Winter season is about to start in Europe and snow is predicted to fall at record low altitudes. Of course, this is not bad news for all since queues are to become longer at the ski lift stations and resorts are expected to hit record visits this year. Before you pack up your car and head to the slopes, make sure that you are in good physical form, this might make the difference in how much you’re going to enjoy your vacation.
Knee ligament rupturing is known to be the most common injury among skiers and are showing an increasing rate over the years mainly due to faster skis and poor pre-skiing training. When coaches at the Italian skiing federation FISI employed innovative technology to discover that during their recent analyses skiers had to sustain forces that reached up to 4.5 times their body weight during curving, they immediately maneuvered significant modifications to the physical training and preparation programs they had already planned for the season. This has led some athletes to achieve outstanding performance and most importantly decreased injury risk during competition and on-field training. There is no magic in this, and such results would have been very difficult to obtain if nothing was measured. The 21st century is quite promising from this perspective since the electronics market is providing movement sensors that are more and more miniaturized giving way to companies to integrate them and create appealing solutions for coaches. Thanks to wearable and wireless technology, athletes can now be equipped with “black boxes” to monitor their action and further understand the specifics of every sport. “the high confidence with these instruments is raising the cultural level of our technical staff.” declared Stefano Maldifassi, head of scientific research at FISI, during a press talk with Sensorize sports technology last year. “The message that technology is here to help with measuring the technical performance and physical state of athletes is passing through” continues Maldifassi.
So before heading out onto the slopes, make sure that you have received sufficient pre-skiing training and that your legs are healthy and ready to give you all the fun you want.