Skiing depends on balance in perfect function since it is a critical factor in every skier’s performance. Defying gravity creates alterations between our vestibular, visual and somatosensory systems so balance must be constantly adjusted to the current skiing situation. These systems inform our nervous system about the location and movement of our head and body during motion, controlling muscle contractions to orient a proper posture.
In skiing, our legs and arms movements are accompanied by involuntary head movements. Spinal cord signals adjust the sensitivity of our vestibular system to accommodate changes of head position in balance sustainability. Our cerebellum detects unforeseen movements and sends messages that help us to keep balance. It receives information from the sensory system, the spinal cord, and other brain areas, like the motor cortex, to regulate voluntary movements involved in posture and balance. The activity of this cerebral organ is very important in learning motor behaviors.
We tend to oscillate because of skiing conditions and gaze modification, leading to muscle fatigue while constantly tilting in a multi-directional way, and this is why our balance compares to an inverted cone. Maintaining balance is holding our joints in certain positions to preserve fore-aft and lateral balance.
We can differentiate static balance (stationary posture), in which our center of gravity is projected within the surface determined by our feet’s external contour; and dynamic balance (posture in motion) where due to movement in motion, our supporting base is constantly modified. In this case, our body does not remain stationary but oscillating in an ongoing process of losing and recovering balance.
Having a good balance is losing it occasionally as well as quickly recovering it. Our skiing actions are based on dynamic balance, and this is achieved only if our body consciousness is focused on centrality, accepting ground inclination, the gravity, and the sliding properties. We speak of our balance as a dynamic equilibrium because our center of gravity, which is located at our pelvis, is constantly projected outside the boundaries of our base of support.
As skiers we move in a permanent imbalance. All our movements and actions in motion are an imbalance source (balance rupture) and because of that, we are never in balance but stabilize ourselves permanently by regulating our posture since it is what determines balance control: if we control our posture, we control our balance.
A well balanced skiing requires three foundations:
- The capacity to generate and maintain appropriate motor behaviors to move towards the intended direction.
- The maintenance of balance dynamics that result from the constant change of our center of mass and our base of support.
- The suitability to compensate motion guidelines related to inertial changes that threaten dynamic balance.
We can define that balance is to establish reference points that allow body orienting in space, to control our body oscillations, to manage a sum of information in real time, and the ability to maintain a skiing stable body posture.
We observe that we are more concerned about maintaining balance rather than concentrating on what to do to achieve it. In this sense, many skiers preserve balance precariously using multiple muscle compensations. Despite this, they get to slide fast but suffering exhaustion and rigidity due to muscular tension, which they will consider as normal and even will manifest to be satisfied with this condition as a justification for spending so much effort.
In fact, to keep balance, we should remain sufficiently rigid to hold on but appropriately flexible to adapt to terrain contours or other skiing situations. The same movements needed for skiing disturb our balance and they could be considered as self-caused perturbations.
According to our behavior we will obtain opposing effects. Reactive behavior is used when we already suffered the imbalance, while employing a proactive behavior is intended at anticipating the imbalance. We can also observe that if we are well balanced, this will facilitate our actions but if we are not, then we will react.
When seeking for balance we normally base ourselves on two references. One is the internal balance reference, which we pursue support on our feet, and the other is the external balance reference, which we use external forces to obtain a sense of balance. These two references are effective posture linkages in relation to our skiing.
The factors influencing our balance when skiing are:
- Sensory factors, including our sensorial receptors, kinesthetic sensations, and labyrinthine and plantar systems.
- Mechanical factors composed of external forces caused by our motion, base of support, the center of gravity, ski equipment characteristics, and body weight.
- Other factors such as our emotional condition related to sliding, motor skills, etc.
Our dynamic balance when skiing is influenced by:
- Our head position, which organizes posture of the rest of our body.
- Gaze fixation.
- The distribution of our different body masses.
- Movement precision through internal forces.
- The direction and intensity of external forces.
- The direction, speed, and acceleration of our motion.
To conclude, we build our own skiing balance according to our skills, experiences, and emotions.
