Last Thursday, we went through the New double-pole technique. Double-pole technique has been revolutionized in the last few years to take advantage of larger muscle groups & gravity (and avoid using smaller muscle groups). The result has been that in some of the big world loppet classic races (the 70km Marcialonga in Italy and the 90km Vassaloppet in Sweden) they have been won by skiers who have double-poled the entire race ... including big hills! So learning the new double-pole technique can be very useful for your skiing success.
Supercoach Tim went through 3 key points of double-poling:
1) Hips forward so that your center of gravity is forward and will maximize the use of your body weight on your ski poles
2) shoulders rolled forward so the poling motion rotates around the shoulder (so Tim`s small triceps are taken out of the poling equation) and start the motion with a short & quick ab crunch.
3) stop your hands at your hips.
There are a few more points to the new double-pole technique, but Tim wanted to keep it simple for now.
I wanted to add an additional point (the now infamous `fourth point`), but Tim was adamant that we not go past 3 points. At this point in the instruction, things got very testy and I ran away in tears (more or less).
After the session, people were left pondering what the fourth point was. In fact, the next day, some club members on their way out of town to ski e-mailed me pleading me to tell them the fourth point.
The importance of the fourth point should not be undersestimated. Many have called the fourth point the holy grail of the new double-poling technique.
However, the fourth point must not be spoken. It is something that comes to you when you are ready.
All I can say is, to paraphrase Star Wars, May the Fourth Point Be With You.
