Another winter season is upon us.
Nordic ski technique is going to change even more as the fast moving youth of today, move up to the senior ranks.
Certain countries with older athletes, will have made a more obvious change in their arm movements, or be left behind.
The athletes that have done a lot of roller skiing on pavement, have changed their technique, from those who have not spent as much time on roller skis.
In order to get a better purchase into the pavement, they do several things slightly differently.
First they bring their hips ahead of their ankles and use gravity to fall on their poles. They then use a strong crunch of their core, before loading their poles even more by collapsing at the knees slightly. The drive down and back of the elbows assist in propelling them forward with hands shoulder width apart or slightly wider. However poles are for push not for balance, so not too wide.
The elbows drive back bent, to around the back of the trunk, before whipping the bent elbows forward again. There is now, not normally any extension of the elbow as this uses triceps, which is a smaller muscle. The bigger stronger lat muscles are used a lot more in the bent elbow position.
The core is strong or should be, and the tempo is increased to make up for the slight loss in push of the triceps.
The back does not bend to 90 degrees, but to around 45 degrees.
In a sprint there will be a higher core crunch turnover, with elbows very high, and in normal poling the elbows will not be as high.
In sprinting the poles are also recovered very high, almost head height or even slightly higher, before they slam down into the snow.
When you whip the poles ahead there is a slight period of recovery (I say float), before engaging the core again, as you are falling forwards.
Your poling action and recovery are straight forward and back with no excess movement.
There is still a period of time when you shift the weight to the heels and pull up on the toes of the boot when pushing back, and the hips are behind the ankles, to assist in the glide..
A few advantages will be next to no soreness in the triceps, or the back, if done correctly.
Your hamstrings if they are tight will be more forgiving.
*Word Of Warning*, please beware that your rotator cuff area, takes a real beating the higher the elbows are held.
