key flaws of the New Skate

After living with the New Skate ideas for three years, since Vordenberg's
two articles in the Master Skier 2000-2001, I've come to notice some flaws.
The really big one I'm seeing is:

Lack of attention to the magic of pushing the ski out toward the _side_.

As a result, I missed out on that for another two years, and I bet lots of
other skiers are missing it too. The magic of pushing out to the side has
got to be a more important point than some of the other things Vordenberg
gives repeated attention to in his articles -- like say, forward hips.
Somehow they forgot to mention it at that New-Skate-oriented rollerski camp
I attended also.

Ignoring side-push ties with another omission: the principle that the only
two roles for the upper body are to (1) push on the poles, and (2) keep
quiet and just enjoy the ride. Which takes us to the amusing admission in a
more recent New Skate article: that the World Cup winners still do show
lots of shoulder rotation and swinging in their V1 offset climbing up hills,
but they would all be faster if they would just start following the New
Skate principle of Quiet Upper Body. (though the one video clip I've seen
of Carl Swenson makes it seem like Vordenberg has had trouble even getting
all his own U.S. skaters to follow that rule.)

The other key flaw is Simplicity and Visibility.

Simplicity and Visibility are great for Vordenberg's role as a
national-level mass communicator. But don't they turn into a long-term
problem for local ski _instructors_ ?

-- If ski skating is basically simple then who needs lessons?

-- If the key points are all easily visible, then why do I need a special
instructor to observe my skiing? Just have my buddy watch me. Or have my
spouse take 15-second movie clips with my digital camera, and I'll just look
myself.

-- If the same principles apply to all ability levels ("U.S. Team, master
skier, junior, and beginner"), then there's no need for me to take more
lessons. Compare with any ski school at an alpine downhill resort, where
there's 7 distinct ability levels to learn in more future lessons.

Then there is that other problem with presenting XC skating as Simple and
Visible . . .

Ken