In skiing, our body tends to automatically assume determined dispositions based on vestibular and postural reflexes. When our stance is altered, postural reflexes will be in charge of maintaining our postural stability, keeping our body upright and aligned by carrying out continuous adjustments.
In certain circumstances, due to the complexity in their simultaneous activation, these reflexes interfere with our skiing activity generating an additional effort. Furthermore, excessive muscular tension while achieving our skiing postures, especially at the initial stages, causes movement restriction. This produces a distorted functioning of the postural control because we are voluntarily handling something that should be natural.
If our head loses its alignment, then a righting reflex will be sufficient, but if our whole body moves out of our base of support exceeding stability limits, a balance reaction will be necessary to return to a stable posture. During human development, postural reflexes and balance reactions replace primitive reflexes. The purpose of postural reflexes is to maintain our referential posture or adapting it to the desired situation.
Lack of development in postural reflexes
As we have mentioned, the objective of our postural reflexes is to preserve our balance, posture, and proper head and body alignment. As developed in higher-order brain functions, these reflexes appear later during growth. If they do not fully develop, it may occur that in stressful situations, primitive reflexes appear first since the nervous system has no other way to respond, even if these alternative responses are inappropriate, suffering balance and coordination problems. In these cases, there will be observable consequences, as visuomotor integration problems, difficulty in controlling gaze and visual fixation, insecure head movements, poor body alignment, or defective muscle tone.
Balance reactions
Balance reactions allow us to recover our posture in the event of any change in the mechanisms preserving balance or a disturbance in gravity perception. These reactions get involved by relocating our center of gravity or adjusting the size of our base of support. In the development of postural reflexes, balance reactions are the last ones to mature.
These reactions are classified in:
- Base of support reaction, in which we move one or both feet to keep our base of sustenance under the center of gravity.
- Body reaction: we move our body to keep our center of gravity over the base of support.
- Base of support and body reaction: we increase our base of support by separating our feet simultaneously flexing our body, approaching our center of gravity to our base of support.
Head postural reflex
Our head positioning is considered as our main body posture reference, so if we correctly perceive our head spatial location, it can be interpreted that we perceive our body position. When our head is not aligned with our upper body, the cervicocollic reflex activates realigning it on the trunk by stretching our neck muscles.
Sliding reaction
A typical reaction in the beginner skier is jaw retraction, retaining his head back by tensing neck posterior muscles. This is a normal reaction triggered at the same moment in which he experiences the base of a support sliding forward, producing a cascade of reactions that elicit postural imbalances.
These reactions are: tensed back, arms used as balance recovers instead of balance stabilizers, stiff legs, and finally, podal insensitivity. The expert skier seeking sliding pleasure leaves his neck and head flexible, but maintains an appropriate tonic intensity in the rest of his body.
According to these considerations, you can apply the following recommendations in your own skiing:
- Remember that your postural reflexes will be in charge of maintaining your postural stability, keeping your body upright and aligned by carrying out continuous adjustments.
- You can reestablish your balance by applying a base of support reaction, moving one or both feet to keep your base of sustenance under your center of gravity.
- By moving your body to keep your center of gravity over your base of support, you will be using a complete body reaction.
- To recover from an imbalance, increase your base of support by separating your feet and simultaneously flex your body, approaching your center of gravity to your base of support.
- Control that your jaw is always in advance, which will prevent retaining your head back by tensing neck posterior muscles.
