LITERALLY Staying on the "ball of the foot"..does it matter?

Interesting what you see at the start when he flexes the boots.. And how often is he NOT fully on the BOF as he skies? Pretty often, but he skis nicely anyways, because he stays compact.

Hmmmm, but someone says:

greatgt wrote: ↑Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:12 am
"Good advise.......thinger to remember about plastic boots....You can't ride the back ski on the balls of your feet...For me that is the deal breaker....look at any pictures you want....The back boot is always riding on the front tip of your boot.....you can be much more free....and balanced with softer flexing leather....Without a doubt plastic will give you much more power....but.....if your a finesse skier that doesn't cut it"...Teleman

And someone else named LowangleAl says: "This is opinion, not fact. "

Well, truth is it's a big debate over nothing, except thinking that there's something "more
REAL Tele" about a softer flexing boot. As ron shows above, skiers on gear of any kind seldom really stay on the bof and they really don't have to in cabled bindings- and actually don't have to in pins or system bindings-; it's staying compact that matters most. The "thinger" to remember is staying COMPACT!

I think if you are going to Tele on NNN (or any XC type) bindings, you really need to keep the heel lower as a habit more so than even on pins. So I can see why there's such a focus with the Japanese who follow Telehiro's method for XCD on System gear. Maybe I'll give it a whirl some time just for the hell of it, though my 3pC and light plastics work so well for my type of XCD that investing a pile of cash just to learn to do what I already can is not all that attractive.

The lower ya go, the more on the toe.. And at some point, it makes no difference what gear you are on, you will not literally be on the ball of the foot. And again, what will keep the trailing ski well-weighted will be staying compact.

Well now, over at Ttalk "someone" (can you guess who?) is misquoting what Cesare had to say about the whole ball of foot consideration, as if real Telemark skiers are going to convert (revert in some cases) to floppy leather boots just so they can be "on" the balls of their feet a tad more. This linked article below (not terribly scientific but amusingly practical) states that in a plastic boot one might be on the the ball with the sole angle at around 25 degrees whereas with the author's leather walking shoe ( certainly less soft-flexing than any decent leather ski boot other than a virtual dishrag), the angle of interest is more like 45 degrees, give or take. Which all adds up to one giant BFD if skiing at all lower than virtually skiing tall interests you with your "real" Tele leather floppies. Watch a video of or look at a series of stills of anyone on leathers (or soft synthetics) in cableless bindings and what you will see is very often, more often than not, the skier's heel of the trailing ski will be far beyond any 45 degree angle. Bottomline? Plastic boot in virtually any cabled binding continues to transfer ball-of-foot force at virtually any angle of the sole whereas plain pins or NNN-types depend on weighted forefeet beyond apprx. 45 degrees.
BallofFootPower

An absolute master of the low heel. He skis tall and in the same way whether using heavy or light gear. He can pivot faster than most anyone. Hardwires, NNN or pins, plastic or floppy boots, he skis about the same, but he matches his gear to the conditions and the terrain.

This can be put very simply: STAY COMPACT. Whoever made up the "rule" that it if there's not a full boot length between boots, then it ain't Tele, was just full of shit. As an exercise, try and Tele from the shortest distance between boots that you possibly can.