Off season cross country ski drills to improve your balance and reaction time

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

    When I teach at the early season Supercamps at Silver Star and Sovereign Lakes, BC one of the aspects we focus on are drills for improving agility and reaction time.  When we are teenagers and are forced off balance we can often recover quickly and stay on our feet. But as we age the ability to recover quickly slows dramatically and this means we often become less confident and more prone to falling on our cross country skis. So it pays to work on drills through the summer to improve our reaction time. One example is using a bongo board like I show in the photo below. A bongo board really tests your ability  to stay balanced while your point of balance constantly changes under your feet.  I have to quickly move my weight back and forth between my feet to stay balanced. To do this I need to be flexed at ankles and knees with my arms out for balance just like when we cross country ski. 

 You can also improve your ability to move your feet quickly and stay balanced by doing some of these quick step turn drills on roller skis. Start slowly and as your skills improve you can use tennis balls to force you to turn quicker and sharper.  I stay balanced by bringing my feet under my body and that I put more weight on the outside ski. Common errors that I see when I coach skiers with this drill is that they lift their skis or they lean each turn. Instead keep your weight over the outside roller ski.  So work on developing quick feet so that your reaction time improves before the cross country ski season starts. In photo below I have spaced out tennis balls cut in half to challenge my ability to quickly turn around each one. Check out Fitterfirst for info on bongo boards and Jenex Roller skis for obtaining roller skis. This video has more information about improving your agility and reaction time for cross country skiing-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub3FdLORsuM       Also for information on the early season Supercamps held at Silver Star and Sovereign Lakes , BC see: http://xcsupercamps.com   They are a great on snow tune up for the upcoming cross country ski season.