Help diagnosing Telemark errors, please!

[jyw5]

This is all great and helpful. While I'm not leaving out anyone's contribution it seems like the two main things I need to work on these turns are 1) take off the skins and 2) less slope angle. Getting these two environmental conditions will then help me work on the mechanics of the turn - something I've never done, not even with Alpine.

When I lived in the Southeast it just rained all the time so, even though I'm more of an outdoors guy, my primary activity turned into weightlifting. Here in Utah, I find it hard to find time to lift weights. At any rate, there was this very knowledgeable meat-titan at my gym who was a heck of a nice guy; big-Mike. He was great at providing technique advice in a way that wasn't demeaning. I remember him saying: "Leave your ego at home on back-day." Meaning: don't try to lift so much. Back is more about technique. And he was right. Sounds like some time on the Bunny Slope is in order!

to add to my last post, I spent hours on bunny hills just going up and down and doing laps of 100ft vertical. There were days that just weren't that fun because I would spend several hours just doing drills. However, the practice did pay off as skiing became alot more enjoyable and I was able to ski more places, varied terrain, and longer distances.

[lowangle al]

to add to my last post, I spent hours on bunny hills just going up and down and doing laps of 100ft vertical. There were days that just weren't that fun because I would spend several hours just doing drills. However, the practice did pay off as skiing became alot more enjoyable and I was able to ski more places, varied terrain, and longer distances.

It would have been more fun if you were on the right skis. I bet you were on dbl camber.

[KDog]

Third question: When turning right, in telemark stance, working to weight equally, pressing ball of trailing foot down, my darn right ski (trailing ski) wants to rotate counter clockwise. The tip keeps wandering in towards the other ski and I have to spread my legs and it just turns into a damn pizza! I feel like I'm 6! But most 6 year olds are better skiers than me. This doesn't seem to happen when turning left.

Fourth question: When turning left I keep turning (waaaaay) past the fall line until the rear of the skis start to give way and the whole operation turns into a parallel stop. I think I'm just a big chicken and am skiing across the face of the slope instead of DOWN it.

Hi John,

I taught Telemark as a PSIA instructor for a few years and while I don't agree with all (or most) of the PSIA approach to our beautiful turn, there were some basic practice techniques that might help you with questions 3 and 4.

As you rightly indicate, you want to achieve close to 50/50 weighting on the two skis. This can change a bit depending on terrain, slope angle, snow depth ect., but for the most part it should be the goal. The wandering rear ski is a good indicator that you are not weighting it enough.

In my opinion, the goal is to think of the Telemark turn NOT as trying to turn two skis side by side (as in parallel skiing), but as ONE LONG ski unified by you and your legs/core.

A way to practice this, is to find a low angle groomed slope that you feel comfortable skiing straight down (without turning) where your speed is under control (almost flat) and practice dropping into Tele position with emphasis on weighting the back ski. You transition back and forth between left ski forward/right ski forward while traveling in a straight line. The idea is to exaggerate weighting the rear ski a bit so that you ingrain muscle memory since the most common beginner position under-weights the back ski. Hopefully you end up in the "Happy medium" while actually skiing.

As far as the strong left turn, weird right turn I'll give you some non-PSIA ideas that I have developed over decades of Tele. Most of us have a natural side stance balance that is either right foot forward or left foot forward. If you have ever skateboarded, snowboarded or surfed, you know what your preferred forward foot is, where you feel stable. If you don't know you can trying jumping in the air, and dropping in to a Tele-like stance and see which one feels more natural. Sounds to me like you will prefer the right foot forward based on your post. We call this "Goofy foot" because many more people seem to prefer left foot forward, but I'm a goofy too!

This means you feel the most stable making the left turn, but you can also get "locked" into that turn and overturn because transitioning back right feels sketchy and unstable. The right turn wanders and feels strange because it's not your natural stance with left foot forward. The way to overcome this is fairly straight forward, but first you need to practice the 50/50 weighting above and emphasize feeling stable when the left foot is forward. Then, when practicing making turns, focus on the right turn. Every time you start down the slope, drop over a lip, or any time you are skiing straight, make your first turn to the right, try using it to stop, even in emergency stops. Shallow out the left turn and commit deep to the right. Since the left is your stronger turn, it won't go away if you ignore it for awhile! You are trying to achieve balance between the two.

There are lot more weird hypothesis's I have about switch-stance, frontside and backside turns and connections between Tele-skiing, skiing and other board sports that I won't go into, except to say that I have surfed, skateboarded and snow boarded and believe that Telemark is closer to those sports than to alpine skiing in many ways. PSIA be damned!

[spopepro]

There are lot more weird hypothesis's I have about switch-stance, frontside and backside turns and connections between Tele-skiing, skiing and other board sports that I won't go into, except to say that I have surfed, skateboarded and snow boarded and believe that Telemark is closer to those sports than to alpine skiing in many ways. PSIA be damned!

You are not the only one. A tele instructor I know and ski with (teaches the USMC to ski on occasion) swears that snowboarders are always a step ahead when learning. There really is something to it.

[wabene]

Excellent thanks, @KDog

[Stephen]

I have read that dominant limb is strength and the other limb is control.
Think about in doing tasks that require both strength and control.

Getting back-foot weight has been one of the main challenges I have to focus on.
When skiing, I visualize sitting on that back leg / foot like I’m about to sit on a stool.
It feels a little counter intuitive, since the back leg is in the weaker position, relative to the front leg.

If I get into trouble in a turn, it’s often because I’m not back weight enough.

If one learned Alpine first (I did), I think there is a muscle-memory dynamic that one has to overcome. In Alpine, outside-of-turn ski is often more weighted. In Telemark, more focus needs to be given to inside-of-turn ski.
Or, even something like scrambling downhill, one might power on the downhill foot and control on the uphill foot. It seems like telemark is maybe opposite of this?

Hope that contributes something helpful.

[mca80]

Thanks both @KDog and @Stephen, insightful stuff and especially for me as some of these issues I experienced today first time trying tele turns at a resort instead of my 50ft hill down the street.