Men are from Chamonix…women are from Gstaad Which is another way of saying women are not small men, says Mark Jones

DID YOU ENJOY watching the Olympics? It’s amazing how certain sports dictate the type of body-shape needed. Let’s face it (and I’m not being heightist), there are no short people in the high jump! However, go to a ski instructors’ convention and you could be forgiven for thinking you had walked into a tea party for the vertically challenged!
Whether we like it or not, body shape has a huge influence on our capabilities as skiers, and on the key movements needed within our technique. There is no better illustration of this than the differences between men and women. In this issue we focus on those differences, and explore how women can compensate for them in technique.

PELVIS
This is one of the major differences between us: women have a wider pelvis than men, which makes a significant difference in how their legs move. Because the legs have to come down from a relatively wide angle, it means the knees tend to come together more. The result is more of a pronounced ‘A’ frame compared with men.

How does this affect performance?
Ideally, when skis are rolled over onto an edge, both skis do the same thing at the same time. But with the knees coming together, it’s harder to get both thighs to work at the same rate, which obviously affects the action of the skis. If the thighs are not working together at the same rate, neither will the skis. This means the skis will not have the same edge-angle: this will reduce grip, and make it harder to make a smooth transition from one turn to the next.

What can you do about it (if you’re a woman)?
Try to be more active in steering with the inner leg. So, whenever you’re moving into a new turn, think about moving the inside knee and thigh to the inside of the turn.
A clear marker would be that there will always be an even gap between the knees. If you feel them coming together and moving apart, it’s because you’re not activating that inner leg. It’s very common for women skiers always to have a greater edge-angle on the outer ski than the inner ski. In fact, if you look at the photos of me next to Lizzie Pigot, you’ll see a pronounced difference in the alignment of both legs as they come through the turn. The goal here is to have both skis on the same edge-angle at the same time. To make that happen, you’ll have to work harder on getting that inner ski to edge.

CENTRE OF MASS
A woman’s centre of mass is lower and further back than a man’s. This was the main impetus that made
manufacturers produce women-specific skis: the bindings were mounted further forward, and the heel raised under the binding. All this was designed to move that balancepoint forward. So, before you even think about technique, try out some skis specifically designed for women. It should give your skiing a boost.

How can it affect your performance?
The difference in the centre of mass makes it more difficult to initiate the turn. It also makes it physically harder to pivot and steer the skis.

What can you do about it?
Focus on making sure you’re well balanced and centred during the change from one turn to the next. At this point, you should feel more weight over the ball of the foot, ready to cope with moving down the slope.
Essentially, at all times, you should feel your body is ‘stacked up’ over the skis, so that maximum power goes through the middle of the ski. Whenever you need to make strong steering movements, you have to be well balanced, with your body well aligned, which will then allow you to utilise all your strengths.

BELOW THE KNEE
To try to keep things simple, I’m going to group together a few physical characteristics which cause the same outcome. Compared with men women have shorter tibias, narrower heels and smaller forefoot shapes.

How can it affect your performance?
It reduces the ability to get powerful ankle flex, and gives less of a strong, muscular platform to drive the ski through the turn.

What can you do about it?
To compensate for the ankle, when steering through the turn, make sure your upper body is forward enough to redress the balance. It should feel as though your chin is always over your toes, at any point through the turn. The whole point of this is to try to get pressure to move further forward through the feet.
Also, the more muscular tension there is through the lower leg and foot, the more it will restrict the flexion of the ankle: try to reduce tension. Make sure you have a well fitted ski boot that has the right flex with a supportive footbed. This will allow the ankle and foot to relax, and get more freedom of movement within that joint.

Boot alignment
Another factor which will have a great effect on all these points is the alignment of the ski boot. It’s well worth getting a boot fitting specialist to check the angle of the canting through the shaft of the boot, and adjust it as necessary. If you want to take it further, you can see an alignment specialist who will be able to adjust the angle of the base of the boot and the footbed to make a more efficient interface. This might sound pretty heavy handed - after all, it’s only skiing! But in my experience, getting expert boot alignment makes a massive difference to performance for women skiers.

Courtesy of Ski and Board Magazine www.skiclub.co.uk | Photos by Mark Junak www.snowimages.co.uk