by Dr. Telemark, PhSki
Weight Shift
Proper weight shift produces good glide, the secret to
effective and enjoyable cross-country skiing. To learn
proper weight shift, practice the following exercises
in some ski tracks that are about shoulder width wide
and at least 100 feet long.
Exercise one consists of learning the proper body position.
Stand with your feet in the tracks. Lower your body into
a half-sitting position. Bend your knees, just like you
are going to sit down in a chair, but keep your back straight,
your torso inclined slightly forward, and your head and
eyes up. Practice shuffling your skis back and forward
beneath you in this position and alternatively lifting
one ski 6 inches off the snow.
Exercise two introduces dynamic weight shifting, and
the basic "kick." Begin by moving the left ski
about a foot ahead of the right ski. Keep the knees slightly
bent. Next, put almost all your weight on the rear, or
right, ski. Then, HOP forward from the right ski all the
way onto the left ski. Two things will happen: 1) your
weight will shift to the left ski, and 2) you will glide
along in the left track. When you stop gliding, hop to
the right ski. Continue to the end of the track, turn
around and keep practicing. Don't worry about using your
poles. Just try to achieve the longest glide possible.
Make sure to transfer ALL your weight to the gliding ski
when you hop.
Exercise three is also performed without poles. Begin
by standing in the tracks and then move forward using
the shuffling motion learned in exercise one. Keep the
skis on the snow. Shuffle slowly and with extra-long steps.
Make sure that your knees are well flexed. After you get
comfortable moving like this, begin to move the upper
part of the body from side to side as you shuffle forward.
The upper part of the body should be moved so that the
head is directly over the leading ski and about a foot
ahead of the tip of the toe of the boot on that ski. As
you move forward, the position of the body and head will
shift from one side to the other, but always with the
head ending up over the forward ski. Continue doing this
in a regular rhythm, gradually increasing the flex your
knees, until you can feel it in your quads.
The last exercise is similar to exercise number three,
but the kicking ski is now allowed to rise off of the
snow. Although this looks like you are lifting the tail
of the kicking ski, when done right there is no conscious
raising of the rear ski. In a proper kick, force is directed
DOWN onto the track, after which the kicking leg just
relaxes and straightens out as you glide forward, which
produces the appearance of the trailing ski being lifted.
Time your kicks so that you hop from one ski to the other
just before you stop gliding.
Lastly, as you practice and become more proficient you
will notice: 1) the shoulder over the gliding ski will
drop a few inches with each kick, and 2) the hip which
is over the gliding ski has moved down and slightly forward
with each kick, producing a slight inward rotation.
