Skate skiing
Skate skiing is a technique in cross-country skiing where the leg kick is made using the skating step. This style has been established as a revolutionary development of cross-country skiing since the mid-1980s and allows faster movement compared to the normal style. Since 1985, international competitions have been held separately for classic and skating.
In contrast to classic skiing, skating skis can be fully optimized for gliding and do not need a grip zone in the center. The skis are typically slightly shorter, while the poles used are slightly longer. Although there are skis designed to accommodate both classic and skating techniques as a compromise, recreational skiers generally use separate equipment for each. Unlike classic trails, skating trails are not groomed but are simply rolled to a sufficient width, providing less lateral stability for the skis. Skating technique is considered more challenging to learn and more physically demanding, especially on climbs, where even the slowest pace requires significant energy. To train for skating during the summer, athletes use roller skis or engage in other activities related to inline skating, particularly those focused on performance.
History
Rise of skating
Two techniques have always been part of athlete's technique in cross country skiing: the one-sided skate strides and two-sided ones. In the early 1970s, the first signs of the increased use of the skate stride could be observed. 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 longer one, the glider, was used for gliding and the shorter one, the andor, was used mainly for pushing off and was covered with skins. 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.An early reference to skate skiing is from Östersund in 1894, performed by Nijllá Mattsson Rimpi.
Before the advent of skating, steady improvements in training methods and equipment, as well as the machine-tracking of trails, had led to an increase in running speed and greater use of the double pole thrust in the 20th century, with greater emphasis on upper arm strength. Some races were won on skis prepared exclusively for gliding, with no leg push in the track. New forms of movement developed out of the drive for even higher running speeds.
Advance in competitive sports
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. This technique was initially called Finnstep or Siitonenstep, after Pauli Siitonen, one of the first to use it. This also led to an innovation in the preparation of cross-country ski trails – half-tracked, half-rolled. Later, other forms of movement outside the track were developed. In the World Cup, the US skier Bill Koch was the first to recognize the advantages of this technique. He won the Engadin Marathon with it in 1981 and the overall ranking of the FIS Cross-Country World Cup in 1982.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. The diagonal stride was about to disappear completely from competitive sports, and this could have weakened the possibility of the popular athlete identifying himself with the elite sport. 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 overwhelming majority of skiers nevertheless used the new technique and thus ensured the final breakthrough.
For the 1985/86 season, the FIS introduced parallel competitions in classic and free technique, with half of the World Cup competitions being held in one of the two techniques. 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. In the biathlon and Nordic combined, it was agreed that all competitions would be held in the free technique.
Further development
As before, most of the top skiers in the cross-country skiing disciplines train in both techniques. The FIS also counteracted specialization by not awarding separate trophies for each technique in the cross-country skiing World Cup, but by holding the same number of races in the classic and free techniques in all competitions. In 1988, pursuit races were introduced, which are run first in the classic technique, then in the free technique. In this case, the skating race is included in the so-called chase start, which means that the start is made according to the time intervals of the first race. Since 2003, this discipline has existed as double pursuit or ski duathlon. Here, the competitions are no longer held on two consecutive days, but directly one after the other, and the change of equipment is also part of the competition.Athletes in the biathlon and Nordic combined disciplines train almost exclusively in the skating technique, occasionally using the classic way to train endurance rather than technique per se. In contrast, many recreational skiers continue to use mainly the classic technique, some practice both, and few specialize in the skating style. There are still fewer prepared trails for the skating skiing than for the classic. 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.
Basic elements
The essential basic elements of the skating technique are the skate step and the double pole thrust. The double pole thrust and the other basic elements such as downhill, braking and turning techniques are largely the same as the classic style. By using the skate step, the push off can be done from the sliding, moving ski; in the classic technique, the ski must stop for a short moment during the push off. This is the main reason why skating achieves higher running speeds compared to the classical technique.Skating step
The leg movement in skating corresponds to the basic form of the skating step. The impression takes place alternately from the ski gliding obliquely to the direction of movement, which in the final phase of the impression – still gliding – is increasingly clearly tilted up. The body's center of gravity performs a rhythmic pendulum movement at right angles to the direction of movement, with the push-off and gliding phases merging into one another. The angle of the skis depends on the terrain, the speed and the particular form of movement. In the various movement techniques of skating, the use of the pole results in certain variations of the skating stride, especially as far as symmetry is concerned.During the support phase, two distinctive force peaks occur, with a force minimum in between just before half of the ground contact time. This minimum divides the support phase into two parts of approximately equal length, to which different functional meanings can be assigned. The first force peak coincides with the end of the leg push-off of the opposite side, which ends the short-lived double support phase, i.e. the period during which both skis are in the snow. Towards the end of this phase, the new gliding ski has absorbed the weight-shifting movement from the opposite side. The significantly higher maximum force in the second, somewhat longer section of the support phase reflects the leg push-off. 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.
Double pole thrust
In principle, the double pole push corresponds to that of the classic style and is divided into three phases: It begins with a pull phase after the arms swing forward, when the poles enter the snow at a slightly acute angle. The upper body is then brought forward including the hips. Using body weight, the skier now pulls himself towards the poles, bending the elbows to varying degrees depending on speed. Just before the hands pass the knees, the pushing phase begins. The upper body is then in its lowest position. While upper arm, shoulder and back muscles can be used in the pull phase, only the arms work in the push phase. To prolong the pushing phase, the hands can be opened towards the end, still guiding the pole with the thumb and index finger. When the poles leave the snow, the swing phase begins, which lasts until the poles are used again.In particular, the swing phase varies considerably when using the double pole thrust in the different movement forms of skating. The most similar to the pure double pole thrust of the classic style is the pole use in the arm swing technique, but even here lower maximum forces occur because there is a relief through the leg work. Due to the high frequency of pole use, the average pole force per cycle is higher in the single-stroke than in any other form of movement and therefore requires strong upper body muscles. In the leading arm technique, the peculiarity occurs that the force impact is not the same on both sides, which in other cases corresponds to optimal execution, but is about 20 percent greater on the leading arm side than on the other side. The average pole force per cycle is higher than in any other form of movement.
Movement techniques
Depending on the achievable speed, which is mainly determined by the slope of the terrain and other external factors, five main forms of movement can be distinguished. In addition to derived special forms, there are cornering and braking techniques, but these do not differ significantly from the classic technique. Passive downhill and snowplough turn are also not special features of skating.The naming of the five main techniques often leads to misunderstandings, not least because different variants have become established in German usage. 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. The following table provides an overview of the movement forms.
| Aisle | Standardized Terms | Description | Symmetry | L/S | Additional descriptions |
| 1 | None | Diagonal skating | symmetrical | 1/1 | Salamander step, lady step |
| 2 | V1 / 1 skate | Guide arm technique | asymmetrical | 2/1 | Asymmetrical 2:1, mountain step |
| 3 | V2 / 2 skate | Single-stroke | symmetrical | 1/1 | 1:1 technique, double dance |
| 4 | V2 Alternate / 2 skate variant | Arm swing technique | asymmetrical | 2/1 | Symmetrical 2:1, pendulum step |
| 5 | Free Skate | Skate stride without pole use | symmetrical | – | Free Skate |