So Much To Learn

Last Wednesday night we went out with good friend Kari Lyle. Besides skiing herself, Kari has been studying coaching and is coaching with Ski Tigers. Boy, I wish I had something like that when I was a kid! Kari took us through the fundamentals of body position and balance. Emphasis was on weight transfer to a flat ski. We finished up on the gradual downhill at the end of the Oak loop, coasting as long as possible on each leg.

Friday night we had our first lesson with MTU Nordic Ski Club member Eric Volk. A freshman from Minnesota, Eric watched us ski, then would pick out a thing for us to change to improve. We went up the wax hill seven or eight times, each time adding another detail. Sort of like building an onion one layer at a time. Of course, with enough new things to work on, the earlier stuff falls off. We'll have to practice to get everything to fire at once. By the end, it felt like I used something like fifteen to twenty percent less steps to get up the hill. Cool! We finished up on the end of the Oak Loop doing... wait for it... V2 long glide drills. Great Minds think alike!

Here's the list of things we worked on, mostly on uphills:

Wider skis/knees

drive forward with the knees push skis into glide.

much lower stance

side crunch onto V1 pole

Arms closer to sides

Poles plant behind foot

Hips over toes (poles behind back in crook of elbows drill)

Keep elbow angle locked until near the end.

V2 long glide drill

Big thanks go to Kari and Eric for helping us work towards our goal. At the end, I asked Eric if he thought we would reach our goal of skiing the Bear Chase 26k skate. He said, "There's hope." Very encouraging. "There's always hope;" less encouraging... ;^)

Ciao,

Charles