One Pole or no Pole skiing?

Training question for SkiPost,

DG

By: Jim Galanes

Galanes Sports Lab

jimgalanes.com

 PSIA Nordic Instructor Tips

 Professional Ski Instructors of America

The basis of good cross country skiing technique lies in establishing an athletic, forward-leaning  stance on skis.  This can be tricky to communicate to small children and even adults, so here are three visual and verbal tricks you can use.

Firewood!  Have your skiers stand up straight on their skis (or on shoes during dryland) in their best military posture.  Then tell them to imagine that someone handed them an incredibly heavy load of firewood.  Their arms come forward to hold it, their knees and ankles flex under the load, and their torso leans slightly forward.  Have them stand up straight again, and then say "Firewood!"  They will sink back into the basic athletic stance and develop muscle memory to associate with that word. This is especially helpful when people are learning how to skate.

Cover up your snakes!  Tell your skiers to look down at the toes of their boots and imagine something terrible, like a pile of snakes crawling all over their boots.  For women's groups I may use an alternative image like a picture of their ex-boyfriend...  Then tell them to cover up their snakes by bending their ankles and knees enough that when they look down their knees are covering up the toes of their boots.  If you see them classic skiing down the trail with too straight of a leg, you can yell "Cover up your snakes!" and it is an immediate cue for them to have deeper ankle and knee flex.

Ski Jumper!  As instructor we often say something like, "You need to get your hips forward."  Many young skiers don't know what this means.  A good way to communicate this is to ask them if they know what a ski jumper looks like.  Almost always they get excited and say yes and can immediately demonstrate proper hips-forward body position.  This is very effective at getting skiers  to correctly double-pole.

A good shout from a coach about firewood, snakes or a ski jumper can take a complicated biomechanical concept and make it simple for a skier.  Have a good week!

On the Trail with Garrott

Yellowstone Ski Festival

Update Nov 12

The snow is falling in West Yellowstone, Montana! 

SuperTour races and ski clinics are NOT in danger of being cancelled.  The South Plateau has enough snow for the races and clinics.  About 3"-4" cover the lower elevation trails at this time, though a couple more inches are expected overnight. Please check yellowstoneskifestival.com for more information.

Plans are moving forward with the Festival and event organizers are cautiously optimistic about the snow reports.  Should there not be enough snow at lower elevations to hold the SuperTour races and ski clinics, the contingency plan of moving to the South Plateau will take effect.  

Decisions about the venue changes for the SuperTour races will be made by the Organizing Committee, in conjunction with the Technical Delegates, no later than 12:00pm (noon) on Wednesday, November 21, 2012 for the SuperTour Freestyle Sprint to be held on Friday, November 23, 2012.  The decision of the SuperTour Freestyle Distance 10/15K will be made no later than 12:00pm (noon) on Friday, November 23, 2013.  Changing the venue of the clinics will be made before Tuesday, November 20, 2012. 

Events such as the Indoor Expo, S'mores & Skiers, Backcountry Film Festival, and the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center programs will be held regardless of snow conditions. 

 Visit yellowstoneskifestival.com for the complete listing of events.

The Winter Sports School in Park City

 The Winter Sports School in Park City (WSS) is a private, not-for-profit college preparatory high school featuring an academic session specifically tailored and optimized for high school winter sports athletes.

Student-athletes from across Utah and the United States attend the WSS for high school.  Classes are in session from mid-April through mid-November.  The unique non-traditional school year provides competitive skiers and other winter sports athletes with freedom from academic stress in the winter, and allows them to focus more effectively on training, travel, and competition.

During the summer and fall, when classes are in session, the WSS provides sport-specific dryland training to prepare student-athletes for the upcoming competition season. In the winter, many WSS students return home to train and compete with their club teams, or join regional and national teams for elite international level competition.

The Winter Sports School in Park City has developed a class schedule and academic curriculum specifically designed to facilitate the volume and intensity of dryland training required to achieve a high level of success in cross country skiing.  2012 USSA J2 Junior National Champion Karsten Hokanson (class of 2013, cross country skiing) is one of several successful junior cross country skiers currently enrolled at the Winter Sports School.  High school aged Nordic skiers interested in more information may visit wintersportsschool.org

Norwegian Junior Nationals here we come.

Come with us.

Last year the Burke Mountain Academy Nordic Program hosted a trip to the Norwegian Junior Nationals at Holmenkollen in Oslo.

The invitation to Burke to participate in the "Jr.NM" or Junior Norwegian Championship was the idea of Bjorn Ilsemann, an energetic coach with the Norwegian College of Elite Sport (NTG). Burke and the NTG shared an exchange during the early part of the winter and the invitation for the Jr. NM participation grew out of that. These are the major races of the year for Norwegian kids and similar to our own JN's. Qualification is necessary, and each region of the country sends a team. Last year there were about 450 competitors.

We put the American team together with athletes from across the US and had a gang that represented US junior skiing well. Two Burke athletes were already in Norway and the final squad that went over represented Maine, Vermont, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Idaho.

The Norwegians are welcoming us back again and we are making plans to join them in Lillehammer during the week of 19 - 26 February. Among the goals for the trip is to put US juniors into a large competition in a foreign setting and to expose them to the demands of a team assembled from different regions at short notice. The experiences of foreign food, transportation, race protocols, and the necessity for increased independence and self reliance are all part of the design. Another deliberate design for the trip is to provide the chance to legitimately place oneself on a broader based speed, fitness, and ability scale; a chance to see where one "stacks up" with good skiers from one of the worlds foremost ski countries. Most of the "Scando Cup" athletes from Norway will participate for their home teams and the measure is high.

The competition takes place over 22, 23, 24 February on the Olympic trails in Lillehammer and Sjusjøen. The trip will be open by application to OJ's, J1's and J2's. A total of 8 athlete spots will be open. Ground cost is expected to be about $1700.00. Note that this competition will not interfere with US Jr. Nationals.

If you are interested contact Pete Phillips

pphillips@burkemtnacademy.org. 802-473-8100