Learn the telemark turn: deep telemark stance, low-high turn, parallel turn. With measured data from telemark pros and an honest look at injury risk.
The telemark turn is a turn in a lunge: one leg forward, the other back, the heel stays free and both knees are bent [1]. Instead of loading the skis while standing, you change the leading leg during the turn – it feels more like walking than like alpine skiing.
How hard is it? The honest answer: harder than the parallel turn, because balance and strength are required in a deep position. How long you need, no study tells. What is certain: telemark technique is learned in stages. In a study of seven professionals comparing three turn types, the stages – as in the curriculum of the Polish Skiing Union – are: low-high turn for beginners, parallel turn for intermediates, rotational turn for experts [1].
Interesting: the beginner turn is the slowest. The skiers reached an average of 8.9 m/s (about 32 km/h) with a turn radius of 9.2 m there, in the parallel turn 14.2 m/s (about 51 km/h) at 13.4 m radius [1]. That means: if you start, you ski slower and tighter – and that is a good thing.
Place one ski in front of the other, bend both knees, leave the rear heel free. The study describes this as a forward–backward shift of the feet with simultaneous knee bending [1]. Milestone: you hold the stance calmly while standing and can swap the front leg.
If you come from alpine, you have to relearn a little: instead of loading both skis at once, you work with forward and back. Practise swapping while standing until it works without thinking – on snow, on flat terrain (practice).
Glide flat and straight in the stance. Your gaze goes forward, not at your feet. Milestone: you hold the stance for 20 seconds while gliding without wobbling. This value is experience, not a study value.
This is the entry: shortly before the turn you go low, which unloads the skis, you turn the skis out and come up [1]. Exactly there, when you rise, an unloading arises that makes the change easier [1]. You change the leading leg as you do. Milestone: five clean changes in a row on a blue run. Speak along while practising: “low – turn – up – swap”. It gives you a rhythm (practice).
Keep the skis parallel, about 10–15 cm apart – a good hand’s width – and shift your body slightly forward and towards the outside ski. This way the ski tails move more easily and you glide on both skis [1].
The low-high turn is slower and tighter, the parallel turn faster and wider [1]. Play with it: ski a slope first low-high, then parallel, and feel the difference.
Learn the leg change in the upward movement. Exactly at the highest point, when you rise, the skis are unloaded – there you can swap the leading leg effortlessly [1]. The authors of the measurement study infer that telemark turns might put less twisting load on the legs than alpine turns. That is an interpretation based on only seven professionals, not proof [1]. Take it as a memory aid: change at the top, not at the bottom.
A turn in a lunge with a free heel: one ski in front, one behind, both knees bent, and in the turn you change the leading leg. It feels more like walking than like alpine skiing, and it needs a binding with a free heel and boots that can flex at the toe [1].
From easy to hard: first the stance standing, then the low-high turn (beginners), then the parallel turn (intermediates), finally the rotational turn (experts). The beginner turn is slower and tighter: in the measurement study the professionals averaged 8.9 m/s at a 9.2 m radius there [1].
Not proven. That telemark might cause fewer injuries is a hypothesis of other researchers that the technique study itself does not test. In a Norwegian case-control study, telemark skiers even had an increased risk of shoulder injuries (OR 1.70). So take helmet, speed control and falling technique seriously [1][2].
Telemark skis with a telemark binding and boots that can flex at the toe. The free heel and toe flexion make the telemark stance possible. In addition come a helmet and poles; how your binding works and whether it releases is best explained to you by a specialist shop [1][4].
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