Technique and Durability—FasterSkier’s Ben Ogden Interview

As this interview gets into, I was really interested in the connection between the movement quality I saw Ben display during dryland training and the improvements in his skate technique that Devon saw on snow. What better time than a physio session to ask some burning questions? Direct from my treatment table at the World Cup in Engadin, Switzerland, here’s some Technique Talk with Ben Ogden:

This interview has been edited for clarity

Ned: Do you listen to the Devon Kershaw Show?

Ben: A little bit. I’m not a regular listener, but I have heard some things about what he has to say.

Ned: Devon is kind of like the de facto technique critic on Faster Skier. He will either applaud somebody’s technique or rip them apart, and he’s been very impressed with your skate technique this season. Do you feel like your skate technique is any different?

Ben: This season compared to say last year, I wouldn’t necessarily say that I feel like my technique is different. I feel like my durability is different in skating, where I feel like I can skate as if I was fresh for a lot longer. I don’t feel like I’m really executing much differently, but I just think that in previous years I would get into a race and in five minutes I’d be flooded to the point where my technique fell apart. I feel like now I can maintain it for as long as I want at certain intensities. Obviously it still falls apart if I go too hard, but that’s where I feel the most difference. There are some other things that I think are a little different but mostly I just feel more durable.

Ned: Do you think that’s a fitness thing like an aerobic capacity thing or a strength thing? To what do you attribute that change in durability?

Ben: Fitness never hurts but I don’t think that’s what made the biggest change this year. I think it was more of a strength thing. I would say not necessarily like weight room strength—more like specific strength. I did a lot of no-pole this summer. And I just spent more time thinking about my technique to the point where I was trying to ski as well as I could for the entirety of an easy session where previously I would maybe check out a bit more often and let my hips fall back, etc. So I think I was just more dialed in on my skate technique and trying to feel it more, which helped to strengthen those muscles that you’re trying to use when you skate with proper technique.

Ned: Is that a balance and stability thing, or is that more of a power generation thing?

Ben: I think balance and stability. I think that for me, specifically as an athlete, I’ve always had the power generation, but I’ve never really had the stability. I think that’s a lot of the reason why I’ve been good at sprinting but also capable of tiring myself out to a point where I can’t skate very quickly. So I think that for me it’s all about stability and all about power application in a productive way—like in a way that allows me to ski (hips) forward like I shoot for. If you were to graph speed versus energy needed for skating, it gradually increases pretty linearly until a certain point when it starts to increase exponentially, where all of a sudden the more energy you use you’re getting a lot less increased speed for each unit of energy. I think I’ve learned in recent years to just not ever get to that point—that exponential phase in the distance race where the efficiency falls apart. I think that’s just so key. That’s something I’ve really never felt skating, especially in an individual start. Now I’m going to go out there and race hard, but I try not to get frantic or ski to the point where I’m pushing myself past where I know my efficiency falls apart. I think that’s kind of a confidence thing too—you know like I’ve always been a fast starter but nowadays I’m a little bit more reserved. So I think that helps too.

Ned: That stability component—is that something that you are working on with dry land or with your strength routine off of skis? Is that a new thing or is that something that’s always been there but you feel like now you’re making a more dedicated effort to translate it to skiing?

Ben: Exactly that. Like, it’s always been there and I’ve been lucky enough to have been coached by very high level, knowledgeable coaches my entire life so I think that stability has always been a part of my training and off-season regiment, but I just think that, for me as an athlete, this year I really started thinking about it more. Like, when I’m doing jumps for strength I’m landing with purpose. I’m making sure that I’m doing it right—making sure to land and not let my weight go side to side—just to really have more purpose in what I do. And I think that’s something that came out a little bit more this year. We train a lot and it’s hard to have that intensity all the time during training—that focus on something specific. I think that with each passing year, I increase that a little bit more, or I tackle some other area, and I think that this year that area was when I was doing strength I was very careful to keep everything properly stacked, like my hips directly over my knee directly over my ankle when I’m doing squats and jumping—moving a little bit more deliberately. I think that helps. It’s little things like that which I think helped with the stability this year.

Ned: That’s something I noticed. You did a YouTube video with a strength routine on your front porch and some dynamic stuff in the driveway. With the plyos, you were sticking the landings—it might’ve been like a multiple impulse jump with the last contact being balanced and you were sticking it every time. I don’t see that a whole lot. I see people really focus on the quantity and not so much the quality. Then after one of the skate races earlier this season, Devon was giving you huge props on your skating and talking about how much more stacked and stable you looked versus last season. You know me, I’m just nodding in agreement and I’m like, “Well yeah because he shows this stuff with his strength routine.”

Ben: Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Where in previous years I would focus on how high I was jumping, you know making sure to be jumping 100. Now, I’m like, “You know I’m gonna jump hard but I’m gonna land with intent.” I think it makes a big difference. 

Ned: I think intent is the key word there. Like every exercise that you do should have a purpose, and that purpose should carry over into skiing because that’s your thing. Maybe that purpose is power generation—how much or how fast can you generate force when pushing on a ski. But I agree there’s got to be that stability component because skiing has a gigantic balance and stability demand. Do you use a custom insole in your boots, or do you just use whatever comes in them?

Ben: Yeah, I actually have an interesting story about that. I got custom insoles for the first time last season in December. I just sort of threw them in my boots and used them for the season. I really liked how they felt so I used them all summer. Then this fall I forgot them so I just used the old style (stock insoles) for a few days, and it was it was astounding how much worse it felt with the old insole. I gotta say I’m a big believer now. I went back and forth—I did the one and the other a little bit at the beginning and I just wasn’t used to the new insole so it didn’t feel like that much improvement.  But now I’m like, “Oh my god, I actually can’t go back!” I went to a running store in Toronto and there was a guy there who had watched me race a little bit and he looked at the way I stood and walked and jumped and everything else and then devised a pair of insoles just for me with a little bit more volume on the inner edge to help promote standing on top of the ski and not allowing for the knock knee type skating. I only use them in my skate boots and I gotta say I’m a big fan.

Ned: Do you have orthotics in your classic boots too?

Ben: I don’t but it’s on my list. I’m going back to Toronto later this year and I’m gonna make another appointment with this guy to talk with him about classic. We were really targeting skate with the insoles since I’ve really been targeting skate (technique) the last few years in terms of making improvements. I still work on classic, but that was kind of where my goals were at that first meeting. But, yeah, I would think the same foundation insole, maybe not quite as much posting on the inside, but still getting good support of the foot. I mean good support of the foot is just incredible and how much of a difference it makes when you’re standing on your whole foot, so I was really impressed with that.