Improving your classic skiing- Fixing the Lunge

by Keith and Heather Nicol

  The Lunge as I call it is an error that I commonly see when instructing classic skiing.  Note in photo 1 how  my

Photo 1 Lunging puts your weight back and in the middle of your skis

front foot lunges forward and I get stretched out. This makes balancing on a single ski impossible since my weight is directly between my feet and lunging also throws off my pole plant timing. To correct the lunge is not easy but I have found the following drill seems to work well. I simply run and swing my arms –see photo 2. This gets you forward and sets you up for good timing once poles are added.  I then begin to add my poles and then gradually lengthen out the glide as shown in photo 3. This sequence of running first gets skiers into a rhythmical arm swing with good weight transfer from ski to ski.  Then I ask skiers to simply add the pole plant and begin to lengthen the glide. Once this pattern becomes ingrained in the muscle memory then skiers can drop the running part of the drill and simply stride from ski to ski. The following video shows the sequence you should follow to correct the lunge.  So if you lunge while classic skiing or know someone that does have them try this drill and let me know how it works. Thanks to our sponsors: Infinity Ski Poles, Rudy Project Sunglasses and Auclair gloves.

Photo 2 - Try running on your skis get the correct arm swing and this also gets your weight forward

    

   

Photo 3- Once you get the timing try adding your poles and lengthening out the stride

 

Check out this video to help correct the Lunge