Good to hear you're already skiing like an old man. Well, a Taos ski week can teach you to ski like an even older man.
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After a day of hard charging my (X) is/are more sore than anything else. What does that tell us about my skiing?
- Thread starter crgildart
- Start date
Good to hear you're already skiing like an old man. Well, a Taos ski week can teach you to ski like an even older man.
just throwing this out there since I personally deal with this and I work for a PT now. .. Make sure your muscles are firing correctly before you ski. You would be quite surprised by the number of people who's hamstrings and glutes dont fire correctly putting a ton of stress on knees and quads. all the lessons in the world won't fix this. its the same for cycling too.
a quick and overly simplified test is to do a one-legged squat, you only need to go down to 30-45*. see if you can feel your muscles firing throughout the entire eccentric and concentric movement. go slow. Also, do some forward lunges on each leg, make sure you can feel the glutes and hamstrings firing correctly through th entire movement. 3rd, on your back, do 10 or so bridges, first with 2 legs, then try some single leg. I do sets of these almost daily and will do a few of each before skiing and cycling.
do not attempt if you have any back problems.
a quick and overly simplified test is to do a one-legged squat, you only need to go down to 30-45*. see if you can feel your muscles firing throughout the entire eccentric and concentric movement. go slow. Also, do some forward lunges on each leg, make sure you can feel the glutes and hamstrings firing correctly through th entire movement. 3rd, on your back, do 10 or so bridges, first with 2 legs, then try some single leg. I do sets of these almost daily and will do a few of each before skiing and cycling.
do not attempt if you have any back problems.
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@Andy Mink instead of pushing your foot down (I'm assuming you are pushing the forefoot down) think more about relaxing the foot, just let it sit against the zeppa and keeping your COM over your arch as you create more edge angle with your feet and knees. Pushing down creates aft COM forces, you will create more edge hold that way. the caveat to this is if you are crushing the boot and not getting enough support. if thats the case, you need a stiffer cuff.
Andy Mink
Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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been there my friend! What I figured out was I didnt have enough support in the upper cuff and I was using my feet to support my fore/aft. Do you find yourself fighting both directions? do you feel a lag in response time when moving forward.
Andy Mink
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No, but I'm in relatively new boots and believe a new footbed is in order, maybe a bit of canting. Both my Raptors had canting and that worked well. I'm doing baby steps with the new Fischers that I got towards the end of last season. My feet are definitely a different shape (fat wise
) than they were when I got the current footbeds so they aren't quite as snug on the beds. Baby steps. It's been hard to get out this year. We got blown out again today before they even spun the lifts.
I understand you may know a good boot fitter? 
. You can do some dry land drills on one leg to get a better idea if the problem is stemming from lack of balance or muscle imbalance, not firing correctly) One legged squats will uncover a world of problems if they exist. Its best to do them in bare feet. Note if you feel the muscles firing and if you see the knee diving in, rotation at the hip (instability) or your ankle working hard to support your foot. If you can do them in front of a mirror, look to see if your instep collapses or if you note the front or rear of your foot diving inwards or outward. You can also do a step up test. Stand in front of a step on the stairs, slowly step up when placing your entire foot on the tread. Its best to have someone watch you but see if you notice any of the 3 results in the squat occur when stepping up, and then lowering your body back down.
. You can do some dry land drills on one leg to get a better idea if the problem is stemming from lack of balance or muscle imbalance, not firing correctly) One legged squats will uncover a world of problems if they exist. Its best to do them in bare feet. Note if you feel the muscles firing and if you see the knee diving in, rotation at the hip (instability) or your ankle working hard to support your foot. If you can do them in front of a mirror, look to see if your instep collapses or if you note the front or rear of your foot diving inwards or outward. You can also do a step up test. Stand in front of a step on the stairs, slowly step up when placing your entire foot on the tread. Its best to have someone watch you but see if you notice any of the 3 results in the squat occur when stepping up, and then lowering your body back down.Feet - new boots need fixing. They were ok with mushy liners(except for not enough control). New foam liners are too tight and also crush feet vertically.
Back - too much snow shoveling the previous day.
Knees - 108s not made for groomers.
Back - too much snow shoveling the previous day.
Knees - 108s not made for groomers.
Well Im glad to hear Im not the only one! Seems totally random but some days my feet/boots are totally pissed off at each other.
Thread Starter
TS
activation is very different from stretching. Both are important.
I'm finding my quads getting tired, which tells me I'm fighting being in the backseat a bit. OTOH, there has been no groomer skiing, it's all been cut up snow after the first few powder runs, and with early season unconsolidated snow there's no solid surface underneath. I've definitely been working harder than usual for early season, including 3 powder days in a row on a short trip to Schweitzer around Xmas.
I've been doing PT exercises following up on my MCL injury over the summer, so in many ways I'm stronger and more stretched out with a decent range of motion than in past seasons. Still the right knee gets a little sore. Where it's really been challenging is the couple of times I fell on my right side and couldn't get myself up without clicking out of my right ski, due to the pain in my right knee when flexed that much.
I've been doing PT exercises following up on my MCL injury over the summer, so in many ways I'm stronger and more stretched out with a decent range of motion than in past seasons. Still the right knee gets a little sore. Where it's really been challenging is the couple of times I fell on my right side and couldn't get myself up without clicking out of my right ski, due to the pain in my right knee when flexed that much.
try doing some drills where you do medium radius turns and focus on getting 100% of the weight on the downhill foot, lifting the uphill foot from the heel (similar to javelin but not the same) then go ski. See if that helps
Andy Mink
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I don't understand the enthusiasm for using 100+ (or even 90-95+) skis as a daily driver. With the huge snow we got in the Sierras I've been skiing on wider skis. Great in the deep but I still have to get back to the lift. Just that little bit makes my knees ache. I can't imagine skiing them after everything is packed out and you're ON the snow all day instead of IN it. To each their own I suppose.
Do you mean keeping the ski tip on the inside ski on the snow? I think we've called those "stork turns" in some other threads. Super helpful to me if I'm feeling backseat and need to make sure I can get centered on my outside ski. Careful doing them in soft snow and having the tip auger into the snow (as I think @Andy Mink can attest).
Indeed. Horses for courses. These are my deep snow tree skis. I should have rented some skinny skis to ski with the kids on groomers. I will next time. All my other skis are back in Ontario.
Ski shovel. the movement doesnt have to be significant. just sends a cue to your brain that it needs to shift weight. stork, javelin, etc, yeah, lots of variations but they will let you know where your COM is. You can also start your run off this way, it can be difficult to correct this if you start off imbalanced
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Put the inside tip edge of the inside ski in the snow, draw a line. Do that by tipping that inside lifted foot towards little toe. There are some snow conditions where this is not recommended, but packed powder to firm is good.
Just don't get the tip stuck in the snow. From experience, that will make your knee hurt. MCLs don't like to twist that way.
May I suggest knitting or crochet?
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