Ski Forebody Pressure in the Telemark Turn

Forebody Pressure Revisited

"Balance should be on the ball of the foot to properly initiate the turn from the front of the ski"~~Adapted from the U.S. National Ski Team's Technical Statement ¹

August, 2004- Why do so many tele skiers consistently set up their turn with a strongly carved lead ski while their trailing ski invariably skids through the arc? As modern telemark technique and the gear we use continues to evolve, what can be done to make carved tele turns easier to learn for beginners? How can boots, bindings and skis be designed in such a way as to make powerful carved tele turns the norm rather than the exception?

As we began researching the subject, it quickly became apparent that there was really very little need to re-invent the wheel here; alpine skiers have been doing extensive research into ski turn dynamics for years. There is a plethora of data available which is easily adapted to the needs of the tele skier seeking to understand how to pressure both skis evenly (a key difference between alpine and tele), in the process feeling the stoke from the unique sensation of rhythmically carved telemark turns.

"Generally, it is desirable to start the pure carving action early in the turn. This will be possible only when the skier can establish "early pressure" with the dominant ski(s)....The skilled skier will do this while maintaining sufficient ankle bend to provide enough tip pressure so as to lead the carving ski(s) into the turn. ~Adapted from the U.S. National Ski Team's Technical Statement ²

Proficient alpine skiers pressure their big toe on their outside ski very early in the turn, generating tip pressure to initiate the carve, adding inside ski pressure later as snow and terrain conditions dictate. This can be seen clearly in video obtained using the Novel Pedar-X Mobile System.

The Pedar-X uses dozens of pressure sensors built into an insole. The sensors send their information to a data processing unit worn on the test subject's back, or around their waist. The data is then stored on recordable media like that used in digital cameras. Special software then takes the data, processes it and develops a representation of the pressure points, appearing over an outline of the foot alongside a real-time video of the skier as he moves through the turns.

At right, that's former USTSA Telemark Demo Team member Jimmy Ludlow getting rigged up with the Pedar-X system at Mt. Hood a couple of summer's ago.

While all the data from Jimmy's test has not yet been made public, we had an important observation ourselves that day. More on this later, but for now let's take a look at an alpine skier's pressure distribution, as observed and quantified using the Pedar-X Mobile System.

We can easily see here in this screen capture at right (click for larger version), that the alpine skiing subject is applying significant forebody pressure to his outside ski, seeking to apply tip pressure in an effort to lead his outside ski into the turn, in particular using his big toe to get that pressure out onto the ski's edge. As we would expect he's staying out of the backseat, while pressuring the ski tip there is very little heel pressure on the outside foot.

As would also be expected of a parallel style skier, he's keeping light but even pressure on his inside ski, which, from the Pedar-X data, would appear to be just enough to keep it from wandering around in this early stage of the turn.

Screenshots and video copyright Novel Corp.x

The next screenshot shows even more clearly how early the skier is applying tip pressure at the top of the turn, initiating the carve by using forward pressure.

When viewing the video notice how the skier applies almost as much forward pressure before even beginning to tip the skis on edge as he does late in the turn when he is really driving the outside ski.

This video clearly supports the point that early tip pressure is key to getting the outside ski ( as in an alpine style turn), or in the case of telemark, the skis (plural) carving, rather than skidding.

The value of getting forebody pressure on both the front and back skis at the top of the tele turn should be clear.

Less than 1mb AVI Video

"The center of pressure travelled from under the first metatarsal joint
down to under the medial part of the heel of the skiers, as they progressed through the turn....Force-time histories revealed that forces of up to 3 times body weight were attained during high performance recreational skiing."~~ from Analysis of the Distribution of Pressure Under the Feet Of Elite Alpine Ski Instructors³

So the data confirms that tip pressure at the beginning of turn initiation is an important component in making carved turns. And yet the concept of tip pressure on the rear ski has been generally ignored in tele instruction. For instance in the carving segment from the Freetime video, the narrator instructs the budding freeheel carver to weight the skis by "rolling the ski on edge at the tip of the lead ski, and moving the pressure to the tail as you sink into the turn." Sounds good, but how about pressuring the tip of the back ski too? Wouldn't it follow that if we want to carve both skis in the telemark turn we need to find a way to get some pressure on the forebody of the trailing ski as well?

The answer, of course, would seem to be yes, but there is a problem. Most tele skiers have struggled for years just to get enough weight on the back ski to keep it from wandering around while turning and during transitions. As one well known industry wag recently drawled before his surprising departure from the scene, "most of the tele skiers I see are just trying to keep the darn thing (the rear ski) from getting in the way....well, at least most of the time anyway."

Aggressive and proficient tele skiers have often developed various approaches to getting more weight and their forefoot onto the back ski. Many of these approaches have been labelled as "styles" and have been considered part of an appealing diversity in tele skiing. Perhaps the dirty little secret of modern tele technique is that these "styles" have been developed out of necessity rather than expression. Tele stances that include the very low "knee to the ski" approach leave very little room for dynamic absorption in bumps and in irregular terrain. Another example would be the old "butt sitting on the back foot" low tele style that brings to the skier the worst of the "knee to ski" approach, while adding some serious loading to various essential parts of the human knee, including the ACL. The "the butt on back foot" approach also makes it hard to get tip pressure on the front ski as the tele rider now finds himself way out of optimal balance due to being so far into the back seat. Typically these skiers do harness a lot of power out of the their rear ski, but it comes at a high price: the required thighs of steel being one, risk of injury being another.

And make no mistake, maintaining a centered, technically balanced tele stance while getting even close to the goal of 50/50 front and back ski weighting is a very difficult thing to accomplish.

Enter Jimmy Ludlow as the first and only witness we need to make this latter point. As former member of the US National Telemark Racing Team, a tele racing coach and clinician, as well as a former PSIA Tele Demo Team member, few would argue that Jimmy lacks any of the tools necessary to make a technically solid telemark turn.

As previously mentioned, Ludlow had the opportunity to ski a few runs with the Pedar-X Mobile System at Mt. Hood while being video taped during the data acquisition process. The results we saw were surprising.

Above are two laptop computers, the one on the left is a real time display of the various foot pressure readings obtained from the special Pedar Mobile sensor-equipped insoles in Ludlow's boots.

The other portable computer runs the video of Jimmy aggressively skiing the groomed runs of Mt. Hood in summer. The video is synchronized to the foot pressure data display.

In this shot Jimmy is in the bottom of his turn, extremely well balanced fore and aft, with the kind of perfect form that can be duplicated by few.

Almost startlingly, the enlarged view at left of the actual foot pressure readings, recorded at the exact moment in the video, reveal that Ludlow has barely 37% of his weight on his rear ski! And that rear ski pressure even along the ski's edge from tip to tail, with no indication that significant tip pressure is being applied to the rear ski at the top of the turn.

The implications of this are many.

Perhaps the most important question to arise out of the Ludlow data is this: if a tele skier with hips perfectly balanced over his skis, riding on perfectly groomed snow and with a skill set that few can match, still has just 37% of his weight on his rear ski, what chance do the rest of us have to nail the elusive 50/50 tele weighting in variable off piste snow? In the backcountry?

And while we might resort to some for of the modified tele stances mentioned earlier such as "knee to ski" or "butt on boot" to even things up a bit, these stance modifications do little to address just where that rear ski weighing is applied along the ski edge during turn initiation.

So where does all of this leave us? Well, if you are a tele outsider like Glen Plake, positioned as a moderator between Craig Dostie and Mike Hattrup in that incredibly goofy debate at SIA last year, the one with the title "Is it the boots or the bindings holding tele back?," you might come up with the same conclusion the great mohawked-one arrived at when he cackled that famous laugh and said, "man you guys have got problems."

And so it would seem. Yet tele skiers with active bindings such as, BD's new O2, the Cobra (when the springs care cranked down), the rather uniquely designed Bishop Bomber, and especially owners of the Hammerhead with its aggressively place pivot positions, these users consistently report being able to carve their back ski solidly like never before while achieving unprecedented power and control. And our own forebody pressure test from the fall of 2002 confirms that the more active bindings allow the tele skier to apply a measured amount of forebody pressure to the rear ski during turn initiation.

But now we have another problem. Really active bindings don't tour well without making time consuming, sometimes even tedious adjustments. And at the time of this writing, the only tele binding to offer a quick off/on, touring and down hill skiing mode switch is the 7tm, and somewhat ironically, the 7tm is one of the most neutral bindings available, among those that need this feature the least.

Here's what we would like to see from a binding using the Pedar-X Mobile System in the future. An active tele binding that allows the telemark skier to pour on the forebody pressure when needed, setting up a strong carve for both skis, right out of the box! And we'd like the active binding that gives us the following pressure signature at the top of the tele turn to have an on/off touring switch as well. Can it be done? Why not?

Right turn:

Left foot trailing but able to hammer on forebody pressure

Right foot lead

Lastly, for many of you who worry about that old bugaboo, tip dive, which sometimes rears it's ugly head when active tele bindings are used in soft, deep snow...... Again, we turn to our Alpine buddies for guidance. but before we do that we should add a few tips we have gathered ourselves. First, close up your stance. Doggy legging that rear ski is an invitation to tip dive suffering. Two, make quick lead changes, as the skis start to slow they tend to stall and dive. Keep your speed up with fast, aggressive lead changes. Finally, let's again turn to our alpine bretheran for guidance. Here's what coach Harold Harb has this to say on tip dive:

Harold Harb on Tip dive: "So, how do you keep your tips from diving, sending you castor over tea-kettle into a foot of fresh? MacArthur suggests practicing flexing and extending while in a neutral position (i.e., neither forward nor back). Start out on a relatively flat, groomed slope, without making any turns, then graduate to a low-angle run and incorporate some nice, easy turns while staying centered over your skis. Then when you hit the deep stuff, establish a rhythm in which your skis are moving down the slope as well as across, which will help you control your speed and manage your skis to avoid the dreaded tip dive. And if you really do need to raise your ski tips, do so by lifting your toes and the ball of your foot. That way you can pressure the back of your skis without moving your whole center of gravity back."--From Harb Ski Systems⁴

Conclusion: For telemark skiers who wish to explore the most progressive aspects of tele turn technique and the power potential many participants are just beginning to understand and utilize, active bindings would seem to offer a brave new world of control on the steeps as well as tremendous potential for laying out phat carves on more moderate slopes. The data and observations above on rear ski forebody pressure is an attempt to explain why this is so.

It would also seem that active bindings shorten the learning curve (and we've seen this happen many times), making it possible for more folks to have more fun, more quickly. After making the transition to active bindings even some of the strongest tele skiers we've met will comment along the lines of, "I can make any binding do the job, but I just don't want to work so hard anymore to get hooked up, and to find the groove."

Of course others will disagree, finding that a more neutral binding works best for their stance and style. And while this is part of what makes the sport so unique and interesting, exploring the mechanics of the tele turn and the unique requirements of its ever-evolving gear is also a big part of the fun as well.

¹ http://www.inues.com/tech/page.html

² http://www.teamkillington.com/tech/page.html

³ http://www.isbs98.unit-Constance.de/Abstracts/lafontaine2.PDF

⁴ http://www.harbskisystems.com/olb2.HTM

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