Womens Ski Anatomy and Equipment
| Bec Johnson, owner of the new Banff Springs Ski & Mountain Sports, has been fitting boots for 10 years and has several boot-fitting, ski-instructing, ski technician and kinesiology qualifications, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree. |
By Bec Johnson
Women’s anatomy is different to men’s thereforeit is natural that they will face different challenges when trying to bring their skiing toan advanced or expert level. Skiing is a sportthat is firmly rooted in physics. Understanding how varying body types interact with the mechanics of skiing allows us to modify our
equipment accordingly and give us the best platform to achieve our skiing goals.
For years women’s skis were men’s lower end skis disguised with pink flowers. They were often lighter and more flexible, which is great for lighter weight skiers regardless of sex, but this did not address some fundamental differences between male and female anatomy. As well the center line of the ski that marks where the binding is mounted was often moved forward for women’s skis. Note, it was just the line not the actual
center of the sidecut that was moved as that would require a new ski mold, increasing production costs.
More importantly, boots. Women usually benefit even more than men from properly fitted and custom molded boots. Due to a range of anatomical differences – listed below – it is vitally important that shape, size, height, flex, cant and foot position are accurate.
Many women who have reached a plateau in their skiing have come to believe that it is due to their own limitations. No matter how hard they try they don’t seem to be able to break the pattern of the same problems that have been plaguing them for years.
If this sounds like you then I have some good news…
IT’S NOT YOU! You really can blame your equipment. Even if you spent top dollar on your product it may not be suited to your body.
Do you recognize these skiing problems?
Symptoms
- Slow turn initiation especially on steeper slopes
- Struggling to control your skis in varying conditions
- Skis accelerating out of turn / loss of speed control
- Over rotating / not finishing the turn / skidding
- Ski tips crossing and not riding flat on the snow when skiing straight
- Early fatigue of front of thigh muscles
- Increased incidence of knee injuries.
Causes
- Lower center of mass/gravity. Men carry the bulk of their weight in their shoulders and upper torso. Women have their center of mass in their hips, thighs
and buttocks. This puts us in the back seat, with our weight over our heels rather than our toes. - Wider pelvis (often exacerbated with wider thighs) increases something called the Q angle. Stand up and get someone to hold a piece of string from the pointy bit of your hip bone to the center of the kneecap. The angle of this string from vertical is your Q angle. It will almost always be noticeably larger in women (average 22 deg) than men (average 18 deg) This problem can be made worse when coupled with pronation or flat feet. For more information on this see the previous article “How to find a good bootfitter”.
- Larger and lower calf muscle. Can result in theheel not sitting properly in the back of the boot often causing incorrect ramp angle or forward lean.
- Reduced range of ankle flexion. Sitting with your knees at a right angle and feet flat on the floor, lift your foot whilst leaving you heels planted. If you can only lift your foot less than two inches then this is considered tight ankle flexion.
So what can we do to fix this? Plenty. Below is a list of just some of the solutions we use to make your equipment work for you. To know exactly which ones are right for you it is best if you can come in and chatwith us. There are many variables to take into account and what is a solution for one person could actually be a hindrance for another.
Solutions
- Using a ski designed for women by having the center of the sidecut moved closer to the tip, this is different from just mounting the binding further forward. Dynastar is one of the very few companies that invests time and money into this area of production.
- Putting a lift under the heel piece of the binding to bring the center of gravity more forward on the ski. This is built into Dynastar’s Exclusive women’s range.
- Using a well designed foot-bed, aligning the upper cuff and changing the angle of the base of the boot by sole planing to reduce the effects of Q angle. Translated: make the boot conform to you and still allow you to ride a flat ski.
- Inserting heel lifts to change the ramp angle.
- Changing the flex of the boot to match the range of motion of the ankle and knee. I often see many higher end skiers in boots that are too stiff for them.
Better doesn’t necessarily mean stiffer. The right flex is found by accounting for leg strength, leg length, skiing style and ankle flexibility. - Removing the upper cuff, modifying the shape of the inner spine and changing the shape and height of the back of the upper cuff to accommodate lower/larger calves. Many women are not sitting flat inside their boot as their calf shape doesn’t allow them to get into the boot properly.
- Changing the shape of the heel pocket to allow the foot to sit firmly in the back of the boot. Achilles can be very narrow and very thick, the boot must
compensate for this to enable a strong seated position for the heel. - Adjusting the shape of the shell of the boot to allow full range of motion of the foot. Many skiers withcollapsed arches (common after pregnancy and
weight gain) have a bone called the navicula rpushing to the inside midfoot to ankle areaof the boot and thus blocking powerfu lrange of movement. Making a little “home” for this bone allows much stronger edging on the inside.
Click here for more information (PDF) 
