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At the cross-country skiing camp with Tobias Angerer: What the pro looks for in technique and material
@sebastianschultephotography
06:30 a.m.
Saturday morning at the TNT cross-country ski camp powered by KönigLudwigLauf in Oberammergau starts early. It feels like training courses in my active days. Outside, the snow-covered cross-country trail stretches through the Oberammergau landscape, waiting for its cross-country skiers. Anticipation arises.
07:00 a.m.
Time for a hearty breakfast. The curiosity among the camp participants is palpable. Questions go around about what to expect on this long day of cross-country skiing. Marc, co-organizer and one of the driving forces in the König Ludwig Lauf team, explains the day’s schedule and gives all participants a starter package from our partners to take with them.
08:00 a.m.
If you think you’re going straight onto the track, you’re wrong. 45 minutes of stabilization and strengthening exercises are on the schedule-“Technical training on skis is all well and good, but it can only be implemented well with the associated and necessary musculature and strength.” And these must also be trained. We will focus on the abdomen, back, arms and legs.
09:00 a.m.
The first training session is on the agenda: two and a half hours of skating technique. The camp participants can now practice converting the previously trained physical strength and condition into propulsion and speed. It is important to build up tension in the body, to feel the resistance of the ski kick and pole use in the snow, and to use this combination to make the skis glide. Direct power transfer from the hand to the pole is extremely helpful here. This is ensured by a cross-country glove with a highly tactile palm, such as the LAPPI from Roeckl Sports with ROECK-GRIP®. Thanks to the breathable GORE-TEX™ WINDSTOPPER® Soft Shell Elastic on the backhand in combination with a moisture-absorbing Easy-Dry lining, the LAPPI maintains a pleasant glove climate and thus first-class grip even during the sweatiest training sequences. During breaks, the wind- and waterproof material combined with a long knit cuff with elastic Velcro strap protects against chilling. Cross-country skiing is a technically and coordinatively challenging sport, but with the necessary practice and the right material, it gets better from hour to hour and great progress is made.
At the end of the training session we go a few kilometers into the cross-country track. Here we now put the learned technique into practice. You can see the enthusiasm and fun of the participants, but also this special motivation to want to improve at all costs. In terms of equipment, I recommend a close-fitting glove for cross-country skiers. The LIDHULT, for example, from Roeckl Sports, almost melts into the hand and gives a real racing feeling on the cross-country track. The ROECK-GRIP® material on the palm enables precise, powerful pole use, which is crucial when chasing seconds. Especially during high physical stress, effective moisture management in the glove is extremely important to me. GORE-TEX INFINIUM™ WINDSTOPPER® Soft Shell Elastic combined with GORE-TEX INFINIUM™ WINDSTOPPER® Tornado makes sure of that. Even at higher speeds, it also efficiently keeps out the cold riding wind. The TOUCHSCREEN COMPATIBLE function is practical if you want to quickly check your fitness watch in between. After the long training session, however, it’s time for a break and regeneration with a fortifying lunch followed by a midday rest.
03:00 p.m.
In the continuing best winter weather with light snowfall, we go for another two hours on the classic technique. Here, too, we build the training piece by piece from individual movement sequences. Afterwards we train the technique with poles: Diagonal step, double pole push, but also double pole with intermediate step. Here it is important to let the upper body force act maximally efficiently on the pole via the hand. The LAIKKO cross-country glove from Roeckl Sports is perfect for this. Close-fitting to the skin, the super-grippy ROECK-GRIP® palm material forms an ideal connection with the cork grip of the pole when the pole strap is firmly closed. No feeling of “I could lose the pole” – this also helps camp participants immensely. This is where the totally windproof, water-repellent yet breathable GORE-TEX INFINIUM™ WINDSTOPPER® Soft Shell Elastic combined with a warming lining on the backhand of the LAIKKO pays off.
At just after 5 p.m., the training is over. This is followed by a video analysis with improvement tips for all participants. Then it’s off to dinner, where energy stores are replenished with a delicious, healthy meal. With relaxed conversations – most of the time it’s about our favorite sport cross-country skiing anyway – an eventful and great winter sports day slowly comes to an end.
Tobias Angerer
A lot of my life revolves around sports and especially around cross-country skiing. I love and live cross-country skiing since my childhood. The first time on skis at the age of two, right behind our house, beyond my career as a cross-country skier, my drive was and still is to go out, strap on the skis and enjoy the freedom in the trails. For me, there is nothing more beautiful than walking through forests and landscapes covered in deep snow and feeling the winter air. That’s exactly the kind of enthusiasm Trond and I want to convey to our participants at the TNT camp. Cross-country skiing is a way of life, a lifetime project. And it’s worth it to go out every day and pass on this attitude to life.
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