Cross-Country Skiing 101

Thinking About Instruction?

When you aren't linking stylish turns, you still need to link skills, even for the most basic forms of skiing. Taking certified instruction at a Nordic center will help reassure you that your form is polished enough to turn the next page. You may sail through the introductory steps of the diagonal stride, but if you start stalling on the uphills, an instructor can give you some optional drills you might never have tried on your own.

Ask around to find an instructor with a good reputation. Who is helpful? Patient? Experienced? For the beginner, a Nordic center with superior facilities is not as useful as a modest place with an inspired teacher. Group instruction with skiers of varied abilities is usually a bad idea for a beginner. Such lessons inevitably proceed too quickly for you at times and too slowly at other times.

Cross-Country Skiing Photos: Methow Valley, Washington

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Clipped into your skis, carbo-loaded, stretched, and properly attired, you're ready to go. So just how do you go? Skis don't come with ignition keys, and they sure make you feel awkward. You look at the snow. You look at your skis. You adjust your well-adjusted poles, looking for answers they don't have. Nothing. So try striding. Mistake. The wrong things moved in the wrong directions. Now you have a close-up view of the day's snow conditions.

If you've never been on skis before, forget about skiing for a few moments. Take some time to get used to your big slippers by walking on them. If you need to take exaggerated steps to move your feet forward, so be it. Choose a flat piece of land and go for a stroll, picking your skis right off the snow as you would your feet off the ground. Then begin leaning forward and tilting left and right and start bending your knees a bit as you take each step. Don't worry about concepts such as"weight transfer" yet. Just get comfortable leaning over each ski.As you walk on the skis, concentrate on keeping their tips from crossing. Guide them straight and parallel. If you've ever been in a sack race when you couldn't move each leg separately, you'll appreciate the importance of not allowing one ski tip to step on the other. Also get used to the idea that your footwear has very little traction. Think of walking on a slippery floor with shoes. It's hard to describe just how your gait employs scoot-prevention, but if somebody tells you to watch out for the wet floor, you're just as likely to skid, but somehow less likely to fall because you're bracing for the sudden slide.