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Alpine Race Coach Teaches
Kids Telemark to Win More Races
Mammoth's Jimmy Morning
teaches his young racers to telemark and says it makes them faster,
stronger skiers
Story, photos
and video by Mitch Weber
December, 2009-- Last season I had the pleasure of taking
a few runs with race coach Jimmy Morning, along with nearly two
dozen young alpine racer kids participating in Jimmy's "Tele
Tuesdays" program at Mammoth Mountain. It was great
fun watching the kids tear around, making tele turns and having
a blast trying out that free heel-specifc stance my Norwegian
friend Jon used to call "doggie style," kneeling on
the skis and grabbing the tips with their hands. Laughing and
crashing and throwing snowballs at each other even though it
was a cold winter afternoon, these kids were obviously at home
on the snow, and in a special way.
On the lift I asked Jimmy how he
came to have such a large group of kids on teles. "I started
with a couple of kids a few years ago, and as their telemark
skiing improved so did their times through the gates," said
Jimmy. "One of them in particular really came on and started
to win all his alpine races. This boy's parents felt strongly
that learning to tele was a big factor in their son's success
and soon other parents were coming to me asking me to teach their
kids to tele as well." Jimmy continued, "we don't always
have as big of a group as we have today, but the Tele Tuesdays
program has definitely been a big success."
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Having just gone up to the hill for
a couple of hours of laps and exercise, I hadn't brought a camera
along, which was unfortunate because I was intrigued by Jimmy's
story and happy to see so many freeheel kids having about as
much fun as I have ever seen anyone have on snow. Fast forward
9 months to a few weeks ago. Early season storms were beginning
to line up and and the stoke was on. There was a lot of skiing
to be done as friends and family rolled into and out of town.
By the time things settled down, I was feeling pretty ragged
and battling a nasty flu bug. After a couple of feverous down
days I decided to head up to the mountain for some laps and a
little exercise. The fresh air would do me good. For some reason,
I grabbed my camera bag. |
 .Teaching Race
Kids To Tele |
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Here's a
few minutes with Jimmy Morning and the kids... apologies for
the raspy voice and all my gasping
for air, I was still pretty hammered, but yes, happy to have
brought the camera... |
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This time when I ran into Jimmy
I would be prepared. He had a few kids with him and another race
coach. For the coach and one of the kids it would be their first
time on teles. I pulled out my camera and as we rode up the lift
together I asked Jimmy to tell us a bit about his tele program,
what the kids gain from freeing their heels, and why he thinks
it has been such a hit with the kids. I listened in as he told
the kids they can start out by making their regular parallel
turns, he told them to keep their hands out front "for protection"
from the dreaded over the bars tele face plant, prompting one
of the kids to ask, "can I still lean into my boot cuffs"
to pressure the front of the ski? I smiled. Jimmy went on, "yes,
everything is the same." I smiled again. It won't be until
these "outside ski" alpine racers try to learn the
"inside ski" tele turn that they'll need to worry about
the differences. By then they'll be hooked, I thought, and smiled
yet again.
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