I love to invent and have always tried to improve on everything that I do. This is just the nature of a mechanical engineer. We love to improve things all the time. So, why not classical ski techique.
Many discoveries are found by mistake or by necessity. Well, this new ski technique was produce more by necessity than anything else. I developed the catski many years ago and started marketing them around the year 2000. If you are not familar with the Catski here is a video on how they work.
Here is how the cat ski work going up hill.
Video comparing snow skiing to Catsking.
Now that you understand a little bit more on how they work and if you ever used them you would soon realize that you cannot double pole. However, this is not so!! Infact, you can get incredible double workout with a little modification in the double pole technique.
However, before I go any further I have to dedicate this new technique one of the founding fathers of Catskiing, Dave Deverell. Dave was one of my first customers and has been cheering me on since I developed the product. He has beta tested many of new models and has written a few articles about how he loves to Catski. Infact, he could be out catskiing right now. He is such a fanantic about Catskiig that he did a whole running marathon on them. Yes, 26.2 miles is no small task on the Catskis and it took him over 7 hours to complete this effort. He is the only person I know that has catskied that far at one time.
As you can see Dave is quite the Catskier. Last year Dave and I made a major break through in Catskiing. Dave and I figured out how to double pole on them in a safe manner independently However, I use the new techique a few times but never really thought that it was a very effective techique. However, Dave did hill workouts doing this new techique the thoughout 2007. Infact, he even used the technique through the 2007 Birkie. When he said he used the techique throughout the Birkie, I decided to take it a little more seriously. So, throughout the the summer of 2008 I started to play with the new technique.
So, what is this new double technique for Catskiing. Essentially there are two different ways to double pole on catskis, the safe way and the not so safe way. We will only go over the safeway to double pole on them. I will first show a video on how to safely double pole on the Catskis.
Video of Dale doing the Cat 1 uphill.
The timing of the Cat 1 is simular to the V1 except you keep your feet parallel like classic verses V'd out like skating. To learn how to do the Cat 1, I recommend starting out by doing the V1 technique on the Cat Skis (on Catskis only us a slight V of your feet or you could catch the back of the ski on the bungi holder) and than bring the ski parallel like classical techinque once you have the timing. Another way you can learn how to do the Cat 1 is to start out walking on the Catskis while you move your arms like you would double poling. You will notice you will double pole everyother stride. Just like skate skiing you can double to the left side or the right side except your skis are not V'd.
Another modification of the Cat 1 is the Cat Alternate. This technique is simular to the V2 alternate. The video below is the Cat Alternate on snow. Notice how I glide before I set my poles. On the Cat 1 I set my poles and one ski down at the same time. You can learn this also by V'ing your skis a little out and doing the V2 alternate and then bring them parallel.
The Million Dollar question:
What length poles?
I found longer poles work better so all my evaluation were done with skate poles. If you use striding length pole it doesn't seem to work as well and is slower. I also found I double pole fast with longer poles than shorter poles so I always use my skate poles to stride with now, even on hiller terrain.
Which is faster catski striding, Cat 1, or Cat Alternate?
From experience I found the Cat Alternate faster on the flats to gradual up hills and the Cat 1 faster on the steeper up hills. I found the Cat alternate 2-5% faster than striding on the flats and gradual up hills. I found the Cat 1 and striding to be about the same speed. So, if it is faster on Catskis will it be faster on snow?
The next question does this translate to snow skis? and is the Cat Alternate 2-5% faster than striding on snow?
This has been a very difficult question for me to answer yet. It is very close to the same speed as striding. However, I have not done this technique as much as striding. So, there are lot of variables in anwering this question so I am still in the evaluation process.
I started training with the Cat 1 and the Cat alternate on Catskis the fall of 2008. I focus on just the Cat 1 and Cat alternate technique all fall and winter to see if this was a faster technique than striding. When starting new technique it may not be faster because you are not effecent at it until you practiced it for a few months or in some cases years. After 4 month of perfecting this technique this is what I have learned thus far. When doing uphill time trials on moderate hills on cross country skis I found striding and the Cat 1 to be about the same. I gradual uphill hills I found that striding and the Cat alternate to be about the same also. From my time trial tests I could not really tell which was faster. Sometime the Cat 1 felt faster, sometime the Cat alternate felt faster and sometime striding felt faster. I used both time trials and gps to figure out which was faster and I could not tell. The one thing I did notice is that doing the Cat 1 and Cat alternate flet better when I was on in the tracks. It seem when I tried to do the Cat 1 and Cat alternate in the tracks I could not balance as well. When doing the Cat 1 and Cat Alternate I found my feet were closer together which allowed me to do the technique better. When my feet were further apart I did feel as comfortable and could not do the technique as good.
Racing Experiencing using the Cat 1 and Cat Alternate.
After practicing and refining my Cat 1 and Cat alternate on Catskis and snow skis I become very proficeint at it. I felt that is was just as fast as striding and with a the added bonus that I was getting some skate muscle in better shape. The first race I did using this technique was the Sneckvick. This usually a realitively flat coarse with one long climb however, they change the course and made two long climbs. I start the race out realitively hard and no body was able to keep up with me. The start is a flat to gradual down hill which was awesome when using longer skate poles. I think this is why it was so easy to break away. It seemed to be a big advantage to have skate poles when doing the flats. I ended up getting a sizable lead before even the first hill so it was difficult to tell if the technique was faster. The other advantage I had is that we recieved a few inches of fresh snow so the tracks were full of snow. I opted to ski out of the tracks because it felt easier to do the Cat 1 and Cat Alternate out of the tracks. It also make it difficult for the group of skier behind to ski in my tracks. I did the whole race out of the trackes and won by several minutes. I could not tell if the technique was any faster due to all the varibles but the one thing I learned it was not much slower than striding and double poling. I also enjoyed having different techiques to try besides just double poling and striding.
About 1 hour after the classical Snekvick they had a skate race which I decide to do to get me in shape for the the longer ski racing coming up later in the season. I wasn't real excited about doing it because I don't skate that much anymore but thought I would just do it anyways. Well to my surprize I ended up breaking away again right in the beginning. I had one person ski with me for about 7 or 8 km but he ended up dropping off because my skis were much faster on the down hills. It seemed that all the Cat 1 and Cat Alternate training help my skate skiing. The Cat 1 and Cat Alternate is really just skate skiing with your feet parallel. The Cat 1 and Cat Alternate are a way to train both classical and skate skiing at the same time. I would highly recommend skiers adding 2 days of week Cat 1 and Cat Alternate training. I think skate skiers would benefit form this tremendously. Skate skiers will develop a clean crisp push off, develop greater core stregth and improve theire tempo.
For Classical technique skiers the Cat 1 and Cat Alternate will develop better kick and higher tempo. It will also help classical skier became better skate skiers.
Give it a try you will not be disappoointed. I notice no bad side effects from this technique and this technique only seemed to help me.
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