Biomechanical Alignment and On-snow Evaluation
Biomechanics in sport involves the observation, study and assessment of the way people move in space using scientific principles of mechanical physics. Biomechanics play a major role in skiing, as skiing well requires the body to be doing all the right things at the right times when moving down the mountain. Making turns efficiently and with fluidity on your skis requires balance and coordination, which can only be achieved through the complex interactions that your body has with your equipment as well as the terrain that you are skiing.
Alignment in skiing can have a huge impact on one's fatigue or ability to perform certain ski movements. If the alignment is too far out it becomes impossible to let your body move in the way it should. Unfortunately many people do not naturally possess a neutral skiing stance and instead are prone to various degrees of alignment issues such as excessive foot pronation (rolling the foot in), abnormal femoral or tibial torsional issues, problems with their hips and/or lower backs and leg length discrepancies just to mention a few... Just being either slightly knock-kneed or bow-legged can affect skiing alignment. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to overcome this:
- Custom orthotics: These enable the correct positioning of your foot within the boot, thus improving posture, stability and comfort. You can read all about the benefits on our Custom Orthotics page.
- Cuff alignment: This involves adjusting the upper cuff of the boot to match the shape of your lower leg so that you're able to apply equal pressure to your skis when standing in a natural stance.
- Canting: Canting refers to tilting or angling the entire ski boot laterally to achieve a neutral stance, meaning your heels, ankles, knees and hips are all correctly aligned. Initially this is done by placing temporary wedges under the boot. Once the skier is happy with the adjusted angle, the boot fitter will grind the sole of the boot to create a permanent cant.
About the program
As part of our Ultimate Custom Fit option, our biomechanical alignment program includes a combination of in-store and on-mountain assessment, followed by fine tuning of your boots to help you reach your potential as a better, more proficient skier.
We believe it is essential that this process combines both the expertise of the boot fitter, who has intimate knowledge of how the ski boots can affect comfort and performance, with the ski coach, who can assess the skier’s technique and alignment in a real-life dynamic environment.
Step 1: In-store Biomechanical Evaluation
Following your Deluxe Custom bootfit, including orthotics and molded liners, your boot fitter will take a number of measurements of your hip, knee and foot alignment and assess your movement and technique in a simulated dynamic environment. Based on this evaluation, the boot fitter will make a cuff alignment and prescribe a cant adjustment.
Step 2: On-Snow Dynamic assessment with a world class ski coach
Now the fun really begins. It's time to hit the slopes with our expert ski coach Reilly McGlashan who will assess your current skiing technique and provide coaching on how to improve your body position and movement. He will then film you skiing to document your current pre-alignment technique. Next he will install the canting wedges prescribed by the boot fitter and then record you again to test that the canting adjustment has adequately corrected your stance alignment.
Step 3: In-store prescription evaluation
Now we head back to the shop to conduct a video analysis session and make any necessary changes to the boot canting prescription based on the on-snow findings. The boot fitter will then permanently cant your boots by grinding the sole of the boot (overnight procedure).
Step 4: (Optional) Final on-snow evaluation and technique appraisal
You now have the option of having a final session with our ski coach to consolidate your technique and to make any final equipment adjustments that may be required.