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Skier Alignment and Skier Balance
While
having new tyres fitted recently, I saw a Michelin poster with a skier having difficulty
controlling his direction, advertising front-end alignment services.
The poster is spot on as it suggests that correct alignment allows you
to steer your vehicle reliably, giving you the driver peace of mind. It
also prolongs the life of your tyres.
Increasing pressure from government to reduce speed limits and the
increasing speeds of recreational skiers has created the paradoxical
situation where skiers are now travelling faster than motorists. We now
have the average recreational skier easily reaching 40 mph or more when
the motorist is stuck (at zero MPH on the M25).
Imagine how great you would feel making reliable tracks in the snow at
40 MPH or more. Skier alignment offers peace of mind, reliable
trajectories, and it can also extend the shelf- like of your joints and
body parts.
Alignment today offers the harmony and well being which result from the
relationship that is created between you, your equipment and the
mountain's force. This well being is achieved in neurological terms.
Alignments are carried out with neurological questioning of the body
with muscle testing, as well as a battery of other tests. This means
that, not only your nervous system agrees with the adjustments you are
making it also shows you how much it is suffering from not being
aligned. Powerful stuff.
"Ski
Mastery alignment
has made bigger
improvements in my skiing technique than any coaching course, I now try
to put my students through the same process, the level of success has
been a revelation"
Mark Jones, BASI trainer, Interski demo team member and author "Ski
Coach the interactive CD-ROM"
Alignment verses Balance
In
order to
understand alignment
and balance we will deal with them separately, however with respect to
our outcome objectives, the two cannot be separated.
Alignment
Strictly
speaking, alignment
refers to joint/limb structure in a biomechanical sense. With respect
to the lower limb/leg, correct alignment refers to appropriate stacking
of joints for optimal force distribution.
The joints most relevant to this for the skier are the pelvis
(sacro-iliac), knee and ankle
Figure
1.
will distribute force more efficiently than Figure 2.
To explain, look at the knee. The knee articulation in Figure 2
requires substantial muscle contribution to distribute the same force
as in Figure 1.
The goal of skier alignment is to eliminate to a minimum this muscular
compensation across all joints.
Balance
The
human
body has one goal
with respect to balance. Every muscle and joint will orientate itself
in order to allow the eyes and head to remain level.
A number of centres throughout the body provide information about
position in space and time. Three areas give the most vital
information. In order of importance these are the:
» Jaw (TMJ)
» Ankle
(talo-calcaneal)
» Pelvis
(sacro-iliac)
These joints contain densely packed receptors called proprioceptors,
which specifically give spatial information about the joints position
in space and time.
For example, when you close your eyes and fall forward, how are you
aware of what direction and speed you are falling? How does your body
know which correction to apply to halt the fall?
Firstly, your jaw and middle ear are the primary source of information
regarding the initial movement. This information is then referenced
with your ankle and your pelvis and a neurological conversation begins.
Does the receptor information from the jaw match that provided from the
ankle and pelvis?
In the perfectly balanced individual, these centres provide similar and
accurate information and thus the level of neurological conversation is
low.
If an individual has for example a chronically injured ankle that is
not fully rehabilitated, the proprioceptive information will not match
information from other centres. The nervous system, in an effort to
obtain more information will seek greater comparison thus increasing
this neurological conversation.
If the nervous system is in a constant state of high-level
proprioceptive conversation the individuals' balance is compromised.
By clamping our ankles into ski boots we amplify this 'neurological
conversation' considerably.
The goal of alignment is to reduce this conversation and orientate the
lower limb /pelvis complex in the most efficient and powerful position.
How Skier Alignment and Skier Balance are Done
Evaluation
on the laser deck of:
» Your
pelvis shift
» Your knee
position
» Your ski
edge contact
It is clear that the moment you click into your skis your will be
forced into this position.
Proper alignment reduces this muscle compensation and the neurological
conversation drops to a minimum.
"Great
skiing with
alignment, I am making lovely tramlines in the snow."
Dave Cuthill Ski Instructor
Foot Bed structuring
The
first
contact with your
ski boot is through the foot bed. This surface must provide sound
neurological and biomechanical information before any other work can be
done.
Then with finished correction, you notice changes in foot contact and
knee position during flexion.
We now have a structurally and neurologically sound pair of feet when
standing on your footbeds on a flat surface.
Will the now structurally and neurologically sound pair of feet work in
a ski boot?
Despite what anybody tells you the answer is no because ski boots
baseboards are not "flat surfaces" they ramp you forward and sometimes
pitch you laterally therefore inducing muscle compensations increasing
the level of neurological conversation.
Fore/Aft Balance
The
forward ramping creates the following:
Picture yourself standing on an angled board with the high side of the
board under your heels to simulate the situation inside your ski boots,
now raise your heels, then your toes. You will notice that it is
difficult to raise your toes because, technically speaking, your heel
is floating in relation to the fore foot. Our balance information is
derived primarily from the rear of our feet (talo-calcaneal), thus we
are receiving very poor information about our fore/aft position when
standing in ski boots due to the influence of the ramp.
Adjustments are made to restore your heel's capacity to receive
proprioceptive information properly.
On this issue of fore aft balance there is a discrepancy between what
the industry is doing and what your body needs... Looking at skiers'
behaviour and stance on the slopes should make it easy for you to draw
your own conclusion.
Cuff Adjustment
More
pressure exerted by one
side of the cuff will give inappropriate balance information about the
leg position. The cuff adjustment will optimise this relationship.
Final Canting
The
cants
provided are placed
under your ski bindings and exert their effect on the lower limbs and
pelvis, squaring up your skeletal structure providing a powerful and
neurologically efficient skier.
Skier Alignment stats:
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Number
of canted skiers: 1076
Skiers needing cants under one foot only
374 = 34.76%
Skiers needing cants under both feet
702 = 65.24%
Undercanted as in figure 2: 77.4%
Overcanted as in figure 3: 22.6%
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Alignment and Ski Instruction
In
light
of what has been
demonstrated, it is easy to imagine that students showing up in lessons
are not bio mechanically and neurologically efficient and may easily
become frustrated by their slow progress. Skiing like the rest of the
universe operates by law. Imagine that Bill Gates wants to see you for
a sales position with commissions' earnings in excess of a million. If
you show up (as in fig 2) with your knees knocking inwards and your
legs shaking like a newborn Bambi you're no going to get the job
because you've displayed the body language of fear. Even if the fellow
at Microsoft doesn't understand skiing he knows the universal law of
cause and effect. So if your equipment challenges your body even a tiny
bit, and you have to close inward your lower limbs and compensate for
the ramp as it is the case with 77.4 % of skiers then you will call
forth the feelings associated with this "closed" stance and your
confidence will be somewhat reduced. The overcanted cases representing
22.6% of skiers are somewhat better off emotionally but are still stuck
on their edges rendering their edge change brutal.
In order to make the most positive impact on students, it makes sense
to take care of their alignment issues before doing serious tuition
work with them. This is what happens at Ski Mastery.
Conclusion
Combining
neurological
alignment science with biomechanical analysis is what has given the
best result thus far. Using the nervous system for guidance is an idea
that is very much the up and coming theme of the 21st century, as we
understand more the "energy" aspect of our being. Out of our Ski
Mastery shop and ski school, (now entering our third season) ski hire
customers walk out with canted skis as a standard service. We now carry
five brands and twenty-six models of boots and have a full time
physiotherapist making footbeds, conducting alignments and selling
suitable ski boots.
"I have
finally passed
the Euro Test. I
would like to thank you for your support and technical know-how over
the last three years."
Jarrod Atkinson, Ski Instructor, Jan 2003
Special Skier
Alignment Offer
»
10% off the regular Alignment price when booking your appointment
before December 31st each winter
Full Money back guarantee
I'd love to hear from you
Kind regards
Bernard Chesneau
Contact me now:
Ski Mastery - Les Anemones, 73150 Val D'Isère - France
Tel Mobile: 00 33 6 14 27 15 60
www.ski-mastery.com
email: ski
AT ski-mastery.com
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