Kris Freeman training video clip

In case you're looking for a pretty decent mental image to help your summer
training, I've put a video clip of Kris Freeman during a classic interval on
the front page of my website (http://www.engineeredtuning.net/). The video
was shot about a week ago when Kris came by to do the same workout we'd done
five or six weeks before. The program is this: start the day with an
interval session - 6x5 minutes, three classic followed by three skate. The
course is severely brutal uphill for me. Actually a fair bit of striding and
V1 for Kris which is unusual for roller ski terrain. I have to drive him
back down between intervals. I shoot video. We look at video. Then we go
work on technical adjustments and build them into the dryland (as in
on-foot) leg strength & technique program.

In the past six weeks Kris has made a really nice adjustment to his
striding. He's got in incredibly strong core but he was relying too much on
back and his butt to stabilize his pelvis and this was constricting his leg
swing from his hip joint. By refocusing the stability load on the abdominals
(transverse abdominis primarily) he was able to remove a great deal of the
constriction from his hips and free up his leg. He also worked on
stabilizing the extended position - that is, stabilizing the pelvis in a
position that allows the desired degree of extension. The leg can extend at
most 15 degrees behind the pelvis, and most people get less than that
(according to my eye). To ski "long" or "big" it is necessary for the pelvis
to be tilted forward. In order to keep this from resulting in a huge load-up
of the lower back muscles it is necessary to train stability in a range of
pelvic positions. That's what Kris has been doing - lots of standing leg
swing stuff. Boooring. But effective, if you know what you're after.

To properly illustrate this I should probably put up the video from the
previous session. But it takes me a while to capture, clip, compress and
post these things. Especially the uploading part. Dial-up is slow.

Anyway, to my eye Kris is looking incredibly strong and fit. He's clearly
made progress in the past six weeks. Not surprising considering he's on a
plan to train 80 hour a month until he goes to NZ, where he'll up it
considerably on snow. Working with this guy require a constant upward
adjustment of expectations, not to mention training volume numbers.

By the way - so there's no confusion - Kris is coached by the national team
coaches. Trond and Pete do a great job and he's very happy with the
situation. He uses me for feedback when he back home in New Hampshire in the
spring and early summer.

Zach

Nice video zach ! thanks
but, dial up... !! come on now !! get up to speed and get a t1 or cable
setup to upload us more goodies.
I've never done any classic rollerskiing - skate only here.
When I want specificity I just double pole and run.
In fact today it was a 2 mile warmup run, a 3 mile time trial run, followed
by an hour of double poling.
Am I doing the WRONG thing by not classic rollerskiing?

Jeff K

"Zachary Caldwell" wrote in message
...
In case you're looking for a pretty decent mental image to help your
summer
training, I've put a video clip of Kris Freeman during a classic interval
on
the front page of my website (http://www.engineeredtuning.net/). The video
was shot about a week ago when Kris came by to do the same workout we'd
done
five or six weeks before. The program is this: start the day with an
interval session - 6x5 minutes, three classic followed by three skate. The
course is severely brutal uphill for me. Actually a fair bit of striding
and
V1 for Kris which is unusual for roller ski terrain. I have to drive him
back down between intervals. I shoot video. We look at video. Then we go
work on technical adjustments and build them into the dryland (as in
on-foot) leg strength & technique program.

In the past six weeks Kris has made a really nice adjustment to his
striding. He's got in incredibly strong core but he was relying too much
on
back and his butt to stabilize his pelvis and this was constricting his
leg
swing from his hip joint. By refocusing the stability load on the
abdominals
(transverse abdominis primarily) he was able to remove a great deal of the
constriction from his hips and free up his leg. He also worked on
stabilizing the extended position - that is, stabilizing the pelvis in a
position that allows the desired degree of extension. The leg can extend
at
most 15 degrees behind the pelvis, and most people get less than that
(according to my eye). To ski "long" or "big" it is necessary for the
pelvis
to be tilted forward. In order to keep this from resulting in a huge
load-up
of the lower back muscles it is necessary to train stability in a range of
pelvic positions. That's what Kris has been doing - lots of standing leg
swing stuff. Boooring. But effective, if you know what you're after.

To properly illustrate this I should probably put up the video from the
previous session. But it takes me a while to capture, clip, compress and
post these things. Especially the uploading part. Dial-up is slow.

Anyway, to my eye Kris is looking incredibly strong and fit. He's clearly
made progress in the past six weeks. Not surprising considering he's on a
plan to train 80 hour a month until he goes to NZ, where he'll up it
considerably on snow. Working with this guy require a constant upward
adjustment of expectations, not to mention training volume numbers.

By the way - so there's no confusion - Kris is coached by the national
team
coaches. Trond and Pete do a great job and he's very happy with the
situation. He uses me for feedback when he back home in New Hampshire in
the
spring and early summer.

Zach

No Jeff, I think you're probably not missing much by not classic roller
skiing. I know that everybody has heard about the evils of striding on
roller skis. Kris hasn't done a lot of this in the past, and I wouldn't even
say he's doing a "lot" now. But he's conciously doing more than he has
because he's got some specific goals. And he's very solid technically and
always training with a specific purpose. He's not going to get lazy and
develop bad habits. But the long and short of it is that you're doing the
more important stuff if you're double poling and running.

As for the broadband - options up this way are incredibly limited. The
nearest cable is about 15 miles from my house. And DSL isn't an option. I
could get satellite broadband, but I don't even have a satellite TV and the
expense would be quite high. So dial-up it is!
Z


"32 degrees" wrote in message
...
Nice video zach ! thanks
but, dial up... !! come on now !! get up to speed and get a t1 or cable
setup to upload us more goodies.
I've never done any classic rollerskiing - skate only here.
When I want specificity I just double pole and run.
In fact today it was a 2 mile warmup run, a 3 mile time trial run,
followed
by an hour of double poling.
Am I doing the WRONG thing by not classic rollerskiing?

Jeff K

"Zachary Caldwell" wrote in message
...
In case you're looking for a pretty decent mental image to help your
summer
training, I've put a video clip of Kris Freeman during a classic
interval
on
the front page of my website (http://www.engineeredtuning.net/). The
video
was shot about a week ago when Kris came by to do the same workout we'd
done
five or six weeks before. The program is this: start the day with an
interval session - 6x5 minutes, three classic followed by three skate.
The
course is severely brutal uphill for me. Actually a fair bit of striding
and
V1 for Kris which is unusual for roller ski terrain. I have to drive him
back down between intervals. I shoot video. We look at video. Then we go
work on technical adjustments and build them into the dryland (as in
on-foot) leg strength & technique program.

In the past six weeks Kris has made a really nice adjustment to his
striding. He's got in incredibly strong core but he was relying too much
on
back and his butt to stabilize his pelvis and this was constricting his
leg
swing from his hip joint. By refocusing the stability load on the
abdominals
(transverse abdominis primarily) he was able to remove a great deal of
the
constriction from his hips and free up his leg. He also worked on
stabilizing the extended position - that is, stabilizing the pelvis in a
position that allows the desired degree of extension. The leg can extend
at
most 15 degrees behind the pelvis, and most people get less than that
(according to my eye). To ski "long" or "big" it is necessary for the
pelvis
to be tilted forward. In order to keep this from resulting in a huge
load-up
of the lower back muscles it is necessary to train stability in a range
of
pelvic positions. That's what Kris has been doing - lots of standing leg
swing stuff. Boooring. But effective, if you know what you're after.

To properly illustrate this I should probably put up the video from the
previous session. But it takes me a while to capture, clip, compress and
post these things. Especially the uploading part. Dial-up is slow.

Anyway, to my eye Kris is looking incredibly strong and fit. He's
clearly
made progress in the past six weeks. Not surprising considering he's on
a
plan to train 80 hour a month until he goes to NZ, where he'll up it
considerably on snow. Working with this guy require a constant upward
adjustment of expectations, not to mention training volume numbers.

By the way - so there's no confusion - Kris is coached by the national
team
coaches. Trond and Pete do a great job and he's very happy with the
situation. He uses me for feedback when he back home in New Hampshire in
the
spring and early summer.

Zach

You are very skilled at quantifying the subjective as evidenced by the
formulas developed to price used skis that have been picked and refurbished.

When I read your critique of Kris Freeman's use of muscleoskeletal system,
and technique I began to wonder what the positive changes Kris actualized
means in terms of time. Like in a 15 km. classic race would he save 5, 30,
or 60 seconds? Any idea?

Thanks.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY
AKA Gary The Snail




"Zachary Caldwell" wrote in message
...
No Jeff, I think you're probably not missing much by not classic roller
skiing. I know that everybody has heard about the evils of striding on
roller skis. Kris hasn't done a lot of this in the past, and I wouldn't
even
say he's doing a "lot" now. But he's conciously doing more than he has
because he's got some specific goals. And he's very solid technically and
always training with a specific purpose. He's not going to get lazy and
develop bad habits. But the long and short of it is that you're doing the
more important stuff if you're double poling and running.

As for the broadband - options up this way are incredibly limited. The
nearest cable is about 15 miles from my house. And DSL isn't an option. I
could get satellite broadband, but I don't even have a satellite TV and
the
expense would be quite high. So dial-up it is!
Z


"32 degrees" wrote in message
...
Nice video zach ! thanks
but, dial up... !! come on now !! get up to speed and get a t1 or cable
setup to upload us more goodies.
I've never done any classic rollerskiing - skate only here.
When I want specificity I just double pole and run.
In fact today it was a 2 mile warmup run, a 3 mile time trial run,
followed
by an hour of double poling.
Am I doing the WRONG thing by not classic rollerskiing?

Jeff K

"Zachary Caldwell" wrote in message
...
In case you're looking for a pretty decent mental image to help your
summer
training, I've put a video clip of Kris Freeman during a classic
interval
on
the front page of my website (http://www.engineeredtuning.net/). The
video
was shot about a week ago when Kris came by to do the same workout
we'd
done
five or six weeks before. The program is this: start the day with an
interval session - 6x5 minutes, three classic followed by three skate.
The
course is severely brutal uphill for me. Actually a fair bit of
striding
and
V1 for Kris which is unusual for roller ski terrain. I have to drive
him
back down between intervals. I shoot video. We look at video. Then we
go
work on technical adjustments and build them into the dryland (as in
on-foot) leg strength & technique program.

In the past six weeks Kris has made a really nice adjustment to his
striding. He's got in incredibly strong core but he was relying too
much
on
back and his butt to stabilize his pelvis and this was constricting
his
leg
swing from his hip joint. By refocusing the stability load on the
abdominals
(transverse abdominis primarily) he was able to remove a great deal of
the
constriction from his hips and free up his leg. He also worked on
stabilizing the extended position - that is, stabilizing the pelvis in
a
position that allows the desired degree of extension. The leg can
extend
at
most 15 degrees behind the pelvis, and most people get less than that
(according to my eye). To ski "long" or "big" it is necessary for the
pelvis
to be tilted forward. In order to keep this from resulting in a huge
load-up
of the lower back muscles it is necessary to train stability in a
range
of
pelvic positions. That's what Kris has been doing - lots of standing
leg
swing stuff. Boooring. But effective, if you know what you're after.

To properly illustrate this I should probably put up the video from
the
previous session. But it takes me a while to capture, clip, compress
and
post these things. Especially the uploading part. Dial-up is slow.

Anyway, to my eye Kris is looking incredibly strong and fit. He's
clearly
made progress in the past six weeks. Not surprising considering he's
on
a
plan to train 80 hour a month until he goes to NZ, where he'll up it
considerably on snow. Working with this guy require a constant upward
adjustment of expectations, not to mention training volume numbers.

By the way - so there's no confusion - Kris is coached by the national
team
coaches. Trond and Pete do a great job and he's very happy with the
situation. He uses me for feedback when he back home in New Hampshire
in
the
spring and early summer.

Zach

Good question Gary. It's a little hard to quantify something like that. I'm
always jealous of cyclists who can measure their output in watts and
directly quantify gains in position or peddling action, then predict time
gains using basic mechanics. We don't have that ability. And the nature of
skiing - where every stride is different and adaptability is critical -
makes most attempts to control variables and quantify the effectiveness of
various technical adjustments a big waste of time. Instead, we have to take
more of a statistical approach (in the loosest conceivable terms). We watch
a lot of good skiers, and instead of just copying the best, we see what all
the good ones have in common. We keep track of trends and we try to reduce
things down to salient points. We build a model that leaves many of the
specifics up in the air, but nails down those important basic features. Then
we continually update and refine. Not much quantification there.

The other issue is that these changes were in response to specific feedback
and planning from Kris. He is already as fast as anybody in the world on
steep uphills in hard tracks. He looses any advantage at higher speeds, and
his biggest complaint is that he's not very effective in soft tracks or
slop. He can modify his technique - lengthen the kick so it's not so
impulsive, etc. But he pays a large price. He feels that his legs aren't
strong enough to ski long. Well, in part that has to do with the range of
motion around his hip joint and the constriction that he was experiencing.
By tilting his pelvis forward a bit and shifting the stabilization load away
from the big propulsive muscles he gains a lot of freedom. Avoids working
against himself. But he's also taken on some pretty tough leg strength
drills to build increased strength through a broadened range of motion
around the hip.

So, how much time will he save? In a fifteen K on a course with a lot of
hard bounding climbs and a lot of double poling and hard tracks, probably
not much. On a course with more moderate terrain, lots of fast striding, and
sloppy conditions, perhaps over a minute. But I'm just guessing.

Zach


"Gary Jacobson" wrote in message
. ..
You are very skilled at quantifying the subjective as evidenced by the
formulas developed to price used skis that have been picked and
refurbished.

When I read your critique of Kris Freeman's use of muscleoskeletal system,
and technique I began to wonder what the positive changes Kris actualized
means in terms of time. Like in a 15 km. classic race would he save 5, 30,
or 60 seconds? Any idea?

Thanks.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY
AKA Gary The Snail




"Zachary Caldwell" wrote in message
...
No Jeff, I think you're probably not missing much by not classic roller
skiing. I know that everybody has heard about the evils of striding on
roller skis. Kris hasn't done a lot of this in the past, and I wouldn't
even
say he's doing a "lot" now. But he's conciously doing more than he has
because he's got some specific goals. And he's very solid technically
and
always training with a specific purpose. He's not going to get lazy and
develop bad habits. But the long and short of it is that you're doing
the
more important stuff if you're double poling and running.

As for the broadband - options up this way are incredibly limited. The
nearest cable is about 15 miles from my house. And DSL isn't an option.
I
could get satellite broadband, but I don't even have a satellite TV and
the
expense would be quite high. So dial-up it is!
Z


"32 degrees" wrote in message
...
Nice video zach ! thanks
but, dial up... !! come on now !! get up to speed and get a t1 or
cable
setup to upload us more goodies.
I've never done any classic rollerskiing - skate only here.
When I want specificity I just double pole and run.
In fact today it was a 2 mile warmup run, a 3 mile time trial run,
followed
by an hour of double poling.
Am I doing the WRONG thing by not classic rollerskiing?

Jeff K

"Zachary Caldwell" wrote in message
...
In case you're looking for a pretty decent mental image to help your
summer
training, I've put a video clip of Kris Freeman during a classic
interval
on
the front page of my website (http://www.engineeredtuning.net/). The
video
was shot about a week ago when Kris came by to do the same workout
we'd
done
five or six weeks before. The program is this: start the day with an
interval session - 6x5 minutes, three classic followed by three
skate.
The
course is severely brutal uphill for me. Actually a fair bit of
striding
and
V1 for Kris which is unusual for roller ski terrain. I have to drive
him
back down between intervals. I shoot video. We look at video. Then
we
go
work on technical adjustments and build them into the dryland (as in
on-foot) leg strength & technique program.

In the past six weeks Kris has made a really nice adjustment to his
striding. He's got in incredibly strong core but he was relying too
much
on
back and his butt to stabilize his pelvis and this was constricting
his
leg
swing from his hip joint. By refocusing the stability load on the
abdominals
(transverse abdominis primarily) he was able to remove a great deal
of
the
constriction from his hips and free up his leg. He also worked on
stabilizing the extended position - that is, stabilizing the pelvis
in
a
position that allows the desired degree of extension. The leg can
extend
at
most 15 degrees behind the pelvis, and most people get less than
that
(according to my eye). To ski "long" or "big" it is necessary for
the
pelvis
to be tilted forward. In order to keep this from resulting in a huge
load-up
of the lower back muscles it is necessary to train stability in a
range
of
pelvic positions. That's what Kris has been doing - lots of standing
leg
swing stuff. Boooring. But effective, if you know what you're after.

To properly illustrate this I should probably put up the video from
the
previous session. But it takes me a while to capture, clip, compress
and
post these things. Especially the uploading part. Dial-up is slow.

Anyway, to my eye Kris is looking incredibly strong and fit. He's
clearly
made progress in the past six weeks. Not surprising considering he's
on
a
plan to train 80 hour a month until he goes to NZ, where he'll up it
considerably on snow. Working with this guy require a constant
upward
adjustment of expectations, not to mention training volume numbers.

By the way - so there's no confusion - Kris is coached by the
national
team
coaches. Trond and Pete do a great job and he's very happy with the
situation. He uses me for feedback when he back home in New
Hampshire
in
the
spring and early summer.

Zach

Thanks, Zach, that's a helpful video. One thing, tho, is that you refer
to this as "long" or "big" skiing. I've understand the latter term to
refer to a more extended upper body style than Chris is using, such as
"the Russian style, similar to what most of us were taught some years
ago. Kris may have extended his stride but his posture looks to me
still within the framework of recent, more upright changes.

Gene

Zachary Caldwell wrote:
...
most 15 degrees behind the pelvis, and most people get less than that
(according to my eye). To ski "long" or "big" it is necessary for the pelvis
to be tilted forward. In order to keep this from resulting in a huge load-up
of the lower back muscles it is necessary to train stability in a range of
pelvic positions. That's what Kris has been doing - lots of standing leg
swing stuff. Boooring. But effective, if you know what you're after.

Yes - you're right Gene. This is still pretty upright and compact. But it's
an expansion of the technique he has been using. It hasn't been a goal to
totally change the fundamentals of what has made him successful.

Zach


"Gene Goldenfeld" wrote in message
...
Thanks, Zach, that's a helpful video. One thing, tho, is that you refer
to this as "long" or "big" skiing. I've understand the latter term to
refer to a more extended upper body style than Chris is using, such as
"the Russian style, similar to what most of us were taught some years
ago. Kris may have extended his stride but his posture looks to me
still within the framework of recent, more upright changes.

Gene

Zachary Caldwell wrote:
...
most 15 degrees behind the pelvis, and most people get less than that
(according to my eye). To ski "long" or "big" it is necessary for the
pelvis
to be tilted forward. In order to keep this from resulting in a huge
load-up
of the lower back muscles it is necessary to train stability in a range
of
pelvic positions. That's what Kris has been doing - lots of standing leg
swing stuff. Boooring. But effective, if you know what you're after.

Zach, looking at the video again (regular, slow mo) I notice that Kris
is using very little ankle flex, if any. The flex is pretty much all in
the knees with a quick kick. Is this a function of being on rollerskis?

Gene