The sense of touch is the first sense that develops in the uterus and the most widespread sensory system of the body through the skin. The cerebral area that process tactile information, the somatosensory cortex, is one of the biggest because of the amount of information it deals with. This sense is perceived from sensations of contact, vibrations, and pressure that occurs through the deformation of certain parts of our body surface, especially feet (sensations caused by the deformation of the skis or by the surface of the ground) and hands (sensation of pole support). Our brain can detect and memorize these tactile sensations and revive them when we mentally reproduce the images of the movements that created those sensations.
Being conscious of our body comes from sensorial experiences of touching and being touched. We sense that we ‘touch’ the snow with our skis and poles, but at the same time, we experience being touched by our clothes and ski boots.
Through tactile sensations, we perceive the mechanical energy of our skis deforming to adapt to the snow surface and to the turn characteristics. We perceive our poles touching the snow; pushing the snow with the ski tails when braking or even the resistance of a bump or deep snow. In this view, the sensitivity of our plantar receptors is essential to inform the physical properties of the support. Feet have a fundamental role in stability and motion since they have the double function of being sensory detectors and action effectors.
Touch and contact
Contact is receptive, like the effect produced by the rubbing of our ski boots or clothes against the skin. This is caused in a subconscious form in which we know that something is touching us, but do not pay much attention because it is an acquired habit, something physical that limits our body. On the contrary, touch projects body sensations, bringing them to our reflection.
Touch uses contact to recognize; it is a consciousness that goes beyond our body limits and the sensation intensity strengthens our experience of connecting both surfaces: one of our body and one of the objects. Touch is proactive and conscious in which we discover the necessary link between us and our skis and, in turn, leads to a more important connection which is the bond among our skis and the snow.
We seek touch because of the needs of body-snow connection, achieving it through tactile information. Touch causes an imprint in our skiing, an effect that alters our body consciousness modifying our learning process.
Proactive and reactive touch
According to our behavior, the sense of touch can be classified as proactive and reactive. In the proactive touch, we exhibit fine and discriminative motor skills, a visual perception developed within a conscious body schema, and certain efficiency by exploring how the skis interact with the snow to obtain information so we can give it a meaning, which is the case seen in the expert skier.
In the reactive touch, or protective, we interpret the tactile sensation as threatening. This predisposes us to avoid it, being in a constant state of alert and adopting a defensive attitude towards sliding. This is generally seen in beginner levels in which the sensations of touch fluctuate, being sometimes too much and some not enough.
Fine touch and crude touch
Fine touch, or discriminative, is oriented towards the perception of details of the touched surface, the speed of the stimulus by the nerve fibers is quick, and does not need other senses to discriminate and locate the stimulus. Our fine touch receptors are highly sensitive and have a limited area of reception. They provide specific information about shape, size, texture, location, and movement of the stimulus as also the subtle graduation of pressure and vibration. Fine tactile sensations of shapes, textures, and vibrations help the skier guide his actions.
Crude touch, or non-discriminative, does not have the fine touch sensory discrimination since it only distinguishes broadly features, its speed is slow, and needs other senses to locate the stimulus. It is the stimulation of low sensitivity receptors with large reception areas of our skin.
The haptic sense
The term comes from the Greek “haptō” that is relative to touch. The haptic sense is composed of tactile sensitivity and kinesthetic, i.e., touch in motion. It is a moving, active and dynamictouch that allows sliding information pickup. Through skis-snow friction, this sense collects sensations produced by snow texture, slope surface, and vibrations.
The sense of touch allows skin perception in which the part of our body segment stimulated remains still and only the part of the surface of the skin is deformed while touching or being touched. In the haptic sense, on the other hand, stimulation comes from the active exploration of our feet and hands, being in contact with skis and poles, replicating snow surface contour. This sense is characterized by pressure (sustained touch) in motion and causes the deformation of our muscles and joints as well as surface skin. Gibson (1962) proposed two haptic sense stimulation components: the extero-specific, which identifies the specific qualities (forms, texture, surface roughness, etc.), and the propio-specific, relative to the movement of the limbs at the time of the exploratory activity.
Our haptic sensations are not only obtained from skis-snow contact. Dragging the inside pole provides information we apply to detect body inclination degrees. This sense is also related to the concept of extended body perception, resulting from skis-snow contact, being perceived as part of the body schema. It is experienced by perceiving snow texture while sliding, the pressure exerted or resisted at copying the contour of a mogul, or the friction when scraping or carving the snow with the edges. The haptic sensation of sliding is pursued by kids but often rejected by adult beginners.
Developing this sense together with vision, allow us to experience the sensations produced by the skis on the snow which we can get to know its tactile qualities through skis and poles, distinguishing different snow types (ice, powder); discriminate between crude touch (hard/soft snow), and fine touch (the friction level of fast/slow snow or wet/dry conditions); discriminate the ground surface (smooth, irregular or bumpy); distinguish slope shape (convex, concave, double fall line) or develop tactile memory.
According to these considerations, you can apply the following recommendations in your own skiing:
- Remember that through the sense of touch you perceive sensations of contact, vibrations, and pressure.
- Develop your feet’s tactile sensations in order to perceive the mechanical energy of your skis deforming to adapt to snow surface and turn characteristics.
- Focus on your feet as sensory detectors and action effectors.
- Discover your body-snow connection through tactile information.
- The sensations of touch will fluctuate as you start being sensory conscious, going from reactive to proactive touch, and from crude touch to fine touch.
- As you develop your haptic sense, you will start collecting sensations produced by snow texture, slope surface, skis vibrations, and body oscillations.
