Sometimes when out skiing, a former student or someone just starting out will ask for a quick tip. We try to oblige with something useful (and spread the word on upcoming clinics) and just today on the lift I was asked ‘what’s the number one tip you’d give to somebody starting to learn telemark’. The first thing that came into my head was, achieve a balanced stance, since skiing movements rely on the foundation of a balanced stance. My colleague thought this was too abstract an objective and added, ‘be relaxed’ which is essentially the same idea but adds that feeling you experience when balanced. So you take a few breaths, find your center, feel relaxed, and now what? 

Here’s a more concrete idea to work on when starting out: Try sliding the lead ski back when making a lead change, instead of sliding the trailing ski forward.  A common obstacle to alpine and cross-country skiers crossing over to telemark skiing is placing the majority of their weight on the downhill or outside ski. Sometime this manifests itself in what is dubbed the "fake-a-mark"- the symptoms being all weight on the outside ski and the inside knee bent but actuallyin front of the outside knee when viewed from the side. Walking or sliding backwards requires us to place weight on our back foot with each step and the same weight transfer occurs when skiing. The best place to try this is on a low angle slope that you feel comfortable going straight down without turning (nearly flat). (1) Without turning, as your skis slide forward make lead changes by stepping backwards, one foot at a time. Get comfortable with a significant percentage of your weight landing on the back, trailing foot – feel your trailing quad working.  (2) Now try it stepping forward – this is more of a cross country ski movement – most of your weight will be supported by the lead foot. (3) Finally, on the same slope, shuffle one foot forward while the other foot simultaneously shuffles back – this is the ultimate goal and will distribute your weight evenly on each ski enabling a strong, true telemark turn that comes from both feet being weighted.