Our relationship with the snow is a critical factor in skiing. A suitable contact with the ground is a necessary condition for the maintenance of an efficient skiing posture and the appropriate execution of movements and actions.
The concept of Grounding posture is the sensation of being connected to the ground by discharging our body tension towards it, despite the snow being a slippery element and the unstable balance we suffer.
Releasing postural tension
Our feet are sensations’ entryway from skis-snow interaction and also, a way of releasing our energy by discharging tension through this interaction. From our feet, we build our own stance since they are our posture mainstay. Activating feet sensations by keeping our plantar arches flat in straight trajectories, or the outside foot inner arch in curvilinear trajectories enables a conscious contact with the ground.
It is observed that in various ski teaching methods, feet are not given enough attention. The beginner tends to give more importance to the upper body (his trunk and arms), and not enough to the lower part (his legs and feet).
In skiing, our body’s weight should be downloaded towards our feet but because of ski boots restriction, we tend to block this discharging action at our knees which remain rigid, interrupting plantar contact. Also, claw toes stress even more feet soles, inhibiting tension discharge. While we have feet connection with the snow through boots and skis, it is mainly limited to a mechanical contact. Not every skier experiences being connected with the snow; most of them are ‘on’ the snow and a few others ‘in’ the snow.
It must not be confused with being grounded only on heels. A well-balanced skier maintains his support over all his feet soles but sometimes he finds himself supported on heels, blocking his knees, which leads to imbalances. This is a normal posture in the beginner skier that assumes a passive attitude or a rejection towards sliding.
Body tension blocks grounding posture
Many skiers do not release body weight on feet soles because of strains, breathing blocks or because they keep their bodies ‘up’ in constant extension by pushing their feet ‘down’ as an opposing reaction to snow. Also, they keep their fists tight and holding excessively their poles or tensing their necks, interrupting the descending connection toward the snow. The sensation to seek is letting it go, to abandon, to release, to quit holding on to it by liberating tension and taking conscience of how this modifies the support over the feet.
A possible cause for body and mental tension is when we reject the support on the snow because it is slippery. This rejection has an emotional origin coming from not accepting slipping sensations, resulting in partial or total body tensions, which provoke posture modification and grounding interruption.
Also, trunk verticality inhibits assuming the grounding posture. Many skiers pay more attention to upper body posture maintaining an upright trunk. These skiers do not arrive at this postural habit by just having a single negative experience but continuous threatening exposures. Upper body posture influences the lower body, preventing to sense tension release towards the snow.
Emotional factors affect grounding posture
The energy flow created during the execution of the grounding posture requires a smooth contact with the supporting surface. This connection depends on our mental and emotional stability, which we achieve by directing attention towards feet supporting sensations. When we experience fear or anxiety, that connection is automatically interrupted because of attitude fluctuation, altering our feet-ground relationship.
If we are emotionally blocked, our downwards energy is interrupted without reaching the ground, and if losing contact with it, we miss contact with reality by not perceiving the situation as it is but as we imagine it. Then, a vicious circle emerges: our anxiety causes loss of confidence in feet support and our loss of support triggers anxiety.
Skiing biomechanical stress
Maintaining a skiing posture is a stressful biomechanical situation. A force pressures us down, pulling us towards the ground and downhill, and to counter that pressure, we react by pressing against the ground using muscular effort when in fact, it would be better to let go down towards the slope, towards the ground, towards our feet.
To face this situation, we use our legs’ energy blocking our knees and ankles when these joints have the function of making our body flexible, not rigid. The more we prevent tension release towards our feet, the more stressed our knees and ankles become, up to a certain point in which they give up causing a fall. Instead, by leaving them flexible, our body and legs flex together in an elastic manner.
Releasing tension by exhaling
Breathing affects the execution of grounding posture. Exhaling contributes to muscle de-contraction, which is required to tension discharge while holding breath produces the opposite effect. Breathing retention is the clearest sign of a blocked posture. It is associated with strong muscular excitability and in learning how to reduce muscle tension, appropriate breathing plays a fundamental role.
Jaw release
Grounding posture is initiated by our head, in which our jaw plays an important function. It should feel loose, without teeth tightening and our tongue resting on the base of the mouth. Jaw rigidity induces neck tension, causing head mobility restrictions which spread then to the rest of our body. It is the first symptom showing that posture is fragmented and suspended in space, the opposite of a grounding stance which discharges tension downwards and contributes to a proper contact with the ground.
