Cross Country Ski Lessons Begin Without Poles

Savvy instructors long ago learned a trick to get novice cross country skiers on the track to good technique.

Take away their ski poles.

Poleless ski instruction saves time getting straps on and off little hands that usually are dwarfed by bulky mittens. It eliminates the danger of an errant pole striking someone’s face.

And it gets a skier’s weight off his poles and where it belongs - on the skis and edges.

Whether they’re teaching kids or adults, beginners or experts, many instructors have their students stash their poles at least for a while when learning a new nordic skiing technique.

“Beginners want to ski with their poles straight up and down, interfering with the natural rhythm for striding,” said Don Portman, Methow Valley ski instruction guru. “Without poles, their arms move more freely. They don’t rely on the poles for balance.”

Allison Owen, former U.S. Nordic Ski Team champion who has run a youth ski program in Sun Valley, required her teenage racing team to begin most training sessions with 20 minutes of classic and skate technique without poles as a warm-up and balance exercise.

“The most important thing in teaching kids to ski is to keep it fun,” said Jo Ruoss, a Pacific Northwest Ski Association instructor examiner and specialist in teaching kids.

“Sometimes the best ski trip with a kid is very short. Maybe only 10 minutes. Try to keep reasonable goals and have as much fun as possible for as long as they like it.”

Parents, especially those who are athletic, tend to think of going out and skiing 10-kilometers, she said. Kids aren’t driven by the same motivation.

“Kids want to see animal tracks, look at the snowflakes or see what’s around the corner. They’re more interested in a destination than total mileage.”

She said it helps kids to be around adults who talk about how much fun they had skiing. This helps them anticipate having fun, too.

Thus, it might be prudent for parents to shield their kids from the few chronic ski-area whiners as they would guard them from barroom profanity.

Ruoss, too, relies on various games without poles to teach ski skills.

“It really does focus concentration to balance on their feet and skis rather than trying to prop themselves up,” she said.

Poleless ski training helps eliminate the classic novice skier’s “waddle,” in which the poles are used as balance outriggers rather than tools for propulsion.

“The wonderful thing about kids, is that they’ll just put their poles down and play without them if you give them a chance.

“If the parents have poles, the kids will want to try them,” Ruoss said. “That’s fine as long as they occasionally are encouraged to ski without poles.”

When starting kids on poling technique, use undersized poles, she said. Likely there will be some confusion when you introduce poles. But with a foundation built without them, the kids will quickly put the technique together.

Among Ruoss’s favorite teaching tricks are games such as “follow me and I’ll follow you.”

“They learn better when they’re not conscious that they’re being taught,” she said.

Similarly, Owen likes to build small jumps for the kids.

“They love getting air off the jumps,” she said. “They don’t realize it, but they’re learning to herringbone up the hill so they can go off the jump again.”

“You need a lot of cues to teach children technique,” Portman said. “In teaching them to go downhill, they don’t understand what you mean when you say `bend your knees and ankles.’

“But they understand when you you say `put your hands on your knees.’ Then they automatically bend their knees and ankles.

“That’s easier to do when they don’t have poles.”