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Should we practice falling?

4ster

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Method A is the proper way to wear pole straps.
With that said I have seen some weird stuff, Vonn & Picabo come to mind. Nowadays it seems all the World Cuppers use the LEKI system.
 

François Pugh

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All this discussion of correct and incorrect ways of attaching straps to wrists and thumb injuries reminded my of my last thumb injury, which occurred long after I stopped even using the pole straps while skiing. It was kind of funny, one might even say humerus; I can laugh at myself.

Long story short, but here's the short version. I performed a spectacular stunt on my 2nd run of the day, not too long after the chair lift started running. My stunt ended with me on the side of the trail in the soft snow off the packed down groomer, trying to pick up my skis to put them back on. My right arm wasn't cooperating, so I tried it with my left hand. Nope. Left thumb not functioning. Needless to say I had to ski without poles for the rest of the day, and it was a rough go for a few weeks afterwards. Luckily it was the last or almost the last day of the season (not just for me - for everybody).

Despite the best plans of mice and men, injuries can happen.
 

Ogg

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I have a bad habit of gripping my poles too tightly and I have slammed my fist into hard snow more than once, it hurt for a while. It also makes my hands cold because I'm compressing the insulation in my gloves. I do however instinctually drop my polls if I take a fall, most of the time. Of course I'm probably reaching out with an open hand exposing myself to potentially worse thumb injury. I also use Goode poles with breakaway straps and have always used method A.
I'm actually more freaked out by fast groomer skiing than bumps, trees, chutes, etc because I have taken my most painful and scary falls there. One of the scariest was on a groomed and completely polished Outer Limits at Killington. I couldn't ski bumps at the time so seeing it groomed I figured here's my chance to ski it. :doh: I went down pretty hard about 1/4 of the way down lost both skis and went into a slide for what seemed like another 1/4 of the trail until I was able to dig my boots in and bring myself to a stop, didn't even think of my poles. I gingerly made my way over to the roped off area under the lift where the snow was soft and hiked my way back up to gather my skis. This was all witnessed by everyone riding the bear mountain quad and must have been quite entertaining and hopefully educational. "See this dumbass, kids. Don't be like him."
 

graham418

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I can say that learning breakfalls in Judo and Karate Do did help me out quite a bit.
I was going to say the same thing, but you said it first. The first thing I learned when first starting Judo is how to fall. So it would mae sense to learn how.
 

Pequenita

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I don't think it's a good idea to intentionally fall while wearing skis just to practice doing so. Too many freak injuries can happen even in slow motion - e.g., the twisting backwards fall --> ACL tear.

But there can be principles in falling that reduce the likelihood of injury, if you have enough time to react. I once had a freak collision where both I and the other person double ejected (they skied over both of my tails). I tucked and rolled or something like that (I know I did not superman) and got up and was totally fine. I don't know what she did, but I presume she tried to brace, and she broke her arm.
 

Viking9

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Little bit of a drift but I hate having the strap between my hand and the pole.
I know a lot of people like having the strap between their hand and the pole.
 

Doug Briggs

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Little bit of a drift but I hate having the strap between my hand and the pole.
I know a lot of people like having the strap between their hand and the pole.
Ya, it's different strokes for different folks.

A lot of it comes down to what the strap is made of and do you have it laid out correctly. Not all straps are built properly. Properly assembled straps form a loop that is not simply a cross section of tube:

IMG_20210226_183710821.jpg
This is a correct strap.

I hate the LEKI S Trigger straps that stay on your glove (or are built in) as you can't let go of the pole to adjust your boots with the strap connected. The strap holds the pole in your hand, basically, getting between your hand and the buckle. So I use the 'traditional' straps that LEKI offers.

FWIW, I'm not trying to convince anyone one way or the other. I'm just sharing knowledge that will hopefully help people enjoy their equipment better. :beercheer:
 
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Nobody

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I saw this fellow fall yesterday on a snowboard, it was near the bottom of the hill. He was going quite slowly, he turned too far and caught the edge, then toppled downhill, turning his back to the snow and his head bounced off the ground. He lay there for a moment, then out of nowhere the ski patrol materialized, he got up and was “all right.” I was watching from the chair.

It seems that very low speed toppling over can be sometimes worse than when you fall with a certain minimum speed, because in the latter case you tend to slide instead of slamming into the ground. I think the same thing happens on a bicycle, which is why young children learning to ride a bicycle really need to wear helmets.

Nowadays when I wipe out it is typically when I try to hold my edges on a steep and icy patch and I am not strong enough, my skis wash out in the downhill direction and I end up sliding on my hip. Not very dignified but still kind of a controlled slide.

However above a certain speed, skiing more or less down the fall line, I don’t feel I would really “know what to do” if “something happened.”

Should we think about and even practice how to fall with the least danger?
Well, been thinking along those lines myself for a long time, especially after realizing that I started to get injured at falls (not only while skiing) when I stopped to practice Judo (not immediately, but after some years the bult in falling skills started to fade and then the injuries started to come).
After this past week end horrific crashes in the Women SG in Val di Fassa in Italy, those thoughts resurfaced in the form of "what if..."
So yes, I think it is a good idea to practice falling, but not while skiing. Rather take on some sport where learning to fall without phisical consequences is part of it and train hard at that. Something like Judo, as said. Sure, it could also be that I was much younger and fitter then. Still cannot help but think that when I stopped practicing Judo, I started to feel more and more after each fall (be it MTB, motorbike, car accidents, skiing)...
 

markojp

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Learning to fall? Some Judo sessions or similar are really the only safe way to do this, but IMHO, do have considerable value from learning to roll with things to falling on one's back.
 

Swede

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A lot of damage can be done to knees when legs are twisted by ski edges that are caught in the snow after a fall, when sliding down the hill. So a good thing to try to do is to get your skis off the snow and up. Sometimes referred to as "to turtle".
 

Rod9301

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A lot of damage can be done to knees when legs are twisted by ski edges that are caught in the snow after a fall, when sliding down the hill. So a good thing to try to do is to get your skis off the snow and up. Sometimes referred to as "to turtle".
If you fall on a steep slope, lifting your skis will result in uncontrollable speed, DON'T DO THIS.
edges are your friend when you left to stop.
 

Swede

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If you fall on a steep slope, lifting your skis will result in uncontrollable speed, DON'T DO THIS.
edges are your friend when you left to stop.

:) We like definitive answers, don't we. Ok, I'll refrase a little. It depends how fast you're skiing. At slow to moderate speed, not a huge problem. But if you are skiing with some speed, I would be very careful of trying to stop myself by putting down an edge in the snow. Recipe for torn ACL. What a lot of young racers are taught to save their knees.
 

Rod9301

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:) We like definitive answers, don't we. Ok, I'll refrase a little. It depends how fast you're skiing. At slow to moderate speed, not a huge problem. But if you are skiing with some speed, I would be very careful of trying to stop myself by putting down an edge in the snow. Recipe for torn ACL. What a lot of young racers are taught to save their knees.
Skiing with speed means that you need to stop quickly.
 

Swede

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Skiing with speed means that you need to stop quickly.

If you are heading towards something hard and stationary, I can see your point. Otherwise, why do you need to stop quickly? Try to stay cool and don't do something stupid, like putting your ski down and wreck your knee.
 

James

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You guys are talking different scenarios. One is at high speed, the turtle recommendation. The other at very slow in steep terrain, the try to stop with skis. Both solutions are valid.
An uncontrolled slide in steep rocky terrain could be very bad.
 

AtleB

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I believe that if you are never skiing at the edge of your ability you will not progress much, but be concious of where and when you push yourself. I try to challenge my own abilities in conditions where a whipeout is less likely to have consequenses. I do fall a few times each season but less for each year, not due to getting better, but simply due to getting more risk aversive.
 

Chris V.

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I'm very much in the school favoring teaching beginners, novices, and anyone else who hasn't been previously taught, how to fall safely. Though there are falls, and then there are falls. I'd encourage anyone to practice slow falls, keeping the feet and hands together and toppling into the slope, rolling off the hip. I'd never want to try talking a student into doing anything the student didn't want to do, but I think it's very helpful for anyone to try this kind of fall a few times. But then the over-the-handlebars down a steep slope kind of fall isn't something anyone could practice safely. Thinking about what one would do in that situation and planning ahead is a good idea, though.

I've seen too many injuries to inexperienced skiers, slow motion stuff that could easily have been avoided with proper understanding and ability to react assertively to a bad situation. That accounts for a lot more injuries than do high speed slides into hard objects, I expect.
 

oldschoolskier

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Contrary to the “Brace for impact” when you fall, relaxing as much as possible to allow your entire body to absorb (distribute) the impact lessens chance of injury. That said, there are occasions that doing everything possible to avoid serious injury is also required, which results in other injuries.

The hardest part is the natural reaction is to try and stop the fall which 9 out of 10 times just accelerates it.
 

Guy in Shorts

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Falling while walking in ski boots carrying two pairs of skis is something I do at least once a season. Ensure my helmet is on my head and strapped before I move is rule #1. Go down softly without any crazy save moves. Humbly get up and tell everyone that you are fine.
 

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