This section outlines key skills that support the development of confident, adaptable telemark skiers. It emphasises the importance of situational understanding—how skiers integrate awareness, tactics, and technique in response to changing terrain, snow, and speed. Factors like speed management, terrain selection, snow conditions, and equipment all influence turn quality and balance. The section also highlights the role of an active stance in maintaining ski and body performance, particularly through coordinated use of all four fundamental movements. Tactical decision-making and responsiveness are crucial for building control and flow in a variety of environments.
Skills in Telemark Skiing
As soon as a telemark skier can initiate turns, all four fundamental movements—fore/aft, rotational, lateral, and vertical—are present and coordinated in some form. At the beginner level, developing this coordination progressively is essential for skill advancement. Accurate coordination of movements allows skiers to navigate varying terrain, changing snow conditions, and different speeds, all while adapting to the demands of free-heel skiing.
The following skills highlight the many layers of telemark skiing—both physical and cognitive—that instructors must help students master on their journey to becoming confident and adaptable all-mountain telemark skiers
Situational Understanding
Situational understanding is the skier’s ability to integrate cognitive awareness, tactical decision-making, and movement execution to meet the demands of their environment. This means a skier must combine an understanding of surroundings and terrain with performance intention, adjusting technique accordingly.
Speed of Travel
Understanding speed management is essential for executing effective turns and maintaining balance in telemark skiing. Free-heel mechanics mean speed control is often linked to turn shape, lead change timing, and edge engagement.
- A telemark skier moving too slowly may struggle to engage edges and complete turns effectively, making dynamic movements difficult.
- This is often seen when a Telemark skier goes from J-turns to linking turns. If the telemark skier goes too slowly when connecting their J-turns they will struggle for an effective lead change.
- A telemark skier moving too fast may lose control over the lead change, making it harder to maintain balance and rhythm.
- In deep snow, momentum is necessary to maintain float and execute fluid lead changes.
Understanding how acceleration and deceleration impact balance and turn dynamics is critical for instructors when guiding students through speed adjustments in different conditions.
Conditions & Equipment
Snow conditions significantly affect how telemark skis perform. Recognizing these variations helps both instructors and students make better tactical and technical decisions.
- Soft snow (powder or slush): Increased resistance slows the skis down, requiring stronger lead changes and more emphasis on fore/aft stability.
- Firm or icy snow: Reduced resistance increases speed, necessitating more precise pressure control and earlier edge engagement to maintain grip.
- Mixed conditions (crud, wind-affected snow): Unpredictable surfaces require greater adaptability in flexion/extension and enhanced rotational stability to absorb inconsistencies.
Equipment selection also impacts performance:
- Wider telemark skis float better in deep snow but require more effort to edge on hardpack.
- Traditional narrower skis are more effective on firm groomed runs but may sink in powder, demanding greater lead change activity to maintain balance.
- Binding and boot stiffness influence how quickly a skier can transition between lead changes and how much support they have during edge engagement.
(more on equipment in the equipment chapter)
By understanding the relationship between snow conditions, speed, and equipment, instructors can adjust progressions, terrain choices, and technical focus to set students up for success.
Terrain
Assessing slope angle and terrain features is critical for safe and effective skill progression.
- A slope that is too steep for a student learning telemark turns will disrupt balance and confidence while increasing the likelihood of defensive movements.
- Fatigue, confidence, and turn shape should be considered when introducing new terrain. A student skiing confidently on a blue run in the morning may struggle later in the day due to tiredness affecting their ability to execute a controlled lead change.
A telemark skier’s ability to adapt movements—lead change timing, pressure distribution, and lateral stability—to match terrain is essential for progression and safety.
Tactics
Tactical awareness involves making strategic decisions that align with skill level, terrain, and equipment to ensure efficiency and safety.
- Chairlift exits: Telemark skiers need to stand tall and move smoothly away from the unloading area to maintain balance on free-heel bindings. Instructors should prepare students for this before they ride the lift.
- Turn shape adjustments: Different slope angles require different turn shapes and lead change timing to control speed. A nervous skier may benefit from longer, more traversing turns, while a more advanced skier may opt for short, dynamic turns with rapid lead changes.
- Line choice: On steeper terrain, skiers can use progressive edging and lateral movement to maintain control, whereas in soft snow, keeping momentum and a rhythmic lead change is key to preventing excessive sinking.
By developing situational awareness, telemark skiers and instructors learn to make real-time adjustments to their technique and terrain choices, improving both confidence and efficiency.
Active Stance & Balance
In telemark skiing, balance is maintained by coordinating all four fundamental movements—fore/aft, rotational, lateral, and vertical—to manage pressure distribution along both skis throughout the turn. Skiers must use muscular control to align their body with the forces acting upon them while adjusting the relationship between the centre of gravity (COG) and base of support (BOS) to optimise ski-snow interaction.
Ski Performance
- As the skis move through a turn, friction and resistance change, requiring continuous adjustments to maintain balance between the lead and trailing ski. The skier must actively guide the lead change to ensure the COG remains centered between both feet, allowing the skis to maintain consistent edge engagement and effectively shape the turn.
- Even pressure along the entire length of both skis enables smooth bending of the skis, improving grip and control. (is this true?- I say it because I feel like this when I tele but thinking through it wouldn’t there be more pressure on the tip of the tailing skiing means the tip is more engaged than the tail?)
- An engaged, active stance prevents the skier from getting stuck in a passive lead change, ensuring fluid transitions between turns.
- Fore/aft adjustments help the skier anticipate variations in terrain and snow resistance, maintaining stability throughout the turn.
- Maintaining balance through the center of both skis allows steering to originate from the legs, enabling the skier to navigate diverse terrain with efficiency and control.
Body Performance
- To maintain balance and optimise ski performance, the skier must be actively engaged in the following movement patterns:
- Fore/Aft and Vertical Movements: Adjusting stance dynamically through flexion and extension controls the direction of the COG along the ski length, ensuring consistent pressure distribution between both skis.
- Rotational Alignment: The skier must control upper and lower body separation—creating, maintaining, and releasing rotational tension—to effectively manage turn shape and stability. Unlike alpine skiing, upper body rotation in telemark skiing comes from spinal twisting rather than hip rotation, as the hips are considered part of the lower body mechanics in free-heel skiing.- This is something I have considered a core belief about skiing but want to make sure this is accurate and aligns with NZSIA telemark theory.
- Lateral Movements & Edge Control: Angulation and inclination must be actively managed to maintain balance between the skis and as forces increase balance will towards the outside ski.
By staying active and responsive, the telemark skier develops flow, efficiency, and precision, enabling them to ski with confidence and adaptability in varying terrain and conditions.
Ski-to-Ski Balance
In telemark skiing, balance is distributed more evenly between both skis, with pressure maintained on the lead and trailing ski to keep them engaged and parallel. Unlike alpine skiing, where the majority of weight is directed to the outside ski, telemark skiers must maintain active ski-to-ski balance to ensure stability and effective ski performance. While more pressure will naturally shift toward the outside ski as speed and forces increase, the trailing ski must remain engaged to support the turn. The position of the hips over the feet, as part of the lower body, plays a crucial role in this balance.
Ski Performance
- Balancing between both skis allows the skier to maintain greater stability while managing the forces acting on them throughout the turn. However, as speed and forces increase the telemark skier will have more weight on the outside ski while keeping engagement on the inside ski.
- To fully utilize ski design, the skier must ensure both skis remain engaged by distributing weight between the lead and trailing ski while maintaining a smooth, continuous lead change.
- Keeping pressure distributed along the length of both skis ensures they remain parallel and engaged, preventing the inside ski from disengaging or diverging/ converging.
Body Performance
- Vertical movements of the legs help manage weight distribution from ski to ski, ensuring progressive and controlled transitions between turns.
- As speed and edge angles increase, the skier must use inside leg flexion to maintain angulation and ski-to-ski balance, rather than shifting excessive weight onto the outside ski.
- Angulation is created through rotational and lateral movements of the legs, allowing the upper body to remain stable while the lower body adjusts to terrain and turn forces.
By developing active ski-to-ski balance, telemark skiers can adapt to variable terrain, maintain stability at higher speeds, and enhance control throughout their turns.
Edging
In telemark skiing, coordinating all movements is essential to effectively increase and decrease edge angles throughout the turn. The legs initiate these movements, while the upper and lower body manage inclination to accurately control ski performance and shape the turn. Due to the ski-to-ski balance required in telemark, both skis must remain engaged, with edge angles adjusted progressively to maintain stability and grip.
Ski Performance
- The skier must increase the edge angle during the creation phase, continue to build edge angle through the control phase, and release the edge angle during the release phase to maintain a smooth, round turn shape with grip.
- As edge angle increases, the ski bends more due to its sidecut and camber. To manipulate turn shape, the skier must actively manage ski performance by controlling how much the ski flexes.
- Both the lead and trailing ski must maintain engagement, ensuring that the telemark stance does not cause the inside ski to flatten or diverge from the turn.
- To utilise the ski’s natural steering angle (determined by its sidecut and turn radius), the skier must progressively increase the edge angle throughout the turn.
Body Performance
- Lateral and rotational leg movements must be precise to initiate and control edging movements, keeping both skis engaged and working together.
- Controlling inclination through the COG is key, especially at higher speeds, where maintaining a balanced ski-to-ski relationship is critical for creating higher edge angles while staying stable.
- The upper body should remain stable, while the lower body actively adjusts to edge angles, ensuring smooth transitions between turns.
By coordinating these edging movements, a telemark skier can adapt to terrain, maintain edge grip, and shape turns effectively while preserving stability in a dynamic stance.
Steering
In telemark skiing, coordinating all four movements is essential to create and manage ski direction throughout all phases of the turn. Lateral and rotational leg movements initiate and control steering, while upper body discipline maintains separation and stability, ensuring efficient and controlled turns.
Ski Performance
- In all turn types, the skier must increase the ski’s steering angle during the creation phase and manage the steering angle during the control phase to shape the turn effectively.
- Similar to alpine skiing, the steering angle releases at the end of the turn; however, in telemark skiing, this release is accompanied by the lead change, which should seamlessly transitions into the next turn, setting both the steering angle and edge angle at the creation phase.
- The rate of steering must remain consistent with the skier’s desired turn size and shape, ensuring smooth and predictable movements.
- Due to the ski-to-ski balance required in telemark, both the lead and trailing ski must contribute to steering, while speed and forces mean more weight on the outside ski, active pressure management to both skis is necessary.
Body Performance
- Steering is primarily controlled through a combination of rotational and lateral leg movements, while the upper body remains stable to maintain separation and balance.
- To ensure accurate and effective steering, the skier must maintain centered balance through all phases of the turn, managing pressure between both skis to keep them engaged.
- The rate and range of leg rotation determines how quickly the steering angle is established and directly impacts the turn shape and size.
- As speed and forces increase, subtle adjustments in leg rotation and inclination help maintain control and flow between turns.
By refining steering movements and maintaining balanced engagement of both skis, a telemark skier can adapt to terrain variations, maintain stability, and execute smooth, controlled turns across all conditions.