Swedish Ski Sport", April 1995
"...If you would like to ski technically perfect, this is a gold mine..."


Leslie Anthony, March 1995, "Ski Trax Magazine", Cross Country Canada
"...Einar Svensson has produced a tome on the ski skating technique that is destined to become both a classic and the acknowledged bible on the sub-discipline. This is the most comprehensive text on ski skating available and covers every inch of the track...The text is lively and engaging, but is really a "how to" manual at heart."


Steven Gaskill, June 1995, "Team Birkie Newsletter"
"It is wonderful to pick up a book about cross country ski racing that is well written, professionally laid out and contains worthwhile scholarly content use of recent photos, well drawn graphics and clear text make this the best book to date on cross country ski skating."


Nat Brown, "Nordic Update", vol. 9,#5,1995
"In a few words, this is the best technique book I have ever seen, and one which has suggested all kinds of new ideas and approaches...The beauty of the book is that it takes nothing for granted...is complex...unbelievably thorough, a book that will need - and reward - study. It is a book written by a skier who loves the sport, and has spend a lifetime in it. It should be on every coaches and athlete's "must" list. I cannot recommend Ski Skating enough."


Book Description
272p. Paper, Landscape format, indexed. This book, the most comprehensive text on cross country Ski Skating available today, is written by 11-times World Master Champion (1988-1998) and international Norwegian and Swedish top level coach, Einar Svensson. This superb text-of-choice for teaching, learning and improving ski skating technique on all levels of experience, for one of the fastest growing new winter sports in the world, is UP-TO-DATE, thorough, instructive, informative and easy to understand and follow. It's 350 color and black/white photos of recent World and Olympic Champion cross country skiers in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, Norway, and 1993 World Championships, Sweden, are presented in action sequences, with physical and mechanical analysis of 17 skating techniques, elaborate graphs and illustrations, and scientific test results. Topics are: basic skills and exercises, advanced techniques, detailed explanations of poling, skating and downhill techniques, criteria, terminology, ski skating history, environment, and special analyses of mechanics of skiing and skating movements using 72 professional quality illustrations and graphs. Includes results of wind tunnel testing and information on friction, and inertia.


From the Publisher
This is a profusely illustrated, bio-mechanically grounded, instructional reference that cross-country skiers, cross-training athletes, and in-line skaters will find invaluable.


From the Author
I have devoted a lifetime to the sport of cross country skiing, both recreationally and as a competitor. My experience started as a kid having fun - tumbling on a pair of skis made from wooden tar barrel staves. Over the years, I have relished the continual changes in ski technology, which has unfailingly sought to made skis lighter and faster, and in ski technique, which is always trying something different, always adding new dimensions to the scope of skiing. The recent development of ski skating is truly unique and challenging. It has again provided a new inspiration to me - intriguing new physical challenges, new opportunities to study, and new knowledge - and I hope you, the reader, will enjoy joining me in exploring it in depth. My intent is that the scope of this book should be broad to fulfill the cross country ski skating sport's need for a comprehensive textbook on the subject as practiced internationally today. Its purpose is to educate young and old, newcomers and advanced level skiers on how to ski skate technically perfect, without excessive use of energy. "Ski Skating With Champions" is the product of 5 years of extensive compilation of my work - from research, testing, practice, competition, international coaching clinics and extensive photography of Olympic and World Championship racing, with my own equipment and under my supervision. The text demonstrates professionally, with hundreds of photos and illustrations of current world and Olympic champion skiers, how to apply the different skate techniques to differing types of terrain. The subtitle, "How to Ski With Least Energy", reflects one of the main topics that I repeatedly address and refer to throughout the book - that of how to ski most efficiently, applying the best technical movement solutions when skiing in different terrain and snow conditions, depending on the skier's available energy resources. Within the time of compiling materials for this text, the cross country skiing world was electrified by the expanding application of ski skating. It's blending of dance-like rhythms with relaxed movement of all the body's elements to produce increased speed has totally captured the enthusiasm of athletes and the skiing public alike - it is fun. It is more fun when you have mastered a variety of techniques and can choose among them to suit the terrain you are skiing.


About the Author
Einar Svensson is one of the most knowledgeable authorities in the world on the technical and artistic aspects of cross country skiing. He has spent many years in testing, research, and analysis to produce the amazing amount of professional illustrations, graphs, photos, and data contained in this text. Besides being an elite master competitor and participating in top international cross country events, he has traveled world-wide to collect materials of vital interest to cross country skiers on all levels of skills, done research in libraries and institutions, reviewed literature in seven languages, and attended coaching clinics in four countries. In addition to using World and Olympic Champion skiers as examples, this text contains an extensive amount of physiological, neurological and mechanical data on skiing movement that is a major contribution to the literature on the popular worldwide sport called Ski Skating. The author was born in Norway, and educated as a Civil, Structural and Transportation Engineer in Norway and U.S. As an adult, he immigrated to the west coast of Canada and lived and worked there in the mid 50's before moving to Seattle, Washington where he established his consulting engineering firm and a housing manufacturing business. He has two grown children. Currently he resides in Bend, Oregon. Through the years he has combined his particular interest and expertise in the engineering field of mechanics of movement and applied it to analysis of efficient skiing movements for his own cross country ski racing and coaching avocations. He has published technical articles on skiing and on professional engineering subjects in several languages. In his 20's, he was an "A" class racer in Norway in special and Nordic combined events and has continued as an avid Master racer. He won the overall U.S. Masters title in 1972, 1973, and 1974 and has competed frequently in the top tour races in Europe, winning his class in most of them, including the Master title in the prestigious Holmenkollmarsj tour race, 1976. During the ten years, 1988-98 (95), he scored more points in the World Master's competition than any other skier in North America, including 11 golds. He is one of the few skiers in the world winning both Classic and Skating in the same championship (1988), a very difficult combination. He has been a voluntary coach and skiing consultant in Norway, Canada and the U.S. on all levels; having current Norwegian Coaching certification on Levels A through C, and Swedish Level 3 certifications. He is a member of the prestigious Norwegian Coaching Club (Trenerklubben) for advanced coaching. In addition to his interest in cross country skiing, the author participates and competes in many other sports, including in-line skating, alpine skiing, bicycling, river kayaking, and running. In his younger days he was an elite competitor in orienteering.


Excerpted from Ski Skating With Champions : How to Ski With Least Energy by Einar Svensson. Copyright © 1995. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
"Two-Side skating is precisely defined by the author as skating repetitiously, alternately using left and right skis. The term, Skate Dancing, is also used here because this type of skiing is just plain fun. At its height of relaxed performance on easy terrain, it feels like ballet on a pair of skis. Skate Dancing allows one to relax thoroughly through movement and rhythm. It is an activity that can enrich one's life; a therapy on which you can wisely spend you leisure time. This skill that everyone, young and old, can learn, can be enjoyed by recreational skiers and racers alike. Keeping the feeling of dancing alive while you practice the skate techniques included here may help you to be more relaxed and learn faster. In Two-Side Skating Dancing, each ski repetitiously makes outward skate movements, combined with single or double poling. All the body's elements contribute to the forward propulsion of the skier, and greater speed can be achieved with less use of energy when doing this correctly. In efficient Skate Dancing, there is a rhythmic continuation in the glide from one ski to the other with no letup. When learning ski Skate Dancing, this smooth transition (the transfer of weight, COG, from one let to another) is difficult to learn, requiring good balance, flexibility, coordination and strength. A letup or delay between each skate actually requires more energy since the skier generated increased friction, and has to regain the skating momentum, which otherwise would be maintained unbroken. The result is that the skier may quickly become tired (not an unusual experience for less trained skiers.)"