the hands are just there.
If your back starts hurting it is likely that you are straightening up and arching your back when planting, rather then falling forward from the ankle.
Some of the other exercises were leaping forward unto your poles with the correct timing and the pole, pole, high tuck repeating. If you can save one double pole out of every 3 or 4, compared to the person in front of you, great. You also practiced trying to ski as close to the person in front as you safely could. Synchronized double poling was new to some of you, but drafting is a very important part of skiing, the 55km Canadian Birkie.
The other question raised, was where do you use the double pole? To answer this question is not so simple as the speed of the snow, your strength and technique comes into play. Your waxing of the skis has a lot in determining how much double poling you will be doing. Will the course you will be skiing on be hilly or fairly flat? In general terms you will be double poling on the flats, just over the top of hills before you go into the tuck, and when you come out of your tuck as you go up a hill.
There is the possibility that ladies will benefit more, from the new elbow wide technique.?
So everyone, get out there and try it out, just be sure to have those hips ahead of the ankles when pole planting.
Have FUN, Go SKI!
Question: I notice that in world cup races, in the middle of longer races (not sprints) that the skiers are using more of a traditional
ReplyDeletedouble pole with full extension of the arms and body bend up to 90 degrees. What are your thoughts? An artifact from the past? A
difference in technique based on distance rather than sprint speed?
Possible Answer:
From experience, I would say that the athletes of today are relics from the past, who still have strong triceps and want to use all the muscles that they have, to dissipate the pain over a larger area of muscle!! LOL! It is another arrow in your quiver.
They are going into a more relaxing mode, and are probably going into a more aerodynamic position, especially while following others or if it is windy. If they are staying at the speed they want relative to those just in front, and it is relaxing the muscles that they normally use, then I certainly see the use of the older DP technique, at times.