How Women Skate

By IAN HARVEY Contributing Editor for The Master Skier
Ian Harvey is a 1992 Biathlon Olympian and a 1993 National Champion. He is president of Pioneer Sports, North Ameri-can distributor of Yoko gloves, Toko Wax and XL-1 energy drink.

  Women and men have different physical strengths. This disparity shows itself especially in the skating technique. The simple fact is that most women should not try to skate like a man.
  A quick perusal of the world’s top ten at the skating technique leads to the conclusion that eight of these women have very ‘poor’ skating technique. Of the top ten skaters, only Bente Skari and Katerina Neuman-nova skate like the men do.
  Bente Skari counts in the top ten only due to her exceptional sprint results in the skate technique. In a middle distance event, she is not a top ten skater.
  Neumannova is exceptionally big and strong and naturally skates ‘like a man’.
  The rest, Belmondo, Smigun, Tchepalova, Danilova, Ego-rova, Moen, Savialova, Gavriljuk and Sachenbacher all skate with a completely different body position than the other two leading women and especially any leading man.
  Furthermore, none of these skiers really transfers her weight. The weight stays in the middle and the emphasis is on turnover. (Belmondo does not have this body position, but she does not transfer her weight at all).
  This is also the exact body position and style that the dominant Elena Vialbe and Manuela Di Centa skated.
  Beckie Scott and Bente Skari perform far better in the sprint skating competition than in the traditional skate distances.
  I believe this is because they are not strong enough to skate the way they try to for a complete race, especially on the extended uphills.
  The leading skating women ski with their butt pushed out, back flat and almost parallel to the ground and skate predominantly with their glutes.
  Their poling action is mostly a pull down with emphasis on the lats.
  The weight is mostly on the heels, which are worked against one another. Generally there is little adduction.
  This body position and concept does not work so well in the V2 technique, which is used very little by these women.
  Rather than do a V2, these skaters tend to do a high tempo Gunde Skate (Open Field Skate or Alternate V2) or a V1.
  The disadvantages of skiing like this appear to be great. The core muscle groups are not used at all (abdominals and psoas), the effective result (direction of force versus forward motion) is very poor as it leads to more pressure down and less forward motion, the ski tends to glide on edge more, and it is more difficult to step up the climbs.
  However, this skating method eliminates one huge disadvantage of ‘skating like a man’.
  The bulk of the population skate such that they isolate one or two muscles, which become tired, rendering the rest of the body irrelevant in its quest for faster skiing.
  Most commonly, this muscle is Vastus Medialis, Vastus Intermedius (the middle and inside quadriceps muscles), or Rectus Femoris (a hip flexor-like muscle in the upper middle quad).
  When these muscles go, a high max VO2, powerful glutes or calves or a strong will become almost useless as the skier starts skiing in slow motion. This is especially common on long uphill sections.
  The way these top women skate, the probability of any one muscle becoming isolated and slowing down the rest of the body is eliminated, which is the great advantage that this technique offers.
  My opinion is that this technique is not ‘poor’, but rather optimal if you’re a woman.