Back to the original question...I've seen lots of threads about how tight buckles should be and how the boot should feel overall, but I can't find anything that says what the fit of the cuff should feel like. Tight as bearable? Just enough to keep from falling forward or backward? Somewhere in between? ....?
The cuff encircles the lower leg just above the ankle bones, and goes upward to encircle the leg where it gets thicker due to the calf muscles.
Critical to cuff fit is the snugness of the cuff around both parts of the lower leg, the thin part of the leg down below and the thicker part up above.
The cuff should be just as snug around the thin lower leg as it is up top. This matching snugness is important because it equally distributes the forward pressures that naturally happen at the shin-tongue interface as the turn develops. Those forward pressures are critical to ski control and comfort.
You don't want the top to be snug and the bottom to be loose; all the pressure will be felt at the top of the tongue and your shin will get bruised up there.
On the other hand, you don't want the top of the cuff to be looser than the bottom. Then your leg will swing forward and back inside the cuff at its top, banging the shin into the tongue up there. You'll get a worse bruise if this is happening. It's called "shin-bang."
A cuff that is loose in any way that allows the lower leg to tilt fore-aft inside it without moving the cuff itself is a bad idea. You need to maintain snug cuff-contact all the way around the lower leg, bottom of cuff to its top, in order not only to avoid painful bruising, but to better control the ski beneath.
If you can't get the lower part of the cuff snug enough, there are aftermarket inserts you can buy and put over the lower part of the tongue. Look at the Eliminator Tongue, for instance.
All thoughts about whether to use Booster straps or not, and where to buckle them, should take into account the goal of creating equal snugness all around and up and down the lower leg.
The boot is the ski's "handle." Your foot and lower leg control the handle, and the handle controls the ski. You can develop good control of the ski if the foot and lower leg fit snugly into the entire boot. So many skiers have a loose connection between the foot and the lower leg and the boot. They don't realize many of their skiing problems are due to poor boot fit.
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