Telemarking
The Telemark is originally from Norway Abfahrtsskitechnik , only the tops of the boots are fixed by a bond when. While skiing, the driver kneels on the ski on the uphill side (inside the curve) by lifting the heel of the back foot and pushing the downhill ski forward. Telemarking as a competition technique was introduced by the Norwegian Sondre Norheim (* 1825 in Morgedal , Norway; † 1897 in Denbigh, United States) at a ski jumping competition. He won the Iverslokken alpine skiing competition in Høydalsmo in 1868 , after having covered the 200 km journey from his home village mostly on skis.
Starting with skipatrols in Crested Butte , Colorado, USA in the 1970s, telemarketing technology has also experienced a revival outside of Scandinavia. The term telemarking emerged in a competition in 1888 to distinguish it from the alternative of the parallel turn technique by participants in the capital Christiania, later Oslo . The region from which Norheim originates was officially called Telemark in 1919 and became part of Vestfold og Telemark in 2020 .
Downhill technique
The downhill technique is characteristic of telemark skiing: every time you turn a corner, like a lunge, the foot alternately pushes forward with the new downhill ski. The other leg - the mountain ski - stays behind, the knee is pressed down towards the ski or snow, the heel lifts off the binding. The skis are guided in parallel throughout the curve.
equipment
Standard equipment for telemarking includes a pair of skis with telemark bindings, a stick or two, and a pair of shoes.
ski
While historical telemark skis were more like cross-country than downhill skis, modern telemark ski boots and stiffer bindings allow a wide selection. As with alpine skiing, z. B. used touring skis, race carvers or freeride skis. Most ski manufacturers stopped developing special telemark skis after it became clear that the requirements placed on a telemark ski hardly differ from conventional skis.
binding
A telemark binding only fixes the front of the shoe, the heel can move freely upwards. Many have a switchable tour function. This bypasses the pull of the binding, the shovel does not press itself under the snow when the foot is lifted, and enables effortless climbing on ski tours. Should the driver z. B. fall out of the binding in a fall, leash straps are recommended due to the lack of ski brakes to protect the ski from an uncontrolled descent. A distinction is made between three-pin binding, cable tie and NTN binding. The former was almost completely forced off the market by the latter two.
- With three-pin bindings, the beak of the shoe is fixed with the help of three small pins (the eponymous pins) and the side cheeks. The advantage is the lower weight and lower blade pressure. It takes a lot more balance and stamina to ride this bond.
- Cable ties run a cable around the heel in addition to the side jaws. A spring balancer, which is attached in the cable, under the shoe or in front of the shoe, depending on the manufacturer, ensures a certain tension. This makes it easier to control the ski even at higher speeds.
- The NTN (New Telemark Norm) system was invented by the Rottefella company in 2007, comprises two different models and has recorded a growing market share since its introduction. They fulfill the characteristics of a safety binding and have ski brakes. The binding follows a new concept and grips with a type of claw in the middle under the sole in a protruding groove, the so-called "second heel". Telemarkers appreciate this binding mainly because of its high stability. The initial point of criticism of the poor touring ability has now been resolved by introducing a second model.
Shoes
A fundamental distinction is made between hard shell shoes and leather shoes. The leather shoes that were common in the past are mainly used in Scandinavia for tours in less steep terrain and for longer excursions because of their lower weight and more comfortable fit. But they are also used for alpine descents by purists or nostalgics who are looking for the challenge of a more soulful driving style. Hard shell boots allow for tighter bindings with better power transfer and greater control between foot and ski. In the case of the hard shell shoes, a fold with flexible plastic in the toe area allows the shoe to kink, so that the mobility of the heel is improved. Cable ties and NTN bindings require different shoes, but there are now companies that have developed a combination shoe.
FIS competitions
→ Main article: Telemark World Cup
The international competitions in telemark sport are regulated and organized by the International Ski Federation FIS . A race is made up of the elements giant slalom, jump, roundabout and skating course: The RS corresponds to the alpine competition, but is interrupted by a jump. With this it is important to reach the wide line drawn by the race director. As a guideline, 20 - 40% of runners reach the required distance. So it is definitely a challenge that not every starter can manage. The roundabout is a 360 ° steep wall curve in order to reduce the speed of the runners for the subsequent approx. 25 - 100 m long skating route. There are penalty seconds, so-called penalties, which are added to the running time. Gate judges stand next to the barrel at regular intervals, note the number of errors and pass them on to the timekeeper by hand signals or radio. You get a penalty for every goal that is not passed using clean telemarketing technology and for landing after the jump without a telemark step. Failure to reach the minimum jump distance is sanctioned with three seconds. In order to prevent injuries, a test jump is compulsory while visiting the course. There are the following disciplines:
Classic
The longest and most strenuous discipline consists of a run of at least 1:40 minutes, with an average running time of three and a half minutes. The FIS specifies a ratio of 35% to 65% (± 5%) of skating to telemark and a maximum of two jumps. The exact division is left to the organizer and, due to the length required, mostly depends on the given site.
Sprint Classic
The sprint consists of two rounds which are between 0:50 and 1:10 minutes. The best 30 runners start the second run in reverse order, i.e. H. the leader of the first run starts in the second as 30. Here, too, there are giant slalom, jump, roundabout and skating section, with the latter taking place in the lower half of the run.
Parallel sprint
This discipline was introduced in the 2011/2012 season. It consists of two parallel runs, which are flagged red or blue throughout, a jump and the skating section. After a qualification run, the best 16 runners (8 women) compete against each other in the knockout system. Each pairing must master both runs to compensate for any disadvantages of one run. Penalties noted by the gate judges are displayed to the respective driver at the beginning of the skating route and influence their choice of route. Drivers who drove flawlessly may choose the shortest route, drivers with penalty seconds must take a detour marked according to the number of penalties. If a runner receives three or more penalties, he can take the shortest route, but 1.5 seconds are added to the final time.
Giant slalom
Same as the alpine giant slalom , but with a jump of approx. 25 meters, where the distance and landing are also assessed. This discipline has not been held in the World Cup since the 2011/2012 season.
Other competitions
In addition to the FIS events, there are innumerable, mostly locally oriented competitions, some of which have different forms.
There are strong references here to the new school ski scene, which in turn has adopted many competitive variants from the freestyle area of snowboarding .
Telecross
A certain number of telemarkers start here at the same time and try to be the first to reach the finish on the course, which is equipped with jumps, waves and banked curves. Here there is usually a running system, i. This means that the best of the respective races advance to various finals until the winner is determined.
The difference to ski cross is that the steep wall curves often have to be driven in telemark style or the jumps have to be landed that way. In addition, there is usually a curve or passage where the participants have to skate uphill or on the flat.
Big Air
As with new school skiing, there are points here for the most creative, cleanly executed and safely landed execution of a jump.
As in slopestyle and halfpipe competitions, the winner is usually determined in three rounds, of which the best round or the best two rounds are included in the evaluation.
Points are awarded for:
Rotations (English spins , usually named in the scene with the English name of the degree), e.g. E.g .: 1-fold rotation around the axis that leads from the head through the feet, 360 ° → "threesixty", "three" or also German "Dreier", "Dreisechziger" etc.
Salti (English flips , also usually expressed with the English name), z. E.g .: simple forward rotation around the body's center of gravity → "front flip", also just "front"
Grabs (English for grips with the hand at any point on the edge of a ski, here, too, Anglicized versions have established themselves in the terminology), z. E.g .: "Nose Grab", grip on the front quarter of the ski, or "Tail Grab", grip on the rearmost quarter of the ski
There are hundreds of different variants, depending on which hand (or both) has to be guided to which ski and which side of the ski, whether the skis are crossed or which position the legs are in.
Approach and landing If the jump is approached backwards ( switch or faky ), this increases the degree of difficulty. The same applies to the landing, whereby safety is also included here.
Overall impression (Engl. Overall impression ) The totality of rotations, flips and grabs (or other rotational directions and Grabs) gives a trick. In contrast to other sports, the evaluation can usually not be understood rationally, but depends more or less on the subjective point of view of the jury members. Depending on how the rotations and somersaults were combined, special tricks were performed, in which the creative axes were rotated, how clean and long the grabs were kept, there is an overall picture of the trick that is not purely of the technical difficulty and a clean one Landing depends.
Slopestyle
Similar to Big Air, only there is not just one jump, but several different types of jumps in the course of the course. In addition, there are so-called rails (in the end mostly around 5–15 m long, between 5 and 40 cm wide handrails or, depending on the width, boxes) made of wood, PVC or metal, which are driven over or slipped across the direction of travel ( slide , grind ) .
The winner of the Slopestyle showed as many different tricks as possible over the jumps and rails, used the entire course as creatively as possible (i.e. used as many different jumps and rails as possible) and demonstrated a high level of safety in all actions.
halfpipe
Similar to the competition of the same name with snowboarders or freestyle skis, the riders show tricks here. Driving is in a half tube made of snow. Here it is again important to show as different and creative tricks as possible, jump as high as possible out of the pipe and land safely.
literature
- German Association for Ski Teaching eV (2010). Telemark: curriculum, Interski Germany. Stuttgart: Pietsch, ISBN 978-3-613-50641-1 .
- German Ski Association (Ed.) (2003). Telemark curriculum: the kick with the kink. Self-published, ISBN 3-000-10481-X .
- Droste, Patrick & Strotmann, Ralf (2002). Telemark skiing . Meyer & Meyer, ISBN 1-841-26082-7 .
- Droste, Patrick (2007). Telemark. The kick with the free heel. Pietsch publishing house, ISBN 978-3-613-50554-4 .
