Style

[Lhartley]

Is style a thing in telemark? In skateboarding and snowboarding and conventional skiing if you have your own flair on your skiing it would be considered "style". In some of these "feedback critique" things on the forums we look at irregularities in our skiing and we try to correct them. Let's say if everyone had a common instructor and everyone corrected their skiing to a degree, would everyone just look the same? What is an allowance for an irregularity in skiing? An arm movement that is unique? An overcompensation in lateral movement? If everyone skied perfectly at the resort what would it look like? These things make me miss marijuana. It was all so simple

[phoenix]

"These things make me miss marijuana. It was all so simple"

Still is, unless and/or until one looks at it analytically. There's loads of individual style in tele skiing, and while certain principles are pretty constant, there's no "right way" in general. If you ski at a resort some where there's other regulars skiing tele, you can tell who they are from a good distance away by their style.

[Montana St Alum]

Yes, I agree, there is style in telemark skiing.
To your point, (OP) when it comes to making suggestions about the way people ski, I think it's a good thing to concentrate on the basics, or the physics of what people are doing and to try to disregard "style". Sometimes style can interfere with the efficiency of the elements of what goes into the turn, but it's worth a little loss of efficiency to stamp it with your personal imprint. With most people where I ski, I can recognize them from a good way off because of those personal touches.

[Rodbelan]

Styles, and schools too... If you look at how the Americans, the Canadians, the Germans, the Australians, etc teach tele-skiing, you would see as many differences. Each year, there is a tele-get-together to exchange ways and pedagogy—it's called «Inter-ski telemark tech». You could find some info on Yas Kawasaki channel like
You might find some newer stock elsewhere...

And look also Telehiro style; I remember my teacher (the one I used to hire for classes) was not that keen on his method...

Oh yeah, and something I would like to add; a lot a people in tele skiing are confident that it is the gear that makes them ski better—I am talking of the vast array of contemporary gear (not the one from the past)... They buy all kinds of skis and stuff hoping to get better. I just want to say that there is a fast track to get better: invest into a tele ski class... I also want to say that it is perfectly ok to ski like a dog, if you are having fun; not everybody is into performance and level 5 skiing technique... (I should have started another tread).

[Lhartley]

" I also want to say that it is perfectly ok to ski like a dog, if you are having fun; not everybody is into performance and level 5 skiing technique... (I should have started another tread)."

And this is totally what I'm trying to remember while learning, I really want to ski like Telehiro. But it's not likely I ever will for lack talent, time, and resources. And that's just fine

[Rodbelan]

From the vid I saw of you skiing, you are certainly getting there... pretty good. We can also have fun fine tuning our technique... but, again, it is not a panacea...

I was skiing tele mainly backcountry years ago... I decided to take a class — CANSI style. Then I got «sidetrack» to ski mainly resort, taking some more classes. Once I learned how to carve, I went back to the BC, and boy, was I skiing like a dog, a stray dog, with my skinny skis... I had to readjust and learn to use many tools, not just one set...

[lowangle al]

I think style is huge in tele because there are so many different ways to do it right. Everybody isn't going to look the same, but they should have the same goal of being stable. So as long as what you are doing helps improve stability it's OK, if it doesn't, drop it.

It also depends on goals. If your goal is to make it down a hill safely you are not going to look like the guy who is making turns for the sake of making turns.

[Lhartley]

I think style is huge in tele because there are so many different ways to do it right. Everybody isn't going to look the same, but they should have the same goal of being stable. So as long as what you are doing helps improve stability it's OK, if it doesn't, drop it.

It also depends on goals. If your goal is to make it down a hill safely you are not going to look like the guy who is making turns for the sake of making turns.

For sure and this is where I'm having troubles on where to spend my energy. I'm watching videos of myself picking out things that don't look right and what I'd like to fix, but I also watch videos of people like teletay who have very unorthodox styles and I think hey maybe I should let my freak flag fly and just worry more about speed, stability, and smooth turns. "If it feels good, it's good".



I skied for an hour yesterday trying to correct something and found myself having less enjoyment, I think is my point.

[lowangle al]

Notice how he is centered further back over his rear foot. I don't know if you can see it, but he stays centered at all times. The "holy grail"

Like we said, you are doing good so just make small changes.

[Lhartley]

Yup, and I was reminded of what you were saying when I seen this image from telemark tips. It seems having an alpine background ground privide a good basis but there are key differences