Just wanted to see what everyone else's thoughts were.
I Nordic walk with my poles, which means I forcefully shove them down next to my body in an alternating fashion, and push off, and I do this every step.
I went on a small section hike a couple of weeks ago, and I saw lots of through hikers with trekking poles, and many of them were doing a motion where the push both poles forward, lower them to barely contact the ground at the same time, and then lift and repeat...another technique I saw was just randomly sticking one pole out at a time in front of the body, again no pushing off, just letting the pole fall and touch, then lift back up.
Am I the one doing it the wrong way? I know there probably isn't a right or wrong way, but if the point is to use them to save your legs, I would think just letting them semi-dangle is not the right answer.
I am not trying to be critical, I am just curious...after all, it is HYOH out on the trail.