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Why You Should Do Diagonal Skiing On Rollerskis
Published: Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:00 AM MDT For decades I have been approached by skiers that are asking me asked me why I suggest doing diagonal skiing on rollerskis. They have been told that - “it’s bad for your technique" and that they should avoid it. 
2002 Olympic Gold Medal winner Beckie Scott in a recent classic rollerski interval session. Beckie has for years used diagonal skiing on rollerskis. Diagonal skiing is ruining you technique – you’ll develop a late kick! I agree to a certain degree that it’s difficult for beginners and intermediate skiers to diagonal well on rollerskis without some coaching help or guidance. The reason for the difficulty is that you have no ski tracks that are guiding your ski’s direction – it suddenly becomes hard to get the (roller) skis to track straight forward. You can lose balance! The ratcheted wheels (to replace the effect of kick wax) on classic rollerskis that are making it possible to kick and accelerate forward also make it possible to “sit back on the kick ski” and kick hard and effectively without proper weight-shift. Late kick and skiing with no weight-shift are, of course, what you should avoid. 
To ski technically well practice the following: - Start the kick early and get your weight off the kick ski as soon as possible - Move your weight forward and onto the glide ski. This ski is now the kick ski – kick early, fast and strive for early weight shift. - Get the rear wheel on the kick ski off the ground early. A sign of poor weight shift is often that the rear wheel on the kick ski stays on the ground through the whole kick phase. That’s called “sitting on the rear wheel or skiing without weight shift”. So get the rear wheel off the ground early by moving the weight onto the glide ski by slightly bending the knee in the kick leg when the kick leg is passing the glide ski. Avoid bending the kick leg in the final phase of the back motion too much and/or bringing the heel of your foot close toward your butt – that’s called “biking”. - In the beginning work hard on kicking straight back and work on steering the ski straight forward in the recovery or weight shift phase. This will after a while feel natural. 
Watch some classic races videos if you need a good visual picture of this. The benefits of doing diagonal on rollerskis The main benefits from doing diagonal skiing on rollerskis is that when used for interval training in uphill it’s one of the most specific and therefore among the best ways of developing a high MaxVO2. I suggest for that reason alternating your interval training between skating, running/walking with poles and using a mix of double poling and diagonal skiing in uphills. Won’t straight double poling make me stronger? Another argument against using diagonal skiing on rollerskis for interval training is often that you should double pole instead and get stronger. Double poling will correctly make you a stronger double-poler but leaving out using your legs is reducing the very positive effect diagonal can have on your Max VO2. Straight double poling will on the other hand have a very positive affect on your upper body. For that reason do some sessions as a combination of diagonal and double pole with kick in order to develop MaxVO2 and do some (other) session with strictly double poling (no kick) in order to develop upper body Max Vo2 and strength. 
Are World Cup skiers doing this? Diagonal skiing on rollerskis is used by some of today’s top World Cup skiers. Some coaches might still be against it and warn about the “side-effects”. Judge for yourself. Send us comments if you like.
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