can't get parallel

[Johnny]

The Tele-Shuffle: Lead changes, weighting - unweighting, transition etc...
Just testing the tele stance without actually turning... Also called the Tele Dance...

[lowangle al]

That's a good drill. keep your skis wide enough apart so you don't hawe balance issues. I would also illuminate the up down motion by keeping your knees bent thruought the drill

[fisheater]

Wow, I would enjoy seeing the next six videos in that series. Thanks for sharing.

[montrealer]

Ultimately you will know that you have a pretty good concept of the turn when you can hockey stop it both sides. I personally would encourage anyone trying to learn the turn to get out on a bunny hill and practice tele hockey stops. You'll never pull it off if your idea of a telemark turn is off. You should be able to spray the hell out of your buddies stopping on a groomer.

Amazing, so much gold in this post. Thank you!

Part of the fun for me is trying tele turns on different setups (plastic boots/cable bindings/heavy downhill skis, alaskas/NNNBC/Eons, Floppy Boots/SNS/55mm Fischer XC skis) and seeing what remains the same and what's different from one setup to the next.

I've been practicing on my super skinny XC skis (because why not!?) and the above part about hockey stops really rings true.

I found that with the lightest setup, things clicked when I could do a hockey stop with the rear foot and really feel the ball of the foot pushing against the snow. From there I could alter how much pressure to put depending on the turn. The hardest thing is actually angling the ski just right so that the rear ski can apply pressure and bite in a bit but not so much that it catches an edge. This doesn't seem to be as much of a problem with wider skis, since they tend to want to be flat against the snow. Combined with keeping balance on such skinny skis with floppy boots it's quite tricky (but addictive!).

Of course it only works in certain conditions (groomed trail, decent snow, flat surface with no obstacles). It's also usually doable on hairpin turns on switchback descents and similar gentler turns.

However for scrubbing speed and maintaining control on steep and narrow downhills, parallel turns are better but they just don't feel as good...

[lowangle al]

To take it to the next level on skinny skis I started to concentrate on what was going on below my knees. It's all about ankle flex and concentrating on your edges, big toe -little toe. When I got that dialed in along with angling that rear ski in sinc with edging and weighting, stability issues on light gear disappeared.

[toddball]

Thanks very much for that post, Harris! My second tele day ever was yesterday, so I'm still trying to figure things out, but the point about not extending your rear foot backwards was very important for me. I had seen that "7 deadly flaws" video before, and I thought that was very helpful for figuring out what a proper (or at least usable) stance is. The technique wiki posts on this form are also a great resource.

[TimMoffett]

Your dominant leg is probably super dominant. Dominant leg will turn better when in the back. Dominant leg will make your other turn weak because the weaker leg is not used to doing much for a living.

Remember to flex the front of your lower leg on the rearward foot, clench your butt cheeks and squeeze tour upper legs together in the turn - do this and I would be willing to bet that you'll turn better. Also make sure that you are keeping your waist pointing down the fall line.

[zonca]

Great tips and direction in this thread! I'd like to add one exercise that I do regularly to tune myself up especially if I hear my inside ski "clack" against the outside ski. For me this usually happens on turns to my right when I am tired.

On a low angle, wide slope start linking some large radius turns then move your inside knee further to the inside. Keep good separation between the knees avoiding the feeling of them brushing past each other during lead change. Bring the little toe pressure into it too. Exaggerate until you feel that inside ski over turning and dial it back. Move on to shorter radius turns then steeper terrain.

In general:
Keep moving vertically, when you get the the low point of your drop start rising into the next phase.
Work on the feel of the turns while doing them and think about it on the lift.
Eyes up and looking at your next turn, shoulders and hips with the eyes as much as possible.
Have fun.