Nobody ever said that Telemark skiing is easy. It has never been and never will be. And that is one of the sport's stimuli. With a few tips (ideally from a Telemark instructor), you can save a lot of power and avoid many crashes. For the first dry runs (even possible to be done in the living room), we collected some of the basics for novices.

1. Your backside should be approximately above your rear heel. To fi nd the right position, sit down on your rear foot heel completely and then get up halfway. Now the position is perfect.

2. Front leg is always a little bent; the knee barely keeps you from seeing your tiptoes. Beginners usually tend to stretch the front knee too much. Your weight in the basic position should rest on the entire sole of your front foot, not only on the heel.

3. Your hands are on the side of your body and al- ways (!) within your fi eld of view. If you ski with a goggle, your view may be a little limited. As soon as you cannot see your own hand anymore, it is either too far back or too low. The position of your hands controls your entire weight distribution, that’s why it is so impor- tant!

4. Pole plants are done relaxed and straight out of your wrist. The tip of the pole should be planted about 15 cm behind the tip of the ski, do not move your arms too much – this would only cause your upper body to move too much.

5. Your back should rather be upright, avoid a hunch- back. It simply looks cooler and it will leave more tolerance to compensate moguls and edges, and in addi- tion it will help you save a lot of power.

6. The distance between your feet should measure about the length of a boot between the tip of the rear foot and the heel of the front foot. If the distance is too long, your will lose the pressure on the rear ski and it will start to become unstable. If the distance is too short, you cannot make a clean telemark turn – it will most likely turn out to be some kind of an alpine turn.

7. Even weight distribution on both legs (50/50). Watch out: if this is done the right way, it will feel more like having too much weight on the rear foot (ac- tually feels like 70/30). Especially when making turns with lots of inline to the inside, you should make sure that there is enough weight on the inner ski. This is one of the most prominent differences compared to alpine skiing, where the majority of the weight lies on the outer ski.

EXERCISES

Sit down on your heel completely

Switch front legs during a schuss in flat terrain

Reach into the snow with your hand next to the front boot on the hillside

Hold your poles horizontally in front of your body