Skiing Tips

Technique Tips

There are a few basic ideas that will help almost everybody ski better, whether you are skating or striding.

1. Skiing is a one ski at a time sport.  The single hardest thing in skiing is to shift your weight and balance fully on the gliding ski.  If you find yourself waddling along while skating, unable to generate momentum and getting very tired, you are not effectively shifting your bodyweight completely from ski to ski.  Do your skis "slap" the snow when striding?  Guess what, you are not shifting from ski to ski fully.  This is particularly subtle when striding because you can still move along OK but by not fully committing to each ski, you are working harder than necessary.  How do you correct this?  Throw those poles away!  Find a flat section of the trail, like the start / finish area or the back side of the West Overlook loop and ski without poles.  This will teach you balance and proper technique, as it is very difficult to go anywhere without poles unless you shift your weight.  Another method is to try and exaggerate the glide phase while skiing.  Take careful note of what position your body must be in to successfully balance for an extended period of time and then try to achieve that position when you ski.  Just a few minutes with these two drills every time you ski and you will notice improvement in a short period of time.

2. In both skating and striding, you need to have good forward lean.  Having your body leaning strongly forward generates momentum down the trail, resulting in free glide.  To get the feeling of proper forward lean, stand on both feet, flex your knees comfortably and lean forward by flexing at your ankles (keep your heels down!) until your knees block sight of your toes when you look down.  When you feel like you are going to tip over, you have reached the proper forward leaning position.  Very important: do not achieve forward lean by bending at the waist and sticking your rear backwards or by squatting like you are sitting in a chair.  Since your hips and buttocks contain much of your bodyweight, it is critical to make sure you do not move your rear end back while trying to lean forward.  Always remember: "don't leave your behind, behind".  Lean forward from the ankles!

3. Skiing is mostly a flat footed sport.  In both classic and skate skiing you want to "kick" with your whole foot, keeping your heel down as long as possible.  This gives you the greatest possible force onto the snow.  When kicking in classic technique, kick down enough to set the wax but make sure you are propelling yourself mostly forward, after all that is the direction you want to go - not up.  For skating, the kick is going to be mostly to the side, not back.  

4. Gliding properly is slightly different between skating and classic skiing.  In skating you want to balance equally over the whole foot with a comfortable knee bend and in your dynamic forward leaning position (see #2).  In classic skiing, you balance over your heel (this keeps your kick wax off the snow) and with a fairly straight glide leg (have it flexed slightly for comfort).  What happened to our dynamic forward position for classic skiing?  It's still there, but at the mid-point of the cycle where your feet and arms are all passing each other, just as you are beginning a new kick.

5. Finish your poling motions, even while climbing a hill.  In both types of skiing, you should finish your poling to the point where you release the pole from your hand in a nice, relaxing finish, fully behind your body (many people stop at their hip).  Then let momentum from your arm swing bring your poling arm forward until you are ready to plant your pole with a nice, comfortable bend in the arm (not too much bend, definitely not straight).

Waxing

Some people don't wax their skis because it seems too complicated or time consuming.  Even if you are a recreational skier, a little bit of time waxing will make your skis faster, allowing you to ski longer with less effort. 

For kick waxing (classic skiing only), you can buy the three basic colors (green, blue and red) and they will work fine for all conditions.  Just read the temperature ranges on the "tins" and wax accordingly; remember that if it is humid, you will have to move to a warmer wax.  If you are getting to the top end of the range of a certain color, mix in some of the next warmer wax and it will create the appropriate mixture.  To apply the wax, simply crayon a thin layer from your heel to a point about 12" in front of your toe.  Then cork it until you can't see the wax anymore.  Do this several times (up to five layers), most people don't put on enough wax or put it on in thick gobs that can't be smoothed.

Klister is used for kick wax when the classic tracks have become icy and normal hard wax no longer provides grip.  Klister works quite well and, with the glazed tracks, makes for fast, fun classic skiing.  Here's how to successfully use klister.  First, make sure the klister is warm and goey when you put it on the ski.  Take the klister tube, close the face of the hole against the ski and spread a thin layer on either side of the groove.  Make the length of the application a little shorter than you would hard wax.  Finally, take the klister spreader that comes with the tube and smooth the klister in one continuous motion.  Set the skis outside so the klister gets cold and you are ready to go.  When the tracks are glazed but contain some fresh snow, simply crayon on the hard wax of the day over the frozen klister, but don't cork it.  The hard wax "protects" the klister from the fresh snow.  

For glide waxing, there are a couple of ways to do it - you can make it as simple or complicated as you want.  The simple method involves buying a mid-temperature  glide wax (Rex blue or Swix violet are good) and crayoning the wax over the whole ski if skating (the area that is not kick waxed if striding), then corking it in with a clean cork (not the same cork you use for kick waxing) until you can't see the wax, and then brushing the ski until it looks shiny.  You can buy a brush for glide waxing for around $10 at any ski shop.  The whole process only takes 5 minutes for both skis.  The more complicated, but more durable method involves melting the wax onto the ski with an iron.  There are a wide variety of glide waxes you can purchase to match the appropriate temperature and snow conditions.  If you are interested in learning how to do this, call your local Nordic ski shop and they can give you step by step instructions.  More information can also be found at www.xcskiworld.com.

There are a few basic workouts that will help you get in shape the fastest, whether you are a racer or recreational skier.  By doing these three workouts per week, you can get in excellent skiing shape!

1. The most important thing is to slow down.  That's right, it is better to ski slower, for a longer period of time than to ski hard, for a relatively short period of time.  For example, if you normally ski for 45 minutes, slow down and stretch your ski to 1 hour and 15 minutes.  This conditions your body for endurance without "killing yourself".  This type of workout should be the most common in your routine.

2. Occasionally, pick a day (maybe every third workout) to ski on a hilly trail and ski the uphills as hard as you can while still maintaining a steady pace up to and over the top of the hill.  Then ski very easy until you catch your breath; then resume a pace typical of workout #1.  Make sure you include some longer hills where you will have to hold back a little to maintain a constant pace up and over the top.  This type of workout increases your ability to withstand the harder sections of a ski trail, without getting tired.

3. Lastly, increase your skiing strength by dedicating a workout to skiing a lot using only your arms and then only your legs.  Using only the arms is most important, so practice arms only like you use in classic technique and the double pole technique (try going up a slight hill).