Note regarding B-tele: Thank you for visiting the telehiro YouTube channel.
Well, most of the videos showing skiing using the B-tele method are from
2020 onwards. Regarding videos before that, I classify them as A-tele or
A+. I'm the one skiing in a video from over 10 years ago, and I'm skiing
in yesterday's video, but what I'm trying to intentionally challenge changes
all the time. So that we can look back and see it as evolution. If you
would like to discuss B-tele, please do so based on recent videos. Above
all, I think the illustrations are the most helpful.
A is that skiing is all about turns. B: When skiing, the first step is to operate the brakes. A is that the brake is involved in the turn. B is a combination of independent braking and direction changes. A is to wait for the brakes to work before entering the next turn. B allows you to operate the brakes regardless of the turn, so you don't have to wait. Therefore, A tends to have a larger turn arc. B can be either small or large. A is that the steep slope is difficult. B: Braking is easier on steep slopes than on gentle slopes. A is to put your weight on the board. Pushing and pulling the board is B. So far, both alpine skiing and telemarking are common. In telemark, A-tele and B-tele. A-tele worships telemark stance. Or cosplay. . B-tele focuses on the advantage of tools. In other words, it must be heel-free or low-cuff boots. While the A-tele's highlight is the unique telemark stance in the latter half of the turn, the B's highlight is the split second of the transition and subsequent modest braking maneuvers. A-tele's bold movements are cool. On the other hand, the quiet movement of B-tele is also cool. However, if I'm skiing in a mountain with complicated conditions, I'll descend in B-tele mode.
Let's start with the center of mass. Center of mass here means the center
of the skeleton. When I tried shaking it, it was the part that didn't shake
the most. I assume that it is probably under the lungs or in the solar
plexus. Joints at the same distance from this point move in the same way
in pairs. Well, imagine that. For example, the shoulder bones and pelvis.
For example, elbows and knees. For example, wrists and ankles. It is easy
to bend your elbows and knees at the same time, but the movement of bending
your elbows while extending your knees can be momentarily confusing. Also,
the bone block near the center of mass is large, and as you move away from
it, it becomes thinner, smaller, and finer. The same goes for the amount
of muscles, muscles, and tendons involved. There are a small number of
large bones and large muscles in the center of the body. There are many
small bones and many tendons at the ends of the body. I draw this diagram
on the whiteboard and then I say: Make sure your power comes from the center
of your body. However, there is a problem: the large mass of bones and
muscles in the center is stupid. Powerful but stupid. On the other hand,
the feet and hands are made up of numerous joints and small bones, and
although they may not be able to exert great force, they are dexterous
and smart. This is the relationship between the center and the edges of
the body. therefore! The role of the hands and feet is to explore and perceive
the situation, and the role of the bones and muscles in the center of the
body is to generate force. Can you imagine it somehow? Let's take it one
step further from here. I think there are all sorts of things to consider
when trying to improve your skiing, but focusing on the direction of your
hips or shoulders, for example, is not an effective method. The reason
is that my hips and shoulders are stupid. It's a part that's hard to recognize
on your own. Therefore, even if the instructor points it out, it cannot
be corrected immediately. It's impossible in the first place. If anything,
I think the problem lies in the lack of education of the instructor who
points out that part. On the other hand, what about hands and feet? ``Raise
your index finger~'' Everyone will immediately do the same. This is what
it means to be smart. Well, it's time for the conclusion. Downhill skiing
requires a lot of strength. That power comes from the center of your body.
It would be more continuous if the output could be generated from skeletal
movements rather than muscles. An easy mistake to make is to focus on the
center of the body and try to move it directly and consciously. This is
a difficult task. The correct answer is to hold the output switch and scale
on your hands and feet. Focus on smart hands and feet, use them as commands,
and control output from the center. This is my B-tele. Specifically, we
focus on how to move around the feet, which is expressed as "CHUô"
in Japanese. Unfortunately, this can only be expressed face-to-face. .
Telemark skiers seem to be bad at talking about technique. why? I have a hypothesis. The hypothesis is that there is no goals to aim for. So, what is the goal of someone who has started telemark skiing? So, without calling it a goal, what would you say is your immediate goal? Perhaps it is the completion of a stable telemark turn based on the telemark position. You opened those legs back and forth. And, unexpectedly, that immediate goal turned out to be a dead-end goal...and even now, more than ten years later, you havn't grown much since then. . How do you react when someone says this? gHave you not only been acting a telemark position?h And in fact, perhaps you are dimly aware of it? The goal of skiing and the goal of acting are not the same. If the way they skied with their legs spread apart was on the same line as the goal of skiing, they would be able to openly discuss techniques well. What about reality? Perhaps,50% of people put effort into acting. Half of the remaining people who have completed that stage are struggling to approach the strength of alpine skiing, and half are starting to perform again with weaker equipment. This is my analysis. Including in YouTube. Now then, what exactly is the goal of skiing? It can be explained like this. ``It's what comes after leveraging the advantages of equipment.'' There is a goal reached by alpine skiers with well-secured, high-cut alpine boots. On the other hand, there is the goal of telemark skiing with a heel-free system. There will also be a light XCD. I've been thinking about what it would be like to express the surroundings close to that goal in one catchy word. Please listen first. When it comes to alpine skiing, it's "strength" and "violence." When it comes to telemarking, it's ``dexterity'' and ``softness.'' If this were to become a reality, don't you think it would be a wonderful place to live? And how foolish it is to try to make telemark skiing closer to alpine skiing. One more thing. Regarding telemarking, it is possible to open the legs forward and backward as a characteristic of the equipment, and it is considered to be an icon and a must, but unfortunately it is not an advantage in downhill. One of the advantages appears when both feet are together. Please take a look at the "B-tele" icon I'm talking about. For example, if we set "dexterity" and "softness" as goals, how do we proceed from there? Why not think about it?
There are two elements to braking is skidding and burying. Use skidding
on hard slopes, and burying ski in thick snow conditions. The key point
here is that both skidding and burying tech primarily use the mountain
side ski. By streching the body joints, you can push and bend the ski.
An interesting point here is that only the back half of the ski is bended.
This means that it is not bended eitire ski. The technical part here requires
a little more explanation, but I'll omit it here. Now, after blaking, shorten
the body joints and return the ski. It will instantly we are in air and
the speed up. If there is a twist in advance, it will rotate instantly.
In other words, if you strech your leg and push the mountain side ski to
the twisting direction, the ski will automatically rotate quickly when
you return it. It's in the air, and fast.
Turns are often talked about when it comes to downhill skiing techniques.
In other words, it's about the turn arc. It's true that turning itself
is fun and thrilling, as I am too. However, when looking at technique as
a ski instructor, the most important thing is control your speed not brush
up the arc of turn. And, at the risk of sounding rude, there is no relationship
between turn arc and speed control. That is my position. You'll be surprised,
right? So I'll explain. The key to speed control is brake operation. This
means that the brakes work properly, or that you can control the strength
or weakness at will. If you do this, the speed will naturally increase.
I think speed control means braking (deceleration) control on slopes where
the physics of falling occur . It will accelerate if you do nothing. .
When it comes to braking, there are two patterns: one is waiting for the
speed to drop, and another is able to reduce the speed at will. The former
are people who think ski is turn. After his speed has dropped nicely, he
starts his next turn. In other words, the waiting type. They can ski up
to intermediate slopes, but are not good at steep slopes. In the first
place, on a slope of over 40 degrees, would you choose to turn? Maybe we
use skidding way and slide down. Yes, the speed control technique that
can be used on steep slopes can be said to be a general-purpose braking
technique. Here, we are talking about skidding. This is effective in hard
snow conditions. On the other hand, some conditions is powdery or crusty,
and thick. In this case, once the ski is sinked, it will become difficult
to move. So what can we do to slow down? All you have to do is bury your
skis. When your ski sinks, you lose speed. Many people may have had the
experience of ¨ sudden speed reduction ¨ falling. There are two reasons.
One is because it will bury the entire ski. To be more specific, the entire
ski sinks, and the resistance in the front half of the ski is applied as
a brake. That's why I get caught. It's best to bury not the entire board,
but the back half from the boots. And the second reason is because of riding
by own waight. In other words, it's because your own weight is ski buried.
Weight remains constant. If you convert waight from to pressure, the adjustment
of burying will be at will. The words for exercise are "push"
and "pull." You can adjust the amount of burying by touching
it. And that leads to controlling speed. In other words, bury ski and slow
down. Float and speed up. Bury the tail of the ski to slow down, float
it to speed up. Actually, the skidding mentioned earlier is also the same.
Slide the tail to apply brake, return to release. It may come as a surprise,
but the foot that plays this role is the ``mountain side ski' when you
stand sideways on a slope.And using is the back half of outside edge. This
is important. In the first place, it is not the downhill side ski that
controls the brakes. Well, let's summarize. The important thing is not
the turn arc but the brake control. The skis on the mountain side play
the main role of braking. Using back half of the outside edge of the mountain
side ski. On hard slopes, skidding here will control the brakes. In thick
snow, this part is buried to provide resistance and act as a brake. A brake
is something you operate. Manipulate strength and weakness. Apply the brakes
instead of waiting for them to apply. For this purpose, it is effective
to convert from a weight on movement to a push&pull movement. And this
is where the advantage of being heel-free systems comes into play.
Compared to alpine skis, heel-free skis can make turns with a smaller turning
radius. This is because the axis of rotation can be made straighter. This
is because when you do a contraction motion, your heels are raised, allowing
your knees to be positioned in front of you, which allows you to keep your
feet directly under your upper body. The line connecting this upper body
and both legs is the axis of rotation. A straight axis of rotation describes
the smallest arc. The image looks like it's spinning on the spot. By the
way, the movement of shrinking and becoming smaller is different from the
movement of crouching down. The moment it shrinks, the ski is in the air.
It spins best in the air. From the outside it may look like a momentary
movement. Changing this to a medium or long turn is really easy as all
you have to do is slow down this movement. By the way, the body must be
stretched before the action of shortening the body. As I mentioned earlier,
I apply the brakes by stretching my body. By stretching the joint of your
foot on the mountain side, power is transmitted from your ankle to the
ski, causing the tail of the ski to skid, which acts as a brake. In deep
snow, the tail becomes buried and also acts as a brake. Extend your body
when braking, and contract your body when rotating.
iŞjCan you see that the inside ski TOP is higher than the outside ski TOP?
I am simply distinguishing between telemarks as ``A-tele'' and ``B-tele,''
and this is not the general way of thinking in Japan. First, this is an
important point. B-tele is my original idea, and it took me about 25 years
as a ski instructor specializing in telemark skiing to come up with this
idea. I have attached some materials with ideas, so I hope they help you
understand. I would like to say a little about A-tele here. What is A-tele?
All ideas other than B-tele are A-tele. In other words, all general telemarks
are all A-tele. Of course, this includes technical theory and teaching
methods. And I didn't create B by denying A. My exact position is that
there is A and B. Because A exists completely. In other words, it has existed
for a long time. After gaining the judgment of time, what we have now is
A. And there is a reason why it continues to exist. There's a reason why
you lower your hips and spread your legs forward and back. Is it really
a physical reason, or is it something more internal than that? For example,
something is simply fun! Excited! Or maybe it's difficult and I like it.
It feels like I'm doing it compared to alpine skiing, etc. In any case,
A exists. In the past, I also swam in this A, and worked as a ski instructor
because I thought it would be better to do something like this or something
like that in A. Generally speaking, how can that unique style and telemark
position be stabilized in turns? Or perhaps he was devising the meaning
of opening his legs forward and backward from various possibilities. In
any case, the main premise is that there is a turn arc. How can we apply
telemark position to the process of shaping the turn arc? Well, at the
time, I thought it was the role of a telemark ski instructor to think about
that and communicate that. Fortunately, I am able to look back like this
because I was able to jump out to B, but if I hadn't been able to do so,
I would have continued swimming in A without even realizing that I was
there. Now, this is getting long, but I would like to talk about how I
was able to build B outside of A. The motivation was this question."You
don't want to make turn arcs on such a steep slope right below the mountain
ridgeline. It's super dangerous."On a icy steep slope, you'll start
off by using skidding. Yes,Is it necessary to teach techniques that cannot
be used on steep slopes? I think the techniques that can be used should
be the basis. Moreover, if you open your legs back and forth in a scene
like this, it's over. Is it okay to raise the heel of the foot on the mountain
side? Well, first of all, what is a turn? And do you need a telemark position?
The steep slope made me question the turn itself. Resort slopes do not
have such steep slopes. This realization came from skiing in the mountains.
Now, what is necessary for downhill skiing is brake operation. People who
are good at braking are good at controlling speed. B-tele method was built
with a focus on brake operation alone. A is the turn arc. B is the brake.
B is suitable for all conditions and environments. And in B, telemark skiing
is superior to alpine skiing in a number of ways!! I think this is a gift
that I realized thanks to making B. A indicates its value in terms of slope
and environment where you can enjoy turning arcs. For example, resort ski
slopes. Comfortable slopes and safe environment. Let's actively enjoy turns
or turn arcs. So is speed. It may be an exaggeration, but it's a little
violent. On the other hand, the world of B-tele is quieter, softer, and
has a lighter touchness. A and B. Itfs good to have both! I wrote it for
a long again...
About lead change. B-tele does not have that word or its equivalent movement.
Do you feel uncomfortable when I say that? Actually, there isn't one. But
if you watch the YouTube video, you can clearly see that the front and
back are swapped after each turn. That's called lead change! I understand
what you are saying. But as expected, there are no intentional movements
or words. This is because skiing is not considered based on the arc of
the turn. As mentioned several times, B-tele's method is built around brake
operation. What exactly is the brake operation? This means "skid"
for hard slopes and "bury" for thick snow. And for the part that
you see as a turn, and even the lead change part, in my opinion, the appropriate
word is "Spin." Quick change of direction. Both feet at the same
time. It's in the air. After that, use the skis on the mountain side to
brake and adjust your speed with a mixture of "skid" and "bury."
At this time, the ankle part of the foot on the mountain side is pushed
down in a diagonal direction, so if you wear high-cut boots that make it
difficult for your ankle to move, your heel will look raised, whereas if
you use low-cut boots that have a loose ankle, your heel won't rise as
much. It looks similar to the way you push with your ankles. The appearance
of whether the heel is raised or not just depends on the boots you are
wearing in B-tele. It is by no means intended for a close or wide stance.
So far, this is all about skiing on the mountain side, which is responsible
for applying the brakes. So what about the ski slopes on the valley side?
This is just being pushed forward. As a result of being pushed out, it
is positioned in front. What comes to the position before being pushed
out and becomes the position to be pushed out? Skiing on the mountain side
after a spin. If you push the ski on the mountain side by stretching your
legs (your whole body), your foot on the valley side will move forward.
In fact, this recognition of "forward" is important, as it indicates
what's ahead of you. Naturally, since you are stretching the mountain side
(inner) leg, the valley side (outer) leg will also be stretched. You can
stretch your legs and position your feet in front of your body. This means
that your ankles will stretch. In other words, boots that allow your ankle
to stretch make it easier. In other words, low-cut boots make it easier
to position your feet forward. And while stretching your legs. While moving.
While applying the necessary and sufficient pressure. It's like a willow
leaf knife cutting sashimi... That's off topic. . Skiing on the mountain
side where you apply the brakes below the ankle towards the valley side.
On the other hand, skiing on the valley side simply cuts in the direction
of travel. This is the breakdown of the difference in my ski fore and aft.
Whether or not you call the next movement ``lead cahnge'' or not, in my
intuitive sense it is ``returning to zero.'' It's in the air, so accelerate
straight towards the fall line. Then, we will extend the contracted amount
again, apply the brakes, return to zero, and repeat this process to lower
the altitude. "I'm just going straight downhill, spinning and braking
repeatedly." This is it. Thinking is not turn arc based. This is the
reason why I divided it into B instead of A.
I'll call them A and B for clarity. A-tele is that the force that bends
the board is mainly your own weight. B-tele is mainly a force that stretches
and pushes the joints. There is a theory that A-tele distributes your weight
evenly on both skis. No, 70% on the front board. No, no, 80% is on the
back board, so in any case, A is mainly concerned with your own weight.
And the image at the base is probably a turn arc. On the other hand, regarding
B, the focus is only on the board on the mountain side, and the source
of the force is the force to push, how much to push and how much to skid.
Or how much to bury. And only the tail of the board. And without leaning
backwards. The purpose is for brakes. This is better with low cuff boots
than with high cuff boots. In other words, the more range of motion you
have in your ankles, the more effective idea B will be.
A-tele believes that those who can turn are great. B-tele thinks that descending
more quietly is a priority.
