November 2010 Video Review

Well November has now come to a close and I have to congratulate everyone that came out for the Nov. training sessions. Nov is the toughest month of the year, training wise, it is when we have the longest hours, and the most intensity, and everyone made it through admirably! It was awesome to see how quickly you athletes took to the drills and immediately began incorporating them into your skiing. As a coach one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job is watching athletes improving, taking advice and adding it to their technique repertoire, this November the air was tangibly thick with PROGRESS! ... and a little sweat, but thats normal...

Here is a video that I made up that delves a bit into our last couple sessions, and breaks down each individuals technique and offers suggestions.  Now you will see some repetition in my comments, and it may sound like I'm harping a bit on only a couple of issues, but those issues are key and the basis for all techniques. Body position, and leg drive. Our first workout we ran a Spenst (fancy Norwegian way of saying "jumping up a hill") session, and the very first thing we did after our jogging workout was work on body position. I made the analogy of a 'gun-slinger', who as he pulls out his guns his hips move forward and his legs bend forward at the ankles.  I also made the analogy of a string connected to your belly button that is pulling you forward, you want to be bent at your ankles, hips forwad, upper body at the same angle as your ankles, and your shoulders slightly hunched in a neanderthal-esque fashion.  Leg drive is also an integral part of a good skier's technique.  During our Spenst workout we did a drill where we skipped (like on a playground) explosively, trying to go for height. How did we get extra height? By driving our legs and knees forward. While bounding try to emulate that leg drive and try to drive your back leg forward like you would do on snow. It is easy on a bounding workout to fall into a running technique, try to resist the urge, and drive your leg like you're classic skiing.

One of the driving (pun intended) factors of good body position is your hands. I've said to be 'whippy' with your arms and literally throw them up and forward to help bring your weight forward.  This is especially evident during double poling and v2 alternate. When we were doing two-leg jumps for distance we were throwing our arms to give us extra momentum, while skiing we do this also. Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

See how the skier's arms are up, the hips are forward over the ankles and he is airborne, this is what an agressive arm swing can do. This is definitely one side of the intensity spectrum though, you can get a similar body position to a lesser degree (which makes much more sense during a longer race, the above position would only be able to be sustained for a sprint race or final push) by lessening the intensity of the arm swing and leg pop.

More posts coming soon, stay tuned and keep working hard!

Cam