Ski Striding

by Karl Saidla - XC Ottawa. Check out the full article for videos at XC Ottawa.ca!).

Ankles - Should be loose and relaxed. This allows you to lean forward with both the hips and torso simultaneously.

Body position - Try to accomplish a relaxed forward lean with the shoulders loose. You don’t want to feel either upright or pitched forward. This is generally accomplished by keeping the ankles loose while falling forward and keeping the hips in a relatively forward position. As you land on each foot try to do so with your centre of gravity (think belly button) over each knee, and your upper body vertical. This puts your weight firmly over each “ski” when you land, and also keeps you moving forward in a straight line.

Leg drive - There is a common tendency to drive the knee too far forward, leaving the skier in a “hips back” position when the foot lands. While this might be ok if you were running, it is not good for skiing for a variety of reasons. As you drive the leg through, try to keep your upper leg more vertical than you would if you were running, and keep your hips forward and “over” your knee as much as possible. Also, keep your feet close to the ground (as you would on skis) as you bring the foot through. Finally, allow your hips to rotate a bit in order to lengthen the stride

The “kick” - Briefly, landing with your hips in a relatively forward position should allow you to “kick” sooner rather than later. Again, kicking “sooner” rather than “later” is generally good for fast skiing.

Arms - You want to use these as you would in skiing. This means bringing them your hands forward in a straight line (no “arcs”, and no “circles, either front to back or side to side) while keeping your shoulders relaxed and planting them with your shoulders forward and your elbow angle in the 90-120 degree range. This angle should be opening rather than closing after pole plant (i.e., don’t allow your arms to collapse). Finish the motion with your elbows close to completely extended (in steeper terrain this might not always be possible).