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Old December 23rd 03, 12:38 PM
Ken Roberts
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Default Poles / No-poles Skating experiment

I love to skate on pavement on inline skates (like rollerblades), so my
usual initial reaction to using poles is that they just get in the way.

Three things that could help you appreciate the value of poles mo

(a) try to skate up hills on skis, including long hills and steep hills.

(b) spend time just double-poling on your skate skis, but without making
_any_ skate-pushes with your legs. Find out what your poles can do for you
just on their own. Play with finding ways to use your poles to push you
forward even without using any arm muscles -- with your arms "locked out",
like by pressing your elbows against the side of your abdomen. Play with
pumping your legs up and down (but not skating out to the side), and see if
you can make that motion push your poles down and back somehow.

(c) Try out double-poling on dry pavement with inline skates. First
purchase some specialized rollerski poles, so you don't wreck up your snow
ski poles. Then try all the same things under (b). As you get going
faster, also try pushing the poles closer to straight _down_ into the
pavement, rather than so much toward the back, also play with explosive
versus smooth at higher speeds. I've gotten to the point where I can
double-pole on pavement way faster than I can run.

It's amazing how many variations are possible even with the simplest part of
cross country skiing, "just" pushing on your poles.

And how much power can be gained by clever mental images and neural
coordination of unexpected muscles -- not just more brute force in the
obvious main push.

Ken


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