On September 23rd, USSA announced the release the first part of a new Coaches Education Certification program. Effective October 1st, this program currently provides certification criteria for level 100 only. Additional levels will be added in the future. One of the key components of the certification process is attendance at a US Ski Team approved technique clinic. As part of the announcement, a series of clinics around the country were scheduled, with more to come.
This past weekend I attended one of the clinics in Lake Placid, NY. With the US Ski Team in town for two weeks, this was the second consecutive weekend with a clinic. The two-hour session was originally scheduled to be led by USST Development Team Coach and architect of the new certification system Matt Whitcomb, but a scheduling conflict with a High Peaks Cyclery/Salomon clinic resulted in a change. Garrott Kuzzy — member of the US Development Team and CXC Elite Team guided the roughly 60 participants through a series of drills and guided instruction. USST coaches, Whitcomb, Justin Wadsworth and Chris Grover were present to assist.
The following is a brief recap of the clinic and the concepts covered — it is not meant as an exhaustive presentation of basic ski technique!
As one would expect from a level 100 clinic, Garrott covered the basics, starting with body position. On foot, we formed around a large circle and assumed the stance that forms that foundation of skiing technique — weight on the balls of the feet, knees relaxed and somewhat bent, upper body upright with shoulders rounded forward, arms loose. The first drill had us swinging arms loosely and relaxed, but working to get good extension at the shoulder as measured by the angle between the triceps and the torso. We changed the tempo, moving from the easy moderate poling to high speed and back again.
From this basic position, we moved onto forward body position, falling forward at the ankles to be caught by a partner. After several more drills emphasizing this concept Garrott moved on to poling technique. The coaches emphasized, that in general, it can be good to isolate different parts of the body when working on technique — focus on the either the legs/lower body or the arms/upper body, but don’t try to do everything at once.
The main theme on the poling front (with it being noted that this technique will be the same whether double poling or V2ing) was initiating the motion with a strong crunch from the core, and leading the arms with an explosive downward motion through the elbows. Another partner drill emphasized proper hand position — one person resisted while the other “poled†down with extended arms (weak position, easily resisted), then switching to “pole†down led by the elbows (elbows 90 degrees or less, hands compact to body, motion initiated with crunch, difficult to resist). The difference was extreme — my partner could hold my hands relatively stable as I pushed down with straight arms. Switching to the proper technique resulted in easily blasting through the resistance and an accidental fist in the throat…
