Skate skiing

Although there are skis designed to accommodate both classic and skating techniques as a compromise, recreational skiers generally use separate equipment for each.

Skating technique is considered more challenging to learn[1] and more physically demanding, especially on climbs, where even the slowest pace requires significant energy.

Strictly speaking, the origins of this form of movement lie even earlier: the single pole catapult technique in medieval Scandinavia used two skis of different lengths.

The locomotion, in which a shearing of the skis was advantageous, bears a marked resemblance to the asymmetrical form of movement used in skating today.

[6] From 1978, especially the stronger popular skiers increasingly used the half-skate step in icy and fast conditions, where one ski stays in the track and the other is sheared out to the side.

[4] In the period that followed, there were intense discussions about regulations, with calls for a prohibition on the skating technique emerging from within the amateur sporting community.

[4] At the 1985 World Championships in Seefeld, an excessively difficult cross-country ski trail was deliberately chosen, where no other tehnique than the seemed possible.

The 1987 World Championships in Oberstdorf and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary were the first major events with the coexistence of classical and skating competitions.

The fears of stress damage to the joints expressed by some sports medicine physicians during the advent of the skating technique have not come true.

The double pole thrust and the other basic elements such as downhill, braking and turning techniques are largely the same as the classic style.

For optimum leg push-off, it is important to feel the maximum possible pressure on the ski edge, even under constantly changing snow and terrain conditions.

It is also crucial that the body is neither in forward nor backward position during the main phase of the leg push-off, so that the impact force is transmitted evenly over the entire ski.

[15] One focuses on the presence of symmetry across the direction of travel and the relationship between leg kick and pole use in the movement forms, while another places the emphasis on the activity of the arms.

The so-called five-gear model says nothing about the appearance of the movement form, but is based solely on the speed range for which the particular technique is suitable.

If a gliding phase is no longer possible on a greater incline, this form of movement corresponds to the burr step of the classic technique.

The pole of the guide arm is placed relatively vertically close to the ski, the other much lower obliquely in front of the body.

[11] This technique requires not only high strength endurance, but also a very secure sense of balance when gliding on a ski, which is especially difficult when the track is poor.

The leg push-off begins after the pole insertion, this is a significant difference from the guide arm technique and allows to maintain an accelerating force for a longer period of time.

Only in good trail conditions or sufficient skill is it possible to almost complete the double pole thrust on the gliding ski before the leg push-off begins.

Since the preparation of separate trails for the two styles, the Siitonen step is still practiced mainly by skiers who want to switch from the classic to the free technique as a learning aid.

Another important aspect of skating skis is the lateral stability and torsion, which ensures the most even distribution of the push-off force to the base.

The aim of this design is to distribute the pressure as evenly as possible over the entire ski surface, as this ensures the best gliding properties.

In the field of competitive sports, this hope has not been fulfilled, since good gliding ability is of even more decisive importance in skating than in the classic technique, and optimization efforts in this area have therefore taken on unexpected dimensions.

Nevertheless, tests have shown that a construction based on the folding skate can bring advantages at least on short sprint distances and on putting less strain on the gastrocnemius muscles.

Here, the ski is not set down flat as is normally the case when the gliding phase is initiated, but on the outer edge and also turned slightly inward to enable a further accelerating push-off impulse.

Compared to inline skating, the disadvantage is that the direction of the ski gliding in the snow cannot be continuously turned outward to the position of the normal inside-edged push.

In trials over a short sprint distance, skiers were on average about 3 percent faster when using the double-push in single-stroke compared to the conventional technique.

With skating, the sporting aspect is usually more in the foreground than with running in the classic technique, and even more so compared to its modern wellness-oriented variation, Nordic cruising.

[2] This is even more true in the early learning phase of the skating technique, as it requires certain technical skills to go up steep inclines at a slow pace without losing rhythm.

This can be used in terms of training methodology, as the skater can consciously check whether the direction of gaze is oriented toward the tip of the gliding ski after weight shifting.