Tom Gellie breaks down telemark movement, the fore-and-aft foot motion that separates telemark from alpine skiing. He shows three ways to execute it: push the outside foot forward, pull the inside foot back, or blend both. Timing matters: feet together means you're tall, feet apart means you're lowering, which affects how sharp your turns can get.
Chapters
Telemark movement is the fundamental difference between alpine and telemark skiing. We utilize this fore-and-aft movement to adjust to terrain, dynamics of the turn, and to gain efficiency from the other skiing skills. Telemark movement can be made in several ways. Some of these include pushing the outside foot forward, pulling the inside foot back, or a blending of the two. In this next clip, notice how the skier moves his outside foot forward through the end of the turn. This helps to keep his center of mass balanced as he skis into the bump. In the following turn, he moves his inside foot back to remain centered. In powder, moving the outside foot forward can help in combating the resistance you get from deeper snow. In this steered telemark turn, the lead change or telemark movement has been slowed down to allow good leg rotation into the new turn. Timing of the telemark movement can influence your vertical range of movement. Notice when the feet pass each other, the skier is very tall, and when they get further apart, the skier gets lower. Timing of the telemark movement can aid in higher edge angles in short turns. In this case, the feet pass each other just before the fall line, when the outside leg is at its longest. The extended leg moves laterally to gain a higher edge angle. To aid stability in telemark movement, try to keep the whole of one foot down until the other foot has passed and is flat on the ski. It is much easier to balance on the whole of one foot than on the tippy toes of two feet. Whether making pure carved long turns, skiing in the powder, or playing around in the bumps, try and keep your telemark movement versatile. This way you'll be a more functional telemark skier and have more fun doing it. I'm sure.
