By Keith and Heather Nicol
Shadows are a great
way to get feedback with roller skiing or cross country skiing on snow for that
matter. I use shadows where possible to get an idea of what my body is doing
since often our percption and reality are quite abit off. I know when I do
video analysis with skiers in lessons and clinics skiers are often very
surprised to see how they look when they ski. That good balance and style they
thought they had often gets adjusted when they see first hand in video format
how they actually ski. “I thought my toe , knee and nose are lined up when I
free skate or diagonal stride” clients will comment - when in fact their weight
stays in the middle of the track with little weight shift. Or that nice tight
arm position they thought they had for strong poling in fact shows lots of
poling with straight arms or A framing. Video doesn’t lie but it is time
consuming to set up and you need a partner to take video of you. It certainly
is not spontaneous.
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Shadows will help you see where your arms and poles are when you skate
But using shadows is spontaneous since you can view your shadow as you ski and determine what your arms, poles, and torso are doing if the sun is in the right position- directly behind you. You can get immediate feedback and adjust arm position on the fly if you see something that doesn’t look right. Shadows won’t detect all of your skiing errors since it is hard to see what your feet and lower legs are doing since that would require that you stare right in front of you without looking ahead as you should. So next time you are out roller skiing and the sun is right behind you – have a look at what you see and how you might improve your skiing. If you would like to check out our on line video instructional programme for improving your roller and/or snow skiing contact me at k2nicol@gmail.com
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Shadows will let you see your torso and arms are doing when you roller ski when the sun is directly behind you
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