Pole Length and New Skate

I'm 179cm and use 160cm poles. In the past, I was on 162cm models.
Should I consider 157cm with the emphasis on the "new skate"? Are pole
getting shorter because of the tendency to lean forward more and bend
at the ankles? The old standard for measurement was between the lips
and the nose.

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT

C'mon, everyone knows the New Pole is between lips and chin or even
chin-height. Everything is New!

In a recent MS, Pete said it's good training to do New Skate with classic
poles. I was doing that for awhile anyway before I read that and was
thinking it was darn nice.

I'm 185cm, my poles currently are 165cm---a ratio like yours (20cm less
than height) and they seem likely a bit too long. I might chop an inch
off. I cut an inch off last year already! Right now in barefeet they're
at lowerlip.

Jay Tegeder wrote:

I'm 179cm and use 160cm poles. In the past, I was on 162cm models.
Should I consider 157cm with the emphasis on the "new skate"? Are pole
getting shorter because of the tendency to lean forward more and bend
at the ankles? The old standard for measurement was between the lips
and the nose.

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture...
...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies...
...rare books on ski, bike, boat culture, plus a Gulf Coast thriller
about smalltown smuggling ... radical novels coming up!
...original downloadable music ... and articles galore!
plus national travel forums! HOLY SMOKES! 800-763-6923

I say chop 'em. Then I can jump in the track, take a couple double poles with
my 185cm tall timbers (I'm 6'5") and pass 'ya !

Swoooosh !

I always get comments that it's hard to draft off me with those sticks because
you need good timing to not get caught in the face with the tips.

Ha !

:^]

jw
milwaukee

Jay,
I am 177CM and I have slowly crept down to a 157.5 pole. I find I climb much
quicker with it. If you ski/race where it is very flat or a lot of V2 you could
probably go up a cm or two.

I'm 184 cm

I use a 167.5cm pole for skate. This places the top of the grip firmly
in the "I wish I could grow a real soul patch" region. I think going a
little bit shorter would probably not be bad. I've seen some guys on
the world cup this year that look like they've got poles a couple cm
above the tops of their shoulders.

Paul

Jay Tegeder wrote:
I'm 179cm and use 160cm poles. In the past, I was on 162cm models.
Should I consider 157cm with the emphasis on the "new skate"? Are pole
getting shorter because of the tendency to lean forward more and bend
at the ankles? The old standard for measurement was between the lips
and the nose.

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT

--
Remove the caps to reply
Nordic Nuts
http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~pbelknap

Hey, this is a 20cm diff, just like Jay and I already have.

Trukweaz wrote:

Jay,
I am 177CM and I have slowly crept down to a 157.5 pole. I find I climb much
quicker with it. If you ski/race where it is very flat or a lot of V2 you could
probably go up a cm or two.

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture...
...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies...
...rare books on ski, bike, boat culture, plus a Gulf Coast thriller
about smalltown smuggling ... radical novels coming up!
...original downloadable music ... and articles galore!
plus national travel forums! HOLY SMOKES! 800-763-6923

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 16:44:25 -0800, Chequama Mama
wrote:

I'm 184 cm

I use a 167.5cm pole for skate. This places the top of the grip firmly
in the "I wish I could grow a real soul patch" region. I think going a
little bit shorter would probably not be bad. I've seen some guys on
the world cup this year that look like they've got poles a couple cm
above the tops of their shoulders.

Paul

Jay Tegeder wrote:
I'm 179cm and use 160cm poles. In the past, I was on 162cm models.
Should I consider 157cm with the emphasis on the "new skate"? Are pole
getting shorter because of the tendency to lean forward more and bend
at the ankles? The old standard for measurement was between the lips
and the nose.

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT

People of the same height can have very different physiques. You need to use
what works best for you, not what seems to be "trendy." (oh boy, that sounds
familiar g).

Ben

--- Ben Kaufman wrote:

People of the same height can have very different physiques. You
need to use
what works best for you, not what seems to be "trendy." (oh boy, that
sounds
familiar g).


Toko recommendation is .885 time your height. And Ben is right - you
can vary depending on what feels good to you. And with terrain
variations. I know some elite racers have long and short poles for
each technique.

Rob Bradlee
Toko Tech Team

My reason for considering shorter poles was the fact that my poles have
felt a bit too long when I've been out skiing so far this year. I think
it has to do with the different body position that I've been trying,
which I took out of a camp this summer.

My comment on the world cup skiers, was more of an observation than
anything. I for sure can't afford to cut a pair of swix stars and then
have them be waaaaay to short for me.

In my opinion, we will see people tend towards even shorter poles in
skating in the next few years, until they aren't much longer than
classic (which may still lengthen a bit). But that's just me

Paul

Ben Kaufman wrote:
On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 16:44:25 -0800, Chequama Mama
wrote:


I'm 184 cm

I use a 167.5cm pole for skate. This places the top of the grip firmly
in the "I wish I could grow a real soul patch" region. I think going a
little bit shorter would probably not be bad. I've seen some guys on
the world cup this year that look like they've got poles a couple cm
above the tops of their shoulders.

Paul

Jay Tegeder wrote:

I'm 179cm and use 160cm poles. In the past, I was on 162cm models.
Should I consider 157cm with the emphasis on the "new skate"? Are pole
getting shorter because of the tendency to lean forward more and bend
at the ankles? The old standard for measurement was between the lips
and the nose.

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT


People of the same height can have very different physiques. You need to use
what works best for you, not what seems to be "trendy." (oh boy, that sounds
familiar g).

Ben

--
Remove the caps to reply
Nordic Nuts
http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~pbelknap

Rob Bradlee wrote:

--- Ben Kaufman wrote:

People of the same height can have very different physiques. You
need to use
what works best for you, not what seems to be "trendy." (oh boy, that
sounds
familiar g).


Toko recommendation is .885 time your height. And Ben is right - you
can vary depending on what feels good to you. And with terrain
variations. I know some elite racers have long and short poles for
each technique.

Rob Bradlee
Toko Tech Team

Rob,
Maybe there's something you should check out about that recommendation,
something I discovered last night much to my annoyance last night. The
Toko (Yoko) 232 cork grips -- at least the ones of two years ago -- fit
nearly 3 cm deeper than the Swix and Infinity ones, meaning the poles are
much longer with the Toko grips on (top and where the strap comes out). To
wit: I have a pair of Swix Team poles that measure 167.5 with the Swix and
Infinity grips on, and 170.2 with the Yokos. All were heated well in
boiling water and pushed all the way down.

Something else I noticed checking the catalogs, is that most of the
majors dropped the pole length table this year. Others that haven't used
tables are sticking to their recommendation of 2.30 x one's height in
inches. Finn Sisu in St. Paul recommends 90% of the skiers height, which
comes out to 2.286, or a 1 cm difference. All are adamant that skate poles
should come to between the chin and lips.

Gene