New wave” replaces “old school” cross-country ski techniques

Nordic trends

New wave replaces “old school” cross-country ski techniques

By Lise Meloche and David McMahon

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING has been heading in a direction away from all other skiing disciplines and popular culture in recent years.

At one time, being adventurous meant changing your granola mix and committing a spree of fashion crimes in solitude. No wonder some Nordic skiers have a reputation for being reclusive, pedantic, mulish and a bit odd.

“Wood is better than plastic,” and “skating is evil,” and other esoteric technical statements fueled holy wars on and off the snow. New ideas were often vigorously suppressed and by the mid- ’80s, the sport was overdue for a serious makeover.

The revolution started with skating technique, equipment upgrades, synthetic waxes and sprint racing. The fallout of changes in the ’80s is only now reaching the mass of recreational Nordic skiers. The lifeblood of the sport is not necessarily the club programs, but the adult cross-training movement, from where the majority of new skiers come. Nordic skiing is now turning a corner and has an opportunity to become trendy again. Let’s look at some things to watch for this year.

New and revived events

The “total skier” model has strong appeal to many, and this has sparked renewed interest in reconstituting all the skiing disciplines.

The Nordic Skier-Cross movement (Nordix) is a natural evolution of sprinting in the presence of the current Xgames pop culture and the need for more technical content in races, as popularized in the film, Unlimited. Nordix fuses the power and endurance in cross-country skiing, superb all-mountain skills, headto-head sprinting action and a BMX derby-like course with sporting jumps, pipes, climbs, and high-speed descents with hair-pin turns. Watch out for a Nordix World circuit including North America events, with big prize money, live bands and TV coverage. A new web site should be up and running soon at www.nordix.tv.

Putting the X back into cross-country

Meanwhile, a number of Nordic snow parks are popping up across the country for fun and skill development. Atomic’s Nordic Cross ski is specifically made for Nordix. It is fast enough to sprint on but strong enough to take the landings.

Then, there is the concept of “real skiing” outside the bounds of groomed trails and restrictive rule-books. Although they’re not a new idea, “randonnee rallies” or “ski mountaineering races” have regained popularity. The events include long, steep climbs on skins, some climbing or scrabbling, and alpine or telemark descents. They are a clear test of cardiovascular fitness and all-mountain skills.

News flash! Wooden skis are not dead. When fixed with modern boots and bindings and complemented with dressed-down attire, many skiers are finding vintage boards unpretentious and forgiving for all terrain. Skating isn’t half bad on long, fat wooden skis. Besides, if you are tired after a hard workout, no one is going to race you when you are disguised in retro gear.

Fashion

Snowboarding, surfing, mountain biking, kayaking and climbing have all influenced mainstream fashions, so why not Nordic skiing? Although racers will continue to wear Spandex body suits, I think we will start to see loose-fitting, practical ski clothing for training that is wearable off the trail. Warm-up jackets have a lot of potential.

Art, music and film

Other sports have a culture that is actively promoted through film, music and art. Skateboarding was popular

ized by the Z-Boyz as documented by Stacey Peralta’s Sundance-winning film, Dogtown and Z-Boyz.

Bill Snider’s movie, Tread, and the Kranked series by Christian Begin put mountain biking on the map. John Stockwell created great interest with the surfing hit Blue Crush. And of course, Warren Miller did more for alpine skiing and snowboarding than most people alive today.

Meanwhile, Nordic skiing has been fixated on reviewing World Cup racing ripped from TV with a dreary, mind-numbing, mechanical voiceover by instructors. The material was dry and unappealing to anyone other than the most ardent practitioner. The few biathlon scenes in the James Bond films, complete with novice skiers and rear projection screens, are just embarrassing.

The early cross-country ski film entitled, If you can walk, you can ski by Harvey Edwards, reached a huge number of people and actually motivated people to get into the sport. The film provided some technical content packaged in an entertaining format.

Today, there are a number of budding filmmakers, and more Nordic skiing content is reaching adventure film festivals. If we want more Nordic skiing content broadcast and appearing on store shelves, we have to start supporting made-for-television productions featuring Nordic skiing and television-friendly event formats. Our tastes are going to have to become more sophisticated.

In an age when someone can rip cross-country race footage off cable television, add commentary and have it ready to market on-line in an afternoon, Nordic ski films require more commitment. Producing one of them takes a season and several hundred thousand dollars. But the results are worth it, and comparable to alpine films by Warren Miller, TGR, Matchstick or Unparalleled Productions.

Technique

The first generation of coaches and instructors with real World Cup level skiskating experience as athletes have begun to emerge.

Watch for “new skate” and “progressive” styles to challenge “old school” methods of skate skiing. Advocating a

quieter body with less rocking, twisting and edging, progressive ski skating (similar to the Norwegian skating systems modeled on Bjorn Daelie and Thomas Ulsgard) emphasizes more direct, simple and efficient motions. They’re based on key skiing fundamentals of body unity, symmetric form, coordinated timing; and blended pull, push and glide phases.

Propulsion comes from a decisive weight transfer onto a flat glide ski assisted by the first phase of the double poling motion and an unweighted push of the free leg edged only so much as is necessary to transfer power without slipping. The weight is on heel to mid-foot. A skier’s orientation is predominately in the intended direction of travel while conceding some twisting to assist weight transfer in the initial stages of the cycle. Weight shift from ski-to-ski is accomplished more through movements of the lower body, core and hip. In the first phase of the arm movement, the weight is applied onto both poles to the snow at the same time. The arm pull is driven by force of weight, abdominal and back muscles before finishing with pull and push by arms.

By contrast, “old skate” places importance on full body twisting, asymmetric movement, an independent timing of arms, continuous edging and pushing without glide phases. The body is completely orientated perpendicular over the pushing ski at all times as the nose, head, hip and knee align over the tip of the ski. The skier never faces the intended direction of travel down the trail, opting to twist quickly from facing towards one side to the direction of the ski on the other side. The ski is ridden on an edge, with the skier’s weight on their toes. Weight transfer is accomplished by rocking the upper body side-to-side with an aggressive push backward. Where the upper body is concerned, there is a clear distinction between a prominent hang arm and cross-body push-arm. Force is applied to the poles sequentially (one pole plant at a time) using only triceps.

Surf the web for more cross-country skiing blogs started by racers, and proteams run by x-racers.

— David McMahon and Lise Meloche have 50 years of skiing experience between them, with 17 years racing at World Cup Level. They are also the owners of XCZONE.TV.

The Bark by Ken Parker It’s time to right-size the Olympics

THE OLYMPICS ARE SUFFERING from three major problems: drugs, flag jumping and too many “sports.”

Is there a solution to the “sports bloat” problem?

The forerunner of the Olympics had one event — running. The current Games have 28 “sports,” some of them with multiple events. Many recent additions have questionable value as sports and are ignored by lots of countries.

Athletics (track and field) is the essence of the Olympics. Along with soccer, athletics is practiced at a high-level throughout the world. With the relatively recent addition of more events for women, the sport has been enhanced. Once a women’s steeplechase is added, the sport will be complete.

Eliminating a number of “sports” would allow countries to focus on more mainstream activities to make them even more competitive.

First off, any activity with “synchro,” “rhythmic” or “artistic” in its name should be dropped. These activities are more art and entertainment than sport.

Let’s examine the situation sport by sport.

Diving: this is more of an art form like ballet. It could stay in as a demonstration/entertainment event only with no scoring or medals awarded. Out.

Swimming: a real sport, but there are too many events that are not that different. Reduce the number of events. In.

Synchro diving and synchro swimming. Out. Water polo: an incredibly demanding sport. In. Archery: a neat hobby, but hardly a sport. Out. Athletics: the essence of the Olympics. In.

Badminton: when was the last time you saw a Kenyan playing this “sport?” Out.

Baseball: the Games don’t attract the world’s best players. Any sport that consists mainly of participants chewing tobacco and scratching themselves should never have been allowed in the Games. Out.

Basketball: introducing professionals into this sport has elevated the play of the rest of the world. A growth sport. In.

Boxing: this activity defies the philosophy of sport. If two guys want to beat each other up, take it to the alley. If it stays, some idiot will surely propose women’s boxing. Out.

Canoeing: a challenging sport which requires a high level of fitness and skill, but technology and cost could give an unfair advantage to richer countries. In (for now).

Cycling: another great sport with worldwide appeal and interest. In.

Equestrian: I disagree with a wide body of sentiment against this sport. Horses are among the best athletes in the Games. Unfortunately, they need riders, but it’s a small price to pay to watch these magnificent animals. In. Fencing: how did this “sport” last this long? Out. Artistic and rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline. Out. Handball: who plays handball? Out.

Field hockey: very popular in many countries. It balances those primarily North American/European sports. In.

Judo. Out.

Modern pentathlon: for traditional reasons only. If fencers want to participate in the Olympics, learn the other pentathlon events. In.

Rowing: one of the most demanding of sports. The number of events should be reduced but the sport stays. In.

Sailing: too many counties cannot afford to sail. Out. Shooting: get serious. Out.

Soccer (aka football): one of the world’s most practiced sports requiring fitness, skill and tactics. In.

Softball: this sport is improving around the world and, unlike baseball, includes the best players in the world. Also the players do not chew tobacco and scratch themselves. In.

Table tennis: the Orient can have its own Games with this activity. Out.

Taekwondo: too much dancing and yelling. Whose idea was it to include this in the first place? Out.

Tennis: a real sport but not enough worldwide participation. Also, it’s a rich kids’ game. Out.

Triathlon: a great addition in Sydney. It needs to increase participation and Australians should only be allowed to compete for Australia. In.

Volleyball: court volleyball has been surpassed by beach volleyball. It’s far too crowded on the floor with seven-footers at the net. Out.

Beach volleyball: a tough sport with awesome spectator appeal. Get rid of the “wedgie” factor and it can stay. In.

Weightlifting: put this in the circus where it belongs and let the participants dope as much as they want. Out.

Wrestling: looks like two teenagers in the back seat at a drive-in movie. Out.

The arts and entertainment activities could be presented for fans as a virtual presentation. For the benefit of those who enjoy being annoyed by corrupt and incompetent judging, these “competitions” could be staged in studios via a live broadcast.

My last suggestion is to include all athletes who meet IOC standards for an event. They should be sent to the Games by the athlete’s country. Some counties (such as Canada) cannot be entrusted to set their own standards. —Ken Parker is a long-time runner, coach and champion of amateur athlete issues.