Just curious, but is anyone here throwing out their footbeds on snow full time?
I've been contemplating it, but am not convinced about it.
Tom Gellie makes a lot of sense about the role of the arches of the feet and the fine motor control that arises from using them. One of our trainers has just missed making the demo team the last couple of times is now being coached by a WC coach who took his footbed and sanded most of the support out of it. But at my age (63) and having worn orthotics for 30 years, I'm not convinced that I have the foot strength to ski all day, let alone 100 days a season, without an orthotic.
Last week I was at a ski camp with a bunch of the demo team members. Josh Fogg watched me ski then said that he's been working out a theory that the reason many of the older candidates for Level 3 (me, I guess) may be having difficulty because of the loss of foot strength. As he was coaching another group, I didn't have the opportunity to explore this, but I'll ski with him in a couple of weeks and intend to do so. In the meantime, I've started a routine working on building foot strength, but I'm a bit of an unguided missile, as what element of foot strength is missing? My PT gave me a simple exercise (picking up marbles with my toes), but what element of foot strength is really the key to higher level skiing?
So, I've got a pair of Barr running carbon fiber footboards (they are flat except for a bump that goes under the second metatarsal head) sitting on my counter. Given how much cant I require in my boots and the twist in my lower leg, I'm still sitting here wondering if it is a good idea to dump the footbed...
Mike