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Pivot-Step

Primary Skill: Hip rotation/pivoting.

Secondary Skill: Push with full length of foot, landing/gliding on flat ski.

Drill Details: An excellent starting drill for learning skating. On very flat open terrain without poles, have the students stand with skis parallel. Then have them pick up one ski, rotate it to 90-degrees relative to their standing leg’s ski, then push off with their standing leg onto the outwardly rotated ski. Emphasize the hip rotation/opening that happens when rotating the ski out. Have them do this on both sides and aim for as long a glide on the new ski as possible. For beginner skiers do not emphasize the one-legged glide, rather encourage the push ski to come parallel to the glide ski and allow two-ski gliding. For more advanced skiers, have them come back and look at their tracks on the snow and have them look for signs of landing on a flat ski.

Heel Tap

Primary Skill: Hip rotation/pivoting.

Secondary Skill: Complete weight shift, proper leg recovery, and balance.

Drill Details: On relatively flat or slightly downhill terrain have the students free skate (i.e. without poles) and try to tap the heel of the recovery foot to the heel of the glide foot prior to pushing off of the glide foot for the next skate. Generally useful as an indicator for proper gliding position, hip rotation etc. Also good drill for trying to overcome “cycling” recoveries where the recovery foot is lifted too far off the ground in the leg recovery.

Hand/Pole Radar Ski

Primary Skill: Hip rotation/pivoting.

Secondary Skill: Body alignment (“knees, nose, toes”).

Drill Details: On relatively flat terrain, have the students free skate with a visual indicator of their body/hip position. For the Hand Radar Ski, have them place their two thumbs and two forefingers together to form a “window”. Holding their arms straight and hands a foot or two away from their bodies the goal is to be able to see the tip of the glide ski through the “window”. For the Pole Radar Ski, the student holds the middle of the shaft of each pole (one in each hand) and presses their hands/poles against their hip bones. The goal is then also to keep the gliding ski tip centered between the ends of the pole sticking out. The poles can also be held under the armpits although one must then watch for uptorso rotation versus hip rotation.

Primary Skill: Hip rotation/pivoting, forward lean, body position.

Secondary Skill: N/A

Drill Details: On flat terrain and without poles have the students pair up. One student stands with their skis in a moderate V-position while the other places one hand at hip height over top of one of their partner’s ski tips (i.e. one of the skis in the V-position). The first student then tries to lean forward with the opposite hand (e.g. right hand reaching for left ski tip) to shake hands with their partner. To do so they will need to lean forward significantly from the waist and probably even feel their weight forward on the ball of their feet. Have them reach to both sides then switch roles.

Handshake – Dynamic Version

Primary Skill: Hip rotation/pivoting, forward lean, body position.

Secondary Skill: N/A

Drill Details: On relatively flat terrain have the students perform a basic free skate. Have them swing their arms in an opposite arm/opposite ski manner such that they reach forward and over the gliding ski as if to shake someone’s hand that sits about a meter above their ski tip. Best done after the static version of this drill.

Poles Behind Butt Drill

Primary Skill: Hips forward/tall glide position

Secondary Skill: Hip rotation/pivoting

Drill Details: Have the students remove both pole straps and hold both poles together behind them against their butt. On relatively flat or slightly downhill terrain have them perform a free-skate with an emphasis on pulling forward on the poles (i.e. pulling the butt forward) at the start of each glide. By directing the focus to the opposite hand of the glide ski this can also be used to help reinforce hip rotation/pivoting.

Look Over A Box/Crowd

Primary Skill: Tall glide position

Secondary Skill: Flexion/extension, hip rotation/pivoting

Drill Details: On generally flat terrain have the students perform a free skate where the opposite hand to the glide ski comes up to their forehead to “shade” their eyes as if they were looking over top of a crowd for a friend or over top of some obstacle at the side of the trail. The combination of arm movement and thoughts of looking up over something should help bring the students to a tall glide position. Adding a focus to dropping down on the push phase will help develop flexion/extension. The opposite arm motion will also naturally help develop some rotation/weight shift.

© 2005 Jeff Stainsby