 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi All,
I just restarted skiing after three seasons of eating pies, drinking beer and living in warm climes! I wanted to probe the hive mind on boot fit and ankle problems, since I want to do some serious skiing before the big 4-0 next year. Some info:
1- I have a trashed right ankle. I broke two ligaments, it is full of arthrosis, small bone chips, displaced synovial fluid etc. Previous advice from a (good) surgeon 8 years ago was to leave well alone. I used to have a friendly doctor who would do a steroid injection into the joint before ski seasons. That helped!
2- ca. 2016, my free skiing was OK, and fairly symmetric:
https://vimeo.com/439986435
3- Last week in L2A, I was pretty much unable to ski symmetrically. For example, I would do a corridor of stubbies, and straddle every one on the right foot! The ski on that side was engaging early, causing me to lean in and really mess things up. Looking at my bare feet, I can see that the arch has basically collapsed on that foot. I eventually taped two cut up piste maps to the arch of the inner boot on that side. This made a huge difference.
4- However, looking at free skiing videos, I still have an increase in stance width when turning on that side. I am pretty sure this reflects weakness of the ankle. Our coach subsequently asked me to try skiing really one footed, resulting in a painful crack from that ankle when carving 
https://vimeo.com/439990959
Any thoughts? I guess it is fairly normal for the body to deteriorate with age... I am currently skiing an old pair of Lange RS130 boots, with which I am very happy. I am considering going for a race plug ZA and trying sole canting. Would this help?
I am also curious about technique influence. In the 2016 video, although it looks fairly pretty, I was not really pressing on the edges hard enough, and hence not finishing turns. This tended to result in me blowing out of slaloms fairly quickly. I've been working on getting the hip forward, and skiing in a really 'stacked' position this year. Might this change bring out problems with e.g. the stance?
Finally, I'll need to start cycling etc again obviously to strengthen my ankles. Has anyone ever tried focused physio etc for this sort of problem?
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 20-07-20 15:51; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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| JamesHJ wrote: |
| I am considering going for a race plug ZA and trying sole canting. Would this help? |
Maybe, depends on what you are trying to achieve. You can either make the boot match your existing alignment or try to modify your alignment to something else. What you did with the piste maps changed your alignment, planing the sole just makes the boot match what you are doing by default.
I modify my own alignment by putting strips of card in the shell taped to the baseboard on one side.
If you are thinking of getting narrower boots then it is worth working out how the position of your foot in the boot affects alignment. Some of the reduction in width of newest models is in the instep which can change how your foot settles in it. I had to get punches around the navicular bone in my latest boots to allow me to play with my alignment.
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| I've been working on getting the hip forward, and skiing in a really 'stacked' position this year. |
What do you mean by "getting the hip forward" ? For me, to be "stacked" requires keeping the pelvis square to the skis all the time, this feels like you are rotating it a lot relative to your upper body. You don't look to be separating at all in the second video, your whole body moves together.
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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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I think your stance is too wide and there is not enough separation. Adjusting your weight fore- aft more during the turn would help with speed out of the turn and a more aggressive transition. Try to ski less within your comfort zone and closer to the point where you get high sided!
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| Klamm Franzer wrote: |
| I think your stance is too wide and there is not enough separation. Adjusting your weight fore- aft more during the turn would help with speed out of the turn and a more aggressive transition. Try to ski less within your comfort zone and closer to the point where you get high sided! |
What's knackered, black and blue, and gets laughed at by Italian ski kids?
Me! I'm pushing 90 kg and 40 years old. Pretty far out from my comfort zone having jumped back into gates after three/four seasons out 
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@JamesHJ, Age isn't that much of a problem, long term injuries like your ankle can be. I remember chatting on a lift with another master racer who said that he had decided to switch from 150 flex boots to 130 flex ones as he had just reached 75.
You do know that you enter FFS masters races here, the calendar won't be published until at least November.
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Any tips for clubs in the Jura? Les Rousses is closest to us. Not being particularly gruntled with work right now, I'm also going to try to get a September camp in. Probably going to have to ditch the liquid bread and get fit too!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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My very unprofessional observations:
- I think a narrower stance should make it easier to angulate both legs by the same amount
- Letting the lower arm follow the lower ski round is fine in long turns, but not in short turns - but you are aware of this.
- A visit to a good Bootfitter to see if alignment can help
- See a good Physio/Osteo/Chiro, who understands the mechanics of skiing, who can look at suitable strengthening/mobility exercises.
- I think good tuition is also key...and I'm not qualified enough to know how best to handle your injury, so as to get the best from your skis.
There is a lot that looks fine to me, especially in the first video.
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Bootfitter. CEM (on this forum) and Andi McCann (trades as Alpine Mccannix) offer good bootfitting and alignment services, including sole planing. It may be possible to adjust your current setup, it may not.
My feet are not as screwed as yours (arthritis exacerbated by overpronation) but I did not get anywhere near symmetrically edging a ski until I had my canting sorted and my fore/aft balance corrected.
Can you run the skis flat or does one try and engage?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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A bit of mixed slalom stuff from last week. Pretty chuffed with the 'super slalom' part at the beginning, but of course screwed up the transition to full size poles. I could watch the (left foot) turn at 0:18 all day long too 
https://vimeo.com/440132581
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I was so utterly shagged by halfway down these runs!
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| gorilla wrote: |
Bootfitter. CEM (on this forum) and Andi McCann (trades as Alpine Mccannix) offer good bootfitting and alignment services, including sole planing. It may be possible to adjust your current setup, it may not.
My feet are not as screwed as yours (arthritis exacerbated by overpronation) but I did not get anywhere near symmetrically edging a ski until I had my canting sorted and my fore/aft balance corrected.
Can you run the skis flat or does one try and engage? |
Certainly used to be able to run them flat, the right was also sort of OK last week with a bunch of junk rammed down the boot! I wasted a lot of time early in my skiing 'career' with canting/ fore-aft issues and thought I had them sorted. I was therefore pretty surprised to see a re-emergence of problems after some time off. Maybe it is the extra 10 kg of weight crushing my feet flat
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You know it makes sense.
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Back to L2A last week, managed to do some GS skiing with Podium again. I'd actually managed only three days skiing since the last videos in 2020... Still hating the right foot turns. Back to the drawing board post covid, along with everyone else I suppose 
https://vimeo.com/724897949
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| JamesHJ wrote: |
| Back to the drawing board post covid, along with everyone else I suppose |
I had not skied for three years before this March, was expecting to be rusty but had not lost any timing.
Would agree with the comment from Old Fartbag above, try a narrower stance.
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Poster: A snowHead
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No technical comments from me, but don't you think you might be blaming too much on ageing? The effects of inactivity and eating too much will certainly affect our skiing (especially half way down a slalom run) as will an ankle injury, but being 40 shouldn't be that much of a disaster compared to being 37.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@pam w, this.
Jeez, man, 40 is no great shakes. At 56 I'm about to have open heart surgery, my cataracts done, and I'm under intensive physio for a herniated disk.
Do you see me complaining?
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@BobinCH, it does sometimes feel that I've become that 15 year old car that's maybe not worth the respray ...
Mind you, my physio has finally enlightened me as to what the "core" is ... and I am totally enthused by the effect the new liners had on my Zero-Gs ... and my cardio assures me I'll feel way better once my heart is pumping at closer to 100% than its current 50% ... 
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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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| rjs wrote: |
| JamesHJ wrote: |
| Back to the drawing board post covid, along with everyone else I suppose |
I had not skied for three years before this March, was expecting to be rusty but had not lost any timing.
Would agree with the comment from Old Fartbag above, try a narrower stance. |
I did actually arrive fit this year (unlike in 2020), which made a huge difference. It still took a week to get back where I was before. We started on slalom skis, however, my faults did not become really obvious until the GS planks came out in week two. I’d love a break of a week, then to go back to the hill for SL again, but that would require divorce/act of god/lottery win etc
Completely agree on the narrower stance, you can quite often see me platforming on the inside ski. It doesn’t seem to be something I can fix though. Once I start working in the Autumn again, it is new boot time. Mine are probably 8 years old and feel like a pair of old slippers.
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@JamesHJ, new boots always a good thing (or liners) …
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@JamesHJ, also, I’m still not convinced I’ve peaked …
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@JamesHJ, What were your coaches telling you to do?
You asked a few years back in this thread about Masters clubs in the Jura, I did check some FFS Masters race results and didn't see anyone registered to a Jura club. I'm actually registered with a Vosges club but have never skied there.
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| rjs wrote: |
@JamesHJ, What were your coaches telling you to do?
You asked a few years back in this thread about Masters clubs in the Jura, I did check some FFS Masters race results and didn't see anyone registered to a Jura club. I'm actually registered with a Vosges club but have never skied there. |
Actually, the coaches are not too worried about stance width, and are keener on eliminating tipping and increasing the break between body and legs. It is a bit of a chicken and egg thing I suppose. Does a skier tip because they can’t angulate efficiently due to stance, or is the stance width the result of coping with an unstable tipped position? I did manage one golden run where everything worked, but not captured on film sadly! Feedback then was “whatever the hell you did on the last run, keep doing it”
As for masters racing, Covid , job change, depression etc put paid to that. It was a pretty black time at chez HJ for a while  . We are anyway leaving France soon for colder climes. HOPEFULLY, I can find some sort of club up there.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @JamesHJ, also, I’m still not convinced I’ve peaked … |
That’s the spirit! Best of luck with health issues incidentally. Hopefully all taking place in France?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@JamesHJ, cheers, yes, in France. Where at least my 3 week cardio rehab is covered - and - in Aix-les-Bains “as it’s nicer by the lake” …
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| JamesHJ wrote: |
| ... increasing the break between body and legs. |
This is the main thing that I saw in your earlier video as well, but don't think of the split of being between body and legs, it needs to be at the waist with your pelvis square to the skis as much as possible.
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You know it makes sense.
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| rjs wrote: |
| JamesHJ wrote: |
| ... increasing the break between body and legs. |
This is the main thing that I saw in your earlier video as well, but don't think of the split of being between body and legs, it needs to be at the waist with your pelvis square to the skis as much as possible. |
Thanks. Hopefully I can find somewhere to do lots of drills this autumn and really feel this. L2A was mega stressful this year, as it was busy (only glacier in reasonable state in EU), and melting very fast. We often only managed 1-2 warm up runs each morning.
Our skiing came on the fastest when we lived in Grenoble, and could go to the local resorts on a Wednesday RTT. Plenty of time to watch each other ski, and take the odd lesson (I find the ESF really good at this sort of stuff).
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