08 Addendum

Additional considerations

-Canting is referenced in ‘degrees’, but should really be applied in thousandths of an inch.

I was told way back when, that nobody needed anything more than 3 degrees of canting.  That statement has been proven false on enough occasions to be regarded as laughable.

-Cant evaluation in a static setting is at best, a guess.

-Cant evaluation on a two footed-bias will be suited for two-footed skiing, where the load presented by the skier is borne more or less equally by both feet, and balancing is done collaboratively, rather than individually.

-There is no ‘right’ place to arrange the various joints as evaluated using a reference plane and simple geometry. Outcomes are appropriate when muscle activity has been calmed, and free range of movement has been restored.

-‘Measuring’ top performing athletes and applying those measurements to the general populace is no guarantee of success.  Most athletes in that elite group are there because they fit a particular physical condition.  In short, they are physically predisposed to ski well. ( See one- armed bandit).

-Cant evaluation done by applied geometry borders on well-meaning fraud.

-Canting needs to be applied in real time, and the effect verified in motion, in order to be successful.

-Canting by itself will not change an athletes’ skiing performance, but will allow the athlete to pursue movement options which may not have been available previously.  These options, accurately employed, have the capacity for dramatic improvement in performance.

-Canting is also the last thing to be addressed, as all other adjustments will affect the evaluation and effect of canting.

Applied in the order listed, and with sufficient care, ’alignment’ will remove or significantly reduce the obstacles to fluid and intuitive movement on skis.  As the processes are dependent on outcome rather than measurement, it is vital that communicate effectively with the subject to determine whether or not you have been both accurate and precise with the parameter in question.

This can be tricky.

The difference between ‘on the money’ and  ‘missed the target’ is slight, but significant.

One difficulty remains, however, and that is resolving the years, days, and hours of effort previously devoted to skiing with an obstructive boot/binding interface.  To say nothing of the identity the athlete has developed along the way.