New Skate Skiers

1. Get Good Gear

Good fit is important. Buy gear from a reputable source, preferably from someone who actually skate skis. Spend as much as your budget allows, but save a little for waxing equipment and supplies.

2. Don’t Join Club Offset

You’ll find this stereotypical skate skier at every nordic centre: a super fit adult, offset technique for uphills, downhills and everything in between.
sporting top quality gear, wearing bicycling clothes, and using a bastardized version of
My friend jokes, “Club Offset is training today.” It’s mean, but funny.
Self-taught skate skiers all ski the same way. Their technique is both ugly and inefficient. Don’t join this club! There are 5 skate ski techniques and ultimately you need to learn them all.

3. Focus on One Skate and Offset

In our opinion offset and one skate are the most important skate techniques. Use offset to climb hills and one skate as much as possible everywhere else.

4. Two Skate is Not Your Friend

You’ll likely have trouble with One Skate. You’ll feel like you’re moving too fast and that you can’t possibly push with your poles with every leg push. You’ll think One Skate is the wrong technique for the terrain you’re skiing and you will want to switch to two skate.
Your problem is not speed, it’s lack of balance. Be disciplined and don’t use Two Skate to cheat your way out of your balance problem. Slow down and lower your centre of mass by getting into the athletic position. Practice the one skate dance.

5. Double Pole

Seriously. Yes, it’s a classic technique, but it’s fundamental to skate skiing. You can double pole with skate skis and poles. It will teach you how to use the power of your upper body to create forward movement.

6. Ski Uphill Without Poles

You’ll hate this, but you’ll be glad you did it. A common mistake is using the upper body and poles to haul yourself uphill. You feel like your arms are dying but you can’t access your leg strength.
Put down your poles and learn how to ski uphill, legs only. Use a wide, low stance and make a wide v-shape with your skis. Practice this often, more often than you want to.
The goal is simple: try to make it easier. How can you create glide with every step? Experiment with tempo, step size, stance width, and other factors.

7. Be Playful

If you’re not careful, you can become very good at bad technique. To avoid locking into poor motor patterns you want to give your neuromuscular system lots of different movement experiences and options.
The best way to do this is to play on your skis. Play is excellent because it stops you from over thinking and lets you respond naturally to all kinds of movement challenges.
Train yourself to be nimble and agile on your skate skis. Pick up your feet, practice step turns, quick starts and stops, stepping in and out of the track, skiing in circles, hockey stops etc. If you ski with group, have relay races and play games like capture the flag or one ski soccer.

8. Take a Lesson…Later

The first stage of learning to skate ski is just getting comfortable on the gear. You’ll have trouble simply staying upright as the skis glide across the snow. Taking a lesson at this point is a waste of money.
Find a flat area and just move around by yourself, gradually growing more stable and comfortable. Once you’ve developed a degree of comfort, take a lesson. If you’re in the Calgary area, you can contact us for lessons.