Andrew Lee wrote
[ very helpful ideas for about how to move the foot forward ]
. . . and . . .
You might notice that both the ab/hip movement and the
weight forward/push are similar to what you should be doing while classic
skiing...

I agree that I see it clearly in the great view from behind of Elena
Vaelbe's ski-striding in the NSF video from Trondheim 1997 Women's Classic
race.

What I'm noticing is that this abdominal / hip motion (which seems like what
Jim Grau has observed as "forward hip rotation") -- also shows up in lots of
other human leg-propulsion motions.

Ski mountaineering climbing -- In addition to happily getting into using
this movement to help my ski-skating, I've been using this abdominal-hip
forward-rotation move much in the last few months for climbing up very steep
snow slopes on mountaineering skis with climbing skins on them for holding
their grip against the snow. About four days ago it seemed like my muscles
finally "got it", and I suddenly was amazed at how fast I was skiing up a
slope of 50% grade steepness.

Running -- Another motion where I've found this abdominal-hip
forward-rotation move is in running. I was looking at this Quicktime video
of the great Carl Lewis winning a 100-meter sprint:
http://www.carllewis.com/video.running.4.html
It's hard to see any details in the first segment of the whole race, but
then around the middle of the video where he's doing his "cool-down"
running, using single-frame-advance in the Quicktime viewer, I can see the
rotation of Carl Lewis' pelvis about the vertical axis. Then toward the end
of the video is a close-up on him for the final three seconds of the race --
and I think looking carefully at the vertical white stripe on his running
shorts, and also the variations in the views and angles of his well-defined
buttocks, it's clear that he is also rotating his hips/pelvis about the
vertical axis during the actual race.

The advantage of this hip-rotation move for running and classic-ski-striding
(and skating) now seems obvious to me based on physics -- again much thanks
to Andrew and Jim for pointing it out.

Which leads to the unexpected perspective that in one key aspect my skating
in that V1 video was not yet _enough_ like "running on skis" -- so now I'm
learning how to run better in my skating -- by copying a move from Carl
Lewis.

Ken
_____________________________________
Andrew Lee whatsupandrewathotmaildotcom wrote
Ken Roberts wrote:
Andrew Lee wrote
... try the ab driven leg recovery ...

Yes I did, and I like it. I haven't actually done any sort of
side-by-side
comparison against my old way, because once I got into doing Andrew's
new
thing I found I had no interest in going back.

Good! I knew it would work because I had the same experience. It was the
single most helpful tip I learned from this newsgroup a couple of years
ago.

... try the weight over the front of the foot ...

Yes, this tip worked well for me too -- especially in the final phase of
my
leg-push, when I combined it with JanneG's and Jay "Bjorne" Wenner's
idea
of
setting the next ski down low and smooth. I liked what happened when I
would
land the next ski early, before the end of previous leg-push -- then
focus
the finish of that old push on the fore-foot. Felt like that helped me
direct that final push into the line of the new ski -- which when I was
climbing up a steep hill was aimed distinctly out to the side.
...
During the early or main phases of my leg-push, I found it hard to make
myself focus on my forefoot. Out of the few times I could talk myself
into
it earlier in my push, at least once it seemed to bog my ski down and
almost
stop my glide -- because I was in soft snow. Maybe I need an additional
tip
about that.

I think you have it. I was thinking of the main push. It probably
doesn't
happen at the beginning because if you recover your leg forward relative
to
your center of mass, you necessarily have more weight farther back on that
foot, neutral I would say. Part of the weight might also be on the final
part of your push on the other foot's forefoot in V1. You'll probably
notice that you can stay on the front more in V2, V2A because you don't
have
as large a step forward. Make adjustments by feel when skiing different
terrain and techniques.

You might notice that both the ab/hip movement and the weight forward/push
are similar to what you should be doing while classic skiing...