 Poster: A snowHead
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| CEM wrote: |
| @Jonathan Bell, so, what are your thoughts on the correct flex of boot for someone with a restricted ankle joint ROM? |
I would not wish to ski in a boot where my ankle movement "bottoms out" before the boot restricts me.
The boots i have are just stiff enough that if a hit a bump unexpectedly at speed i have only felt the ankle hit its maximum range on a few occasions.
Its not very pleasant.
In answer to your question i think there will be skiers who would benefit from a slightly stiffer boot flex so it is matched to their natural range of movement.
The ultimate example of this may be someone with an arthritic ankle that has very limited range and is very painful if forced to the end of range.
For that individual you would probably want to give them quite a stiff boot so you are restricting their movement to avoid unpleasant pain at end range.
So for some skiers i think you will have to sacrifice range of flex and have a stiffer boot to ensure that they can ski without ankle pain.
Id be interested in your experience as i don't fit boots!
Jonathan Bell
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Jonathan,
that is the answer i was hoping you would come up with...otherwise myself and a whole heap of fitters have been "out there" on a limb
for restricted range of motion we look at what the factors are and work out from the foot, interestingly most of the boot manufacturers have realised that there are a large number of folks out there who have some limitation, be it sitting at a desk all day long / personal biomechanics / injury /disease causing varying degrees of gastro-soleus equinus so boots have been getting a little more upright over the years to allow better skeletal stacking and allow these people to take advantage of what ROM they have at the ankle... for example the old salomon X3/Impact boots had a forward lean angle of the cuff of 17 degrees, and an internal ramp of approx 4 degrees so required a passive ROM of 13 degrees simply to stand in the boot, the new models have approx the same 4 degree ramp angle but have a forward lean of 13 degrees, thus requiring 9 degrees of ankle joint dorsiflexion for static stance inside the boot.
utilizing heel raises inside the boot can obviously give in increased ROM in real terms by opening the ankle joint a little, although care must be taken as to not to restrict dorsal nerves or blood vessels. For those folks like the one you mention above where there is a complete fusion of the ankle through surgery or extreme limitation through degeneration of the joint then a stiff upright boot with a small raise is probably the starting point, moving the cuff to a more upright position is another possible modification but care again needs to be taken to ensure the skier doesn't not end up being thrown backwards.
support underfoot is another key part of the fit as this can affect how the foot is loaded, occasionally we see someone who we actually want to allow the foot to pronate more than the norm, as this allows them to gain some flexion where as keeping them neutral can cause a blockage.
one other thing which i think often gets confused is the numbers.... rule 1 ignore the numbers, rule 2 ignore the numbers again...by this i mean the flex numbers, firstly they do not compute brand to brand (there is no consistency as yet, talk of it but not yet) the plastic used and the engineering of the boot, and even the colour of the plastic all affect how a boot bends, 15 or so years ago no numbers were published and you have soft boots and stiff boots, now everything has a number, the mis informed consider anything over a 100 flex to be a race boot where in reality consumer boots go up to 130 and even these are not as stiff as they were 5 years ago.... as a rule of thumb what i want to see in the store is that the client can bend the boot (to see good movement between the cuff and lower shell) easily in the store at 20 degrees Celsius, the plastic will stiffen in the cold, but they will have the advantage of speed, gravity and a pair of skis on their feet.
just like in surgery/rehabilitation there are base points of what should be, you then have to bend them a little to suit each individual case as you see it
the subject of ankle joint ROM in ski boots is one that could fill a book let a lone a post on a forum, hopefully that gives you the information you wanted, if you would like to discuss anything further please don't hesitate to ask or drop me a PM
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| CEM wrote: |
| @Jonathan Bell, so, what are your thoughts on the correct flex of boot for someone with a restricted ankle joint ROM? |
I think you probably have to match the flex of the ankle.
If there is no flex ie. it is fused i don't suppose it matters if the boot is totally rigid, though it may be difficult to get on.
As alot of ankles that are restricted will be mildly to moderately arthritic they will be very painful if they are allowed to be forced to impinge , which usually occurs when the ankle is forced into maximum (dorsi) flexion.
I don't think it is possble to give a figure as my understanding is that the numeric flex pattern listed on a boot is not standardised across the industry. So it really then comes down to the skill of the boot fitter in being
able to fit a boot that allows as much flex as possible without letting the ankle bottom out and impinging.
What do you do?
Jonathan Bell
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@Jonathan Bell, we have an acquaintance who has skied for many years and is now in his 70s. He told us he has now had both ankles fused but made sure the angle of fusion was such that he could still get his ski boots on, although his lack of flex means he sticks to blues these days. He does walk in a rather peculiar manner though.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| @Jonathan Bell, we have an acquaintance who has skied for many years and is now in his 70s. He told us he has now had both ankles fused but made sure the angle of fusion was such that he could still get his ski boots on, He does walk in a rather peculiar manner though. |
Now that is dedication to the cause 
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