Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

I believe this pretty much nails it and explains all there is to know, and if patient there is some excellent tele skiing at the end.

This philosophy would seemingly be at odds with the min/max attitude I encounter with many individuals who regard themselves as bastions of doing something "the right way."

It's not unique to this forum or skiing. I have encountered it in everything from massively multiplayer online role playing games to science to sports; but, if we're going to just let things come naturally it seems incongruous to then stress every specification and characteristic of our gear when we could just grab a set of waxless skis and get the heck out there and ski.

I think this video reinforces what I have experienced. I believe once you have your body position dialed in as far as being centered and pressuring the skis it is time to focus on what is going on below your knees by working on carving. If you are focused on carving, and let your upper body do whatever comes natural to achieve better carving I believe you are accomplishing what is described in the video.

It's absolutely just skiing. *EDIT* Great video & I agree with every word. I normally don't even mention technique online or IRL, but Harris posted a video and discussion recently about the Ligety hip swaggle revolution which was a fun discussion and I read that as sort of an open invitation for more of this type of discussion. But I am reverting back to my previous position.

Nevertheless, it is really cool to see you ski and I hope you post more footy. I love videos like yours and I try to learn from them. I don't have a gopro but I'll get an iphone clip together so you can see what flailing looks like and you can consider the source.

lowangle al wrote:I believe once you have your body position dialed in as far as being centered and pressuring the skis it is time to focus on what is going on below your knees by working on carving.

I had an instructor tell me, "Now go out and get beat up until you feel it." I was sad about this because I was starting to ski more challenging stuff and would gladly have paid more money for lessons if it meant fewer beatings... I think a lot of beginner tips and rules of thumb are to help bring new skiers up to speed on groomers quickly and that quick success leads them to adopt the rules a bit too rigidly. They only break out of it when they have to react to conditions that are less predictable - then they start to ski more "naturally".