Cross-country skiing - technique tips

Behind good cross-country skiing is a lot of technique and practice. If you lack technique, this will result in you having to use your muscles more than necessary. There is also a greater risk of injury. That's why we thought we'd share our top technique tips, which will come in handy when you go cross-country skiing.

Learn to use your rods correctly

The poles are an important and grateful tool that will be of great use to you if you know how to handle them properly. To improve your technique, you can therefore practise your poles.

This means that you only use your poles to move forwards. Aim your poles far forward, fall forwards with your upper body and push yourself forwards with your poles. To realise your full potential, it is also important to have the right length of poles. Therefore, read the big guide to ski poles.

Keep in mind that stretching requires a lot of muscle strength in the arms. Therefore, it can be a good idea to train your arm muscles. You can find tips on how to do this in our previous article "Strength training for cross-country skiers".

Learn how to use your skis correctly

To be able to transfer the weight onto one ski and then onto the other, you need mobility in your hips and strength in your legs. A tip here is to exaggerate your movements and take out the movements properly. This will challenge your balance and you will feel more and more confident with the movement pattern.

When you return to the normal movement, it will feel easier and smoother. At the same time, you need to use your poles to gain forward momentum. It's also important to be as compact as possible to maximise speed.

Avoid waving and large movements! If you start waving, your sense of balance will be disturbed and you may fall.

Practice makes perfect

Last but not least, you need to practice! You need to put these tips into practice and feel the skis and the surface. There are many different ski styles and you need to find what suits you and your body best.

As mentioned earlier, it is important to have the technique with you when you go cross-country skiing. Once the technique is in place, you will be able to enjoy your skiing more and not tire yourself out unnecessarily and avoid injury. You'll also be able to focus on going faster and challenging yourself when the technique comes naturally.

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If you want to get out on some great cross-country skiing trails, you are warmly welcome to us at Stöten in Sälen. We offer a full 45 kilometres of cross-country tracks for both classic and skate. Take a look inside our offers and book your trip today - see you on the tracks!