It’s an area of performance that can be overlooked and used as a bit of a token gesture by some, but flexibility has a massive effect on how you ski. When an athlete, be that ski racer or recreational cruiser, understands how something effects their performance they attach value to it, I’ll try to raise the stock of flexibility a little bit here.
Flexibility or lack of it will effect the ability of a skier to maintain correct knee alignment, the importance of which for injury prevention I’ve talked about. Common issues, particularly with recreational skiers, are tightness in hip flexors and adductors. This coupled with hip abductor weakness means easy hip internal rotation and poor knee alignment. This causes a tendency towards the inside edge of the ski, which becomes an issue when trying to get onto the outside edge during a turn and also when wanting the skis to run flat during gliding.
Another common issue is a tightness in the calfs, this will mean an inability to flex forward in the ski boot causing pressure on the calf, a levering of the foot to the front of the boot causing bruised toes and or heel lift in the boot when trying to flex forward. A lack of range through the hamstrings will contribute to that common sight among British holidayers, the back seat skier who will struggle to engage the ski at the start of the turn.
It can be easy to blame the equipment by saying the boots are too stiff or the skis aren’t right but most skiers will benefit massively by incorporating some form of stretching into their pre-holiday routine. Those sick of hearing their ski instructor telling them they’re a-framing or not bending ze knees may do well to get the stretching mat and the foam roller out and invest a bit of time before they head away.
The triple extension is a key movement, extending the hip, knee and ankle occurs as a major component of most sports. When one of those movements is severely restricted by say, putting the lower leg in a rigid plastic boot though, it alters the way force is produced and transferred throughout the entire kinetic chain. In skiing, it is the knees that bear the brunt. As a result knee injuries account for around 40% of all ski injuries, a massive amount and it highlights the importance of strength and proprioception about the knee.
Strength imbalances and movement inhibitions throughout the whole body can have a devastating effect on what occurs at the knee placing it in some very vulnerable positions, as well as having a negative effect on comfort inside a ski boot. The need for hamstring strength in prevention of knee ligament injury is well documented and activation of the hip abductors is also an important element. Split position lifts like the bulgarian split/split squats and lunges have a great impact on both of these. Introducing a lateral component using resistance bands is a great method of increasing the frontal plane forces throughout the lifts.
With comfort for the recreational skier in mind, the common knock knee (knee valgus) position we see not only creates vulnerability to injury but also can lead to increases in shin pain. That position is coupled with an internal rotation all the way down the shin which doesn’t match up too nicely with the way a ski boots moves and the result is shin pain. Ensuring the glutes are pulling their weight will help this. It can be very easy to blame discomfort on the boots when a little preparation before the holiday can solve a lot of the problems people experience while away.
When analysing any sport, identifying the plane/s of motion that movement occurs in is an important part. The majority of movement and force production in skiing occurs in the frontal plane or side to side. Training for the sport should reflect this, not only at the elite level but also at recreational.
It can be difficult to create that lateral force production in the gym but to maximise frontal plane activity, unilateral lifts and loads really come to the fore. Which is also really handy given the rarity in skiing that force is the same through both legs. Multi directional hops, jumps and drop landings all with clean takeoff and landing mechanics should also form a part of any ski training. These also include a big eccentric component that we already know to be important.
As for the conditioning side, it seems to be common, and an easy way out, to tell people to sit on a bike for 20 mins to get them ready for their holiday (or for 2 hours to prepare them for ski racing, but that’s another story). At least running on a treadmill has an eccentric component and some lateral stability challenge, that’s quite important in skiing! Using circuits provides a massive amount of versatility and allows for a lot of frontal plane movements to be used as well as testing other balance and reactive skills under fatigue.
