Lee Borowski's "pole glide"?

In the latest Master Skier Lee B. has an article about "pole glide" in
classic. Or maybe he calls it "pole drive." Does anyone know what he's
talking about? He calls it a secret, a rare thing, something to get the
most out of classic. He has a drill to emphasize it which is to delay
the forward leg-swing. I tried it, felt nothing.

It seems like the delay results in poling while the kick foot is
planted. He might've also mentioned that pole glide comes from pole
followthru but that delayed leg-swing is a good drill or way to achieve
this. I didn't find it to be so. I can indeed see that an extensive
pole follow-thru lengthens the glide-phase. But as far as I can tell
once the new pole is planted the kick foot grips and delaying the swing
forward of the rear leg does nothing. ??

--JP

I think he's just talking about poling as soon as the glide leg is set
down, and that delaying the rear leg swing somehow has worked for him
in teaching people to do that. For me what works is making sure the
forward-moving arm is well past my hips when I kick so that the pole
can be planted as soon as the glide leg touches down. Lee only
emphasizes planting the pole quickly, but it doesn't do any good to
plant it quickly if it's not there in time in the first place. There's
a great side-on video of Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset in Janne's mpg technique
site that clearly shows how his forward-swinging arm is way ahead of
his hips when he kicks.

Jim

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 wrote:

In the latest Master Skier Lee B. has an article about "pole glide" in
classic. Or maybe he calls it "pole drive." Does anyone know what he's
talking about? He calls it a secret, a rare thing, something to get the
most out of classic. He has a drill to emphasize it which is to delay
the forward leg-swing. I tried it, felt nothing.

I read that and then tried it for a while. After trying several times
to get the feel of it I eventually concluded it was they way I already
ski. And I'm really not particularly good at classic technique.


It seems like the delay results in poling while the kick foot is
planted. He might've also mentioned that pole glide comes from pole
followthru but that delayed leg-swing is a good drill or way to achieve
this. I didn't find it to be so. I can indeed see that an extensive
pole follow-thru lengthens the glide-phase. But as far as I can tell
once the new pole is planted the kick foot grips and delaying the swing
forward of the rear leg does nothing. ??

Hmm. My take on it was that once the new pole is planted, the gliding
ski is supposed to continue gliding, a bit farther now than it would
have had you waited to plant the pole until the gliding ski came to a
halt. Then, after the delay to allow glide to happen, the glide ski
becomes the kicking ski, etc.

I would probably explain all this differently if I were coaching someone.
But then the coach who tried to explain it to me taught it differently,
too. I think it's really difficult to communicate it to someone by
breaking it down into component motions. I really prefer watch and
immitate supplemented with videos. If/when something needs fixing,
overemphasize the correcting move and continue with watch and immitate.

-Mitch

I'm still confused and can't get Janne's newstyle vids (but maybe this
one is in older format?).

When I stand here and imitate skiing I find that when my new foot
touches down that I'm kind of crouched and my poling hand is a foot in
front of my body and my recovering hand is a bit behind my hip, coming
forward. When both feet are on ground, passing each other, I suppose
that my hands are also passing each other and maybe somewhat in front
of my hips. Is that the way it should be? Oh well! ---JP

There's probably many other examples, but the video that I found
especially helpful was an old mpg:

http://avari181.mt.luth.se/Technic/Oddbjorn1.mpg

It's best to view it in slomo -- I use VirtualDub and just advance
frame-by-frame via the arrow keys.

-Jim

OK, I got that. That's purty! Man, what a whipping action he has. Looks
like me. : )

Amazing how fast he goes by that guy at first. Like he's standing
still. But then the guy seems able to latch onto him.

--JP

I noticed that I was delaying to some extent already, since it's part of
correct rhythm. Playing with Borowski's suggestion, I've found holding
it longer is very effective on (up to) moderate hills, creating strong
leg/foot acceleration. The catch is to still land with the foot under
the hips (COG), as opposed to driving the leg/foot way forward and
leaving the hips behind. Poling should occur without delay, with the
kick foot still fully planted. That's the purpose of near vertical pole
angle at that point, to help get good purchase through the foot and thus
more propulsion. As the hill gets steeper, delayed return becomes
impossible.

Gene

wrote:

In the latest Master Skier Lee B. has an article about "pole glide" in
classic. Or maybe he calls it "pole drive." Does anyone know what he's
talking about? He calls it a secret, a rare thing, something to get the
most out of classic. He has a drill to emphasize it which is to delay
the forward leg-swing. I tried it, felt nothing.

It seems like the delay results in poling while the kick foot is
planted. He might've also mentioned that pole glide comes from pole
followthru but that delayed leg-swing is a good drill or way to achieve
this. I didn't find it to be so. I can indeed see that an extensive
pole follow-thru lengthens the glide-phase. But as far as I can tell
once the new pole is planted the kick foot grips and delaying the swing
forward of the rear leg does nothing. ??

--JP

HI Jeff & Gene! I briefly looked at Lee's article yesterday, and I
read your post, then I went skiing today and put it all together. I
think the pole glide Lee is referring to is the last push off release
with the pole while your ski is getting max glide. Today I found that
when I pushed off with my right pole and fully extended my arm
(pole)release past my hip, my hip raised up and my right leg would
really get max glide. I also found that this is pretty much the way I
ski mostly, but it does take good glide, great balance, stable ski,
good kick, and the right momentum (faster for me was better, Lee
recommends slower and I couldn't maintian the balance). Plus, it
depends also on the terrain etc. Since I was concentrating on it it did
seem a little akward at first. And I was definitely more skilled at it
on my right side versus my left.

Jeff, since you are such a skilled classical skier already, you are
probably doing this and you don't even know it!! Good luck at the
Black Mountain 30K Challenge!

Amy