Use this ½ skate drill to improve your skate ski balance

by Keith and Heather Nicol

Note how I put down a flat right ski in this example

   A great way to start the cross country ski season is at Supercamp which is held at Sovereign Lake Nordic and Silver Star Nordic Resort located near Vernon B.C. Their early season ski camps bring together skiers from across Canada and the US who are taught by some of North America’s top ski instructors.  One of the topics that several of my groups wanted to work on at the most recent camps was how to improve their glide when skate skiing. I told my students that to glide well you have to put down a flat ski and then balance with your entire body weight over that ski as you can see in this photo to the right.  All too often skiers put down an edged ski which is very hard to balance on (see photo below).

      

Many skiers glide with an edged ski as you can see here - note the inside edge on my left ski

To give skiers a feeling of riding a flat ski I had my skiers try the following drill using the classic ski track. In this case I had students push off with the angled ski out of the track and to balance over the ski the track. Often when skiers tried this drill they tried to scooter along which means that they never get their body weight over the ski in the track.  Remember the idea is not to make several short glides but rather to glide as long as you can as you can.  In this case you want to have your hip and head over your ski in the track as I show below.  And be sure to try this drill by balancing on both your right and left skis. One reason why skiers may not want to try to get their entire body weight gliding on the ski in the track is that they are afraid of falling so often I would ask skiers to use their poles to push them up if they found themselves off balance. This allowed skiers to really develop a solid feeling of gliding with their hip and head over the ski in the track which is the hall mark of good skating in fast conditions such as 1 skate or free skate. 

Try to glide in the track as long as you can

Be sure to glide on left and right skis

      So try this ½ skate drill as I call it if you want to improve your ability to glide while skate skiing. The key to doing this drill correctly is to feel tall over the glide ski with your hip and head balanced on the ski in the track.  Thanks to our sponsors: Madshus Skis and Boots- https://madshus.com/en-ca

 
Video of 1/2 skate drill