V1 slow motion

[lo....@free.fr]

olsson, Manificat, Hellner, Northug, Cologna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd-Bb5RuCRg

What's up with Peter Northug ?
Is he actually achieving to push backward instead of sideway ?

For the overwhelming majority of us, trying to push backward induces hips rotation and has negative effects. This is generally a wrong catch from too much inline rollerskate.

[ge...@none.net]

At first, Northug is tired and sloppy. Looking at the side shots
further along, Northug's basic push off does not seem different than
Cologna's. What's different is the way his lower leg rotates after
pushing off, as if there is an anatomical anomaly.

Gene

[lo....@free.fr]

He's certainly tired, but Peter often has that sloppy attitude... just before doing his famous final sprint. It's a way for him to achieve maximum relaxation, I think.
I've always noticed his way of lowering the tip of his ski while doing V1. This is quite remarkable here, but he's always doing it.
Doing it is possible only by leaving the leg backward. One positive effect I can think of (leave apart the possibility of backward push) is relaxing the quads.

[ge...@none.net]

In the same vein, maybe it's time to see a video of myself. I'm a good
(and old and slow) skater, but some occurrence of tip starting across
drives me crazy. For lack of a better explanation and fix, I've
assumed that it's related to my legs below the knees pointing outward -
there's a medical term for this that starts with 'v' (not knock kneed)
- which means I'm often not quite over the ski as most people are.
That's why I wondered if Northug's habit may in part be anatomical,
along with how he learned to skate to start with.

Gene