Apparently Moses received instruction on pole length from God and it was promptly transferred to a stone tablet and the rule can not be violated. People ask for opinion on ski length, but pole length they know from Moses.
heh, heh, just saw this comment, must have missed it before...good one...agreed...I have finally found a (shorter) length that Im happy with.....took a good couple of days shaving off a bit, then trying it out, shaving off more..ect...
Surfsnowgirl said:
"I ditch the poles now and again "
its a good thing to do, just to keep us honest!....If you feel like you are putting a lot of pressure on the poles in turns, its usually a stance/balance issue that you need to address....ditching the poles once in a while is a great way to at least identify these issues.
Mendieta and I were having a conversation about skating in another thread...this relates well to that....Nate what you are saying hits home 100 percent...
a thought about why we use different exercises with poles: holding them in one hand, or both, or in the center, or sideways, or upside down, or whatever...It could be about versatility and familiarity and how that relates to the mental game. Can you be mentally versatile while holding the poles in different orientations and not have it (negatively) affect your performance?...disclaimer: there are some pole drills that specifically address the need for more counter or better racing technique, ect and I recognize that for sure....
lastly, some folks learn better, or have an ah ha moment if they experience more than one of these drills, even though the outcome is designed to be the same......
Kneale said:
"I teach a lot of L7 students. I often suggest they stop using a pole touch because they have a whole system of inefficient muscle memory that gets triggered by the pole touch and that prevents them from changing what they're doing with their feet".
This seems like a significant solution to me. I would think this type of thinking, and having the experience to recognize cause and effect relationships, applies to a greater number of solutions more efficiently. This gets to "it" rather quickly!
With ski pole length charts, ect...I think it may take more time to update the online available charts to the "new" technology. I have seen "older" pole length charts based on straight ski lengths online recently.....Its definitely worth experimenting with pole length....
The adjustable poles are a great solution!
JP
PS....be careful of pole drills that cause posing ...or should I say coaching cues that lead to posing (any verbal direction that implies a single position or place.)