[Kees]

looks good. Very little poodle factor, great!. Maybe you go a bit too low, which only exhaustst you quicker without any benefits.

[JustinB]

Nice job. To follow Gwen's advice to me last fall: Relax a little more in the ankles. I enjoyed myself to a much geater extent by simply relaxing. You got the technique.
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Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.

[JohanP]

[chucky gross]

skier 5,
you ski smoothly.
there is nothing wrong with skiing low, BUT......
you are low and back. weighting your back foot way too much. To improve, chucky recommends that you roll your hips forward.
You need to get your hips directly above both feet.
it is clearly evident that your hips are way back by the way your front ski is off the snow and projecting way far out in front of you.
good luck,
seeyain bohemia!
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don't believe the hype!

[General Telemark]

Yea, nice smooth skiing, great upper body, nice and straight but; if you want to ski until you are 50 I would recommend getting a bit higher. In the second section of the vid you seem to make your turn and then settle down on your knee (the first section you seemed to be skiing higher?). You make a lot of work on yourself and also give yourself no room for absorption. That would be a knee and back killer in the bumps. Also, skiing really low looks cool but there is a tendency to 'hinge' that back foot rather than pressure it thus loosing some control. Another advantage to skiing higher is that the transitions can come quicker.

[mntfreak]

skier 5, how did you get Chewbacca to film you?

or did you accidently record the mating sound of a sasquatch.

good skiing by the way. I would agree you are doing a lot of up and down so i would try to work on quick turns fine tune your style.

[dana]

Skiing that low makes it nearly impossible to get enough edge angle on the rear ski. From that position all steerring pressure at the knee causes the rear ski to skid. Weight the rear ski strongly, but move your hip sideways during the lead change to get bigger edge angle, and only sink lower as you feel the rear ski carving. This will make more powerful turns using less muscle, and you won't be sinking as low into the turns.

uiet hands and upright upper body tells me that you have the skills and coordination to do it! (I especially like the quick quiet wrist-flick pole plants. The are very well balanced, and there is no big arm motion "stab the mountain" moves here!)

[climbhoser]

So far I definitely agree with all that's been said: stand a little higher, weight a little more forward but I would give you this one differing piece of advice: While I wouldn't call what you're doing full fledged poodling the one thing that can change is for you to pull your front foot back and underneath you a little more. You want enough of an angle in your front leg that your knee is above your toes. I like also to have my rear knee somewhere in the proximity of an even line straight down to the arch of my front foot or even further forward.

This can be achieved by, getting your weight forward and pulling your front foot back a touch. Other than that, good use of the rear ski to carve!

[Randy]

One area to work on -- flex the forward ankle more. It appears that you are leaning back against the boot. This works OK on smooth terrain and at slower speeds, but when you try to go faster or over bumper terrain -- you'll end up in the back seat and have less control. Work to always be pressuring the front of both boot cuffs -- e.g. pressure on the shins -- not on the calf. One way to visuallize this is to think about pressing your knee down toward your toes.

Another thing to work on -- that will help you ski steeper terrain. Your pattern is to turn, transition, turn, transition, turn. To make the tighter turns needed on steeps -- you'll want to be able start the next turn while transitioning. e.g. don't wait until you've stood up completely and switched leads before changing edges -- work toward starting that edge change as you start to rise up out of the previous turn. Monomarks (e.g. multiple turns with NO lead changes) are classic drill for learning this movement pattern.

[David]

Smooth skiing, excellent balance and stability.

Interesting how several people said essentially the same thing several different ways. Move your weight forward, move your hips forward, move you lead ski back a little, press forward with your shin on the tongue of the boot on the lead sk, flex the ankle on the lead ski more. It's good to have things expressed multiple ways, because hopefully one will click and work. If I don't actively think about it and try to correct it, I tend to do what skier 5 is doing, which is not get my weight far enough forward, or not bring the lead ski back a little to get more ankle flex on the lead ski. I guess that is not as bad an error as not properly weighting the rear ski, but it is definitely holding me back from going to the next level, and I need to come up with a good way to break the habit. I've been thinking of setting the forward lean on my boots to the most agressive position, and see if that trains me to stay more forward without thinking about it.

I like Randy's visualization of thinking about pressing your knee down toward your toes - I'm going to try it and see if it works for me.
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AIBOHPHOBIA - Fear of palindromes

[telebelly]

Great hands, good angulation and general body position and your definitely not a little too low. You are way too low. Think parralel quads. I think then all the other comments like bringing the front ski back will then fall into place. I think being that low causes a lot of the symptoms the other guys pointed out.

That low a position encourages the feet to get too far apart, causes exagerated up down, does not allow any or minimal absorption of bumps and makes it very difficult to make turns quickly because you will need a lot of room and motion to get into the next turn.

But geez, you got the skills. I'll bet if you stand more upright, you'll get the feel really quickly. Send us another vid after a few days of standing up.
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see ya

[RobDude]

Looks like your actually getting good edge on the front ski! I agree w/ the others - too low and back on the back ski. Your kneee is almost on the ski in the second section. Try to keep your upper thighs closer together (almost touching?).

Also, your uphill hand seems to be draggining behind. Try to keep your uphill hand out in front with your other hand - this will help the hip angulation and keep you facing downhill more.
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A foof, a man, a plan, a canal, Panama, foofa!

[granpa]

Everyone here is pretty much right on.

Take a look at Advance Lesson Video #4 "Improving your tele stance" at the bottom of the web page.

http://www.telemarktips.com/Lessons3.html

Tele Tom talks about a high vs. low stance and gives a good demonstration. The sound might not help.

While your current stance works well on smooth slopes, it will be a lot harder on steeper slopes with bumps.

Good hand position/motion but no pole plant. On bumps, you will want to start by planting the pole on the top of the downhill bump

Obviously a very strong skier.

[Tom S.]

It looks like Skier 5 has been watching the Ryan Boyer and Chuck Gross videos.

I agree, check out Tele Tom's video for more on the advanatges of standing a little taller.

[JimBob]

Is it just me or are your poles a little long for the stance that you've choosen. You seem to stand up to high during the transition between your turns. This rising up is caused by your hands being high because your poles may be too long. See if they are no longer than your navel - belly-button.

I find that a shorter pole will allow me to stay down and change edge without having to rise up. Try to ski without your poles for a run or two and see if you rise up as much. This also can improve your balence and weight skis evenly.

Hope my English isn't too complex. I know that it's alot better than my Bohemian
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Life is like skiing it's mostly downhill with a few times when you need to rise to the occasion.