Each one of us involuntarily receives or voluntarily picks up information during skiing through sensory receptors. External energy is taken by these receptors and transformed into nervous energy. The loss of a receptor response is produced after the stimulation remains without changes for a certain time.
The body has multiple receptors in joints (detecting limb movements and positions); in muscles and tendons (detecting body posture and muscle contractions and relaxation); in the inner ear (detecting head posture and movement, gravity, acceleration and movement changes detected by the vestibular sense or balance changes) and in the skin (detecting tactile sensations, temperature, pressure and pain).
While sensory receptors pick up stimuli, it is in our brain where sensations occur. We hear a sound through our ears or see through our eyes but these stimuli become real only when our brain processes them.
After visual receptors, we base mainly on touch receptors since they provide information from our feet. The touch mechanoreceptors of our feet are sensitive to forces applied to the soles, providing us with essential information on direction and amplitude of pressures exerted towards the snow to deform the skis as for our postural references.
At the initial stage of learning, we rely on visual receptors to control body posture and later on, we will benefit from proprioceptive receptors as well.
Classification of the sensory receptors
Interoceptors detect sensations of the internal organs of our body, i.e., the visceral or interoceptive sensitivity.
Proprioceptors capture deep or proprioceptive sensitivity. They are divided into unconscious proprioceptors as neuromuscular spindles, which detect changes in muscle length; myotatic reflex caused by muscle stretching; the vestibular system of the inner ear which provides information on balance and tilt, and motion acceleration or deceleration. This system operates through two types of receptors: the otoliths detect head and body position in space, controlling our posture and vertical and horizontal movements. They activate while skiing on bumps or on terrains with pronounced ups and downs. The semi-circular canals detect changes in angular acceleration and deceleration, being activated when carrying out wide turns.
Conscious proprioceptors are located in joints, muscles, and tendons reporting body position as well as movements speed and amplitude.
The exteroceptors capture information on external situations and objects, being located near the surface of our body such as visual, auditory and dermal receptors. The different exteroceptors types are Pacinian corpuscles found in muscles, which are activated when they receive pressure. They are more numerous in hands and feet; Meissner corpusclesare sensitive to touch; Krause corpusclesare sensitive to cold; Ruffini corpusclesare sensitive to heat; Golgi’s tendon organsare found in tendons and are activated by muscle pressure; free nerves endings possess a sensorial polymodality.
Kinesthesia
Kinesthesia is the aptitude for perceiving movements and it is considered a sense. While moving our body in its different parts, receptors are activated by extension, flexion and pressure movements creating the kinesthetic sense.
For example, feet mechanoreceptors are tactile receptors that respond to mechanical stimuli reporting about pressure, vibration and movement. They are responsible for transmitting to the nervous system the sensory information of physical deformations generated by the internal or external forces. This sense not only informs our posture and movement; it also does about muscle tension and the degree of muscular effort to perform certain skiing actions.
According to these considerations, you can apply the following suggestions in your own skiing:
- Remember that you have many sensory receptors in your joints, muscles, tendons, skin, and inner ear. You are aware of your skiing sensations through them.
- Start focusing on sensations in your feet.
- As you become familiar with sensations, start anticipating them.
