Are You a Praying Mantis?

Telemark tip by Charlie Wolff

How often have you been skiing down the hill and felt threatened for your life by the skier waving and jabbing their poles down the hill? Many of these jousters make me fear impalement – like I’m their next shish kabob.

As a telemark coach, I see this jab-stabber in a position I like to call Praying Mantis. If this was a yoga pose it would definitely be called “center of mass-behind-the-asana.” You’ve probably seen the move, where the skier’s upper body is rotated down the hill with their elbows bent close to their ribs with poles pitched forward ready to stab the next turn into submission. The skier tends to brace against their front leg, and their center-ofmass is not balanced over both feet. In this position the skier has lost their ability to effectively manage pressure control movements.

Very commonly the skier’s outside (downhill) leg is too far down the hill and in front of their body with little or no ankle flex, while the inside (uphill) ski is stretched back behind the skier like a rudder. The unweighted, inside (uphill) ski has little or no pressure; so, it flaps behind or chatters as the skier skids less-efficiently.

What I try to encourage is a more functional stance where the hands are out in front of the body; the shoulders are stacked over the hips which are aligned over both feet, and the poles are in a ready position parallel to the front leg (Tibia Fibula) to help pull the center of mass into the new intended direction of travel.

Ideally I would want to see the skier flex and extend the ankle, knee and hip, and narrow the fore/aft stance. The skier now in Warrior pose will be able to positively affect the ski and turn shape.

One of my favorite drills to help reinforce this balanced position is the tele shuffle. This is simply a quick shuffling of the feet from one tele lunge to the next. I will usually start with a simple traverse shuffling 3-5 times. This drill helps to reinforce the balanced, centered stance while challenging the student to continue flexing and extending the ankles, knees and hip in unison. I can make this more difficult and hone in on those Praying Mantis Pincers by asking the student to hold their poles out in front of them and across their body. Then I will increase the number of shuffles, asking the student to introduce the shuffle earlier and earlier throughout their turn, or until the student can execute the shuffle at any point while skiing.

By flexing the front ankle we are helping to create and reinforce a powerful position that will allow our students the confidence not to jab and stab as they slide down the mountain; instead they will dictate ski snow behavior, and more importantly develop pressure control movements to absorb gnarly bumps or finesse firm icy conditions.

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