Favorite early season tele drills

[QuiverQueen]

As the ski season gets going here, I find it helpful to pull a few drills out of the back pocket, get things started out the right way. I have three tele drills that I really like: slow shuffling across a moderate slope through the turns, with a quiet upper body; delayed lead changes (i.e. rolling onto the "new" edge before physically changing leads); and monomarks for helping the back foot remember what it's supposed to do. Shuffling in particular really helps me to get balance dialed in.

Curious to see how other folks get ready for the real snow.

[Grant]

12 or 16 oz curls. Multiple reps.

[telorti]

12 or 22 oz micros. Multiple reps.

[Just Dan]

http://www.mtnathlete.com/subpage_details.php?subpage_ID=110

I didn't say I actually did them....but if I did pre-season this is what I'd do.

[cesare]

meh...

7890

[bergbryce]

Make fun if you will, but I've recently gotten into the 7 minute workout. There are free and cheap apps for your phone. You only need 7 minutes (can be expanded of course) a chair and a wall for the exercises. Includes lunges, squats, step ups and other core strengthening exercises. You can always scrape together 10 minutes to do the workout. Good for days when you don't have a couple hours to get outside and do something more fun.

The Nike Training Club app also has a lot of good workouts too. These take a bit of equipment, like a set of barbells and a medicine ball.

There won't be anything like snow here in some time, so might as well stick with trail running (the downhill part is really good for telemark training) and some biking.

[James]

Is there a difference in technique drills as mentioned by QQ and getting in shape?? It is comforting to see the Ttips topic drift again . I like those drills and should probably do more of them.

I tend to do more railroad tracks and pivot slips. As far as getting in shape for skiing we here in Colorado have plenty of time to ski on blue runs before the black runs open and climb early season snow before the mid winter powder starts to fly.

[cesare]

Too bad there's no facetious emoticon. There has been no greater advocate of leg blasters over the years than me. I just did four sets in 10 minutes.

[LightRanger]

Been hitting the legblasters lately too. Good stuff.

BB, here's the short full-body circuit workout I like: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/0...inute-workout/

[bergbryce]

BB, here's the short full-body circuit workout I like: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/0...inute-workout/

Yeah, that's the same one.

[SoMuchBetterThanU]

I stopped doing legblasters a while back. They make my knees hurt from the impact of repetitive jumping.

This has been far more effective and you can slow it and smooth it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89zpxT16NI

You can do it like he does but I've also progressed further with it. The part where he doesn't use weights is also a great way to work out weighting your rear foot at all times. Slow the technique down and make sure that you can allow whatever foot in front to tap the ground. Works great to get that feeling in your body and it transfers well once you get onto snow. I think it even teaches you that sensation even better than with skis on.

As for on snow, yeah, basic stuff. Garlands, pivot slips, mono marks, and most importantly tele shuffles and reverse-telemark/delayed lead changes.

[pow]

QQ, I like those drills also but mynumber one drill is front foot taps to make sure I am weighting the rear foot properly. It helps me get my stance dialed. Do a tele turn then lift your front foot off the snow and tap it on the snow a few times, turn, repeat with the other foot. Do the same while doing monomarks, then proceed to quicker monomarks, then delayed lead changes, then ski!

[Thumpa]

Article on another site: http://www.wildsnow.com/
Another good drill, ski early and often till it all melts.

[snowcreep]

It's interesting how the question of on snow drills usually migrates to fitness routines. I don't do any on snow drills but I know my weaknesses and focous on correcting them. Focus on weighting the back foot, focus on angulation, focus on shoulders. Edit: I'll refocus on these by going to a lower angle run where I can make corrections in body movement. For proper angulation I focus on touching my hip bone to my rib cage. That said, proper tele technique has a lot to do with level of fitness. I noticed in the leg blaster vid that the guy closest to the camera has great body position with his torso being erect through all the drills. The guy behind him is doing all the drills but leaning forward, he'll ski like this probably with all the weight on his front foot (unless he uses alpine binder ) I'm thinking this is caused by lack of core strenghth in his posterior chain....low back, glutes hammies. So the bottom line is its hard to separate technique from fitness for tele because proper tele form requires excellent fitness

[QuiverQueen]

QQ, I like those drills also but mynumber one drill is front foot taps to make sure I am weighting the rear foot properly. It helps me get my stance dialed. Do a tele turn then lift your front foot off the snow and tap it on the snow a few times, turn, repeat with the other foot. Do the same while doing monomarks, then proceed to quicker monomarks, then delayed lead changes, then ski!

Yeah, that's a good one. I would add it to my favorites...if it was easier to do! Good idea, think I'll do a few tomorrow. Or try.