Functional assessments for skiers

Great stuff Evaino!  You are the "P" in my TAPP!

 

Chris Fellows has a book that includes this type of "testing" (as well as LOTS of other stuff)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Total-Skiing-Chris-Fellows/dp/0736083650

 

 

Great thread and an excellent concept. For the large majority of people however I'd take yet another step further back. When I ask a person to get into an athletic, ready posture, be he/she a skier, golfer or other sportsman, it is astonishing how few have any idea what that entails. This is true even of some elite athletes, especially juniors, and its pretty much universal among the man in the street. Specifically, most people get into a kind of pose, with their bums sticking out and chins jutting up - a caricature of what they think an athletic posture should look like, but with none of the functional tension that stabilizes the core (pelvis and spine). Typically they clench their abs, but their femurs are collapsed into internal rotation, the shoulder girdle (scapulae and clavicles) ride high and forward which in turn closes down the shoulder joint and internally rotates the upper arms, and the neck is hyperextended. Do a deadlift with any sort of weight from this faux "athletic posture" (and many do) and my neurosurgeon colleagues will sooner or later have another laminectomy candidate. 

 

Here, briefly, are the keys.

 

(i) The femurs are kept in a neutral to slightly externally rotated position in the hip socket. This requires contraction in the deep gluteal muscles (gemellus, obturator, piriformis group) which few people know they have. Basically their butts have gone to sleep over the years. Feel this by keeping your feet stable on the floor and using your butt to open out the thighs.

 

(ii) The abdominal sheath is tensioned from the top of the pubis to its upper insertion at the bottom of the sternum. Focus on that point and lift your chest up against that tension.

 

(iii) Drop your shoulder blades down and inward as if you wanted to move them into your back pockets. This is really hard for many people - its as if their shoulder blades are frozen against their rib cage. Feel this by grabbing a rod, holding it above your head and trying to bow it upwards using your back muscles. Note how your upper arms rotate outwards and your shoulder joint opens up.

 

(iv) Keep your neck in a neutral, not extended, position. May feel like you have a slight double chin. A useful tip is to touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth keeping a relaxed jaw.

 

That's an athletic posture.

 

Practicing it while walking is the easiest way to make it feel natural. It takes a while. Or just say the hell with it and go skiing! But you'll ski better if you do so from a real athletic posture.

Evaino,

 

Is there a translation issue in your first post when you say "overhead deep squat test using only their bodyweight..." ?  I think you mean diagnostic or overview deep squat test. 

 

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This is a thought-provoking thread.  As regards the last post's discussion of athletic ready posture, I would say that if you find you have a definition that not even many elite, athletic juniors understand, there maybe a problem with your definition.  If your definition includes terms like contracted deep glutes and tensing the abdominal sheath from top of the pubis to the insertion at the bottom of the sternum, that's even more of a sign that you're not talking a natural athletic position or state of readiness. 

 

Even the whole talk of stabilizing the core is overblown -- you obviously don't want to threaten your spine, etc., and want stability in that way, but if you stabilize your core with a tense abdomen, contracted glutes, shoulder blades and chin drawn back, etc., you can't move until you undo those things.  That's not athletic.  Be able to move from stable to dynamic balance and back is athletic.

 

 

Not my definition. It's a concept well understood by the top trainers that hasn't filtered down to the masses. It's not that people don't understand it, they've never been taught it, it's not intuitive and it takes practice. One can move far more powerfully and freely from this position - it represents both stable and dynamic balance. Anyway, take it or leave it - it's your core!

Well, skiers, soccer goalies, point guards, wide receivers, etc. all don't move from that position, they tend to be more in the first version of a ready stance you'd mentioned.  It's not a concept embraced by "top" trainers, or even some subset like top yoga instructors.  Even powerlifters, who definitely do not want dynamic balance, debate how much bracing is either needed or good for a sport where stability paramount. 

 

For purposes of ski instruction, the question becomes what perceived benefits are going to flow from encouraging non-intuitive posture different from what top skiers use that constrains movement.

Actually the best ones do. It's not really a question of "bracing", it's the correct alignment of pelvis and spine brought about by the functional tension I described. Once it's habitual it is not a "tense' position; the contrary in fact. And it is protective of vulnerable backs and necks, at least to the degree it's possible to protect them. I have an extensive formal background in this area (MD, neurologist; PhD, neuromuscular physiology and biomechanics). I have worked and continue to work with the members of a major national ski team (among other groups). Presumably there are some perceived benefits flowing. There is extensive research in support of the concepts I described.

 

In any event, I thought the OP's post was a good one. If my addition to it resonates with anyone, especially those who get back pain from skiing, great. If not, well I have wasted a few minutes. 

 

Have a great and injury-free season all.

The basic point is that starting with, say, contracted glutes and abs isn't the way to be athletic.  The commonly understood  "athletic ready position" is commonly understood, and used in sports ranging from golf to skiing, in addition to baseball, football, soccer, etc. for a reason. 

 

As regards expanding core to include things like neck and calves (which I have also seen) it's a way of expanding the concept to the point where it's useless.  I fully expect to see someone soon call the big toe "core," and while big toes are very important to a lot of things, core they ain't.

 

As regards overhead squats, thanks for the clarification.  What was the percent of failure due to upper body flexibility issues as opposed to lower body?  Many good, very fit skiers would fail at this due to the range of movement involved.  Even many good athletes in sports like rock climbing, where shoulders are much more important, would also fail for the same reason.  That may be the point, in terms of measuring fitness beyond the demands of the sport, but some sort of single-leg test might be a substitute for some people.

No time wasted. Great stuff. I'm still working through it.

not long-winded, sometimes details is good!  thx!

i'm actually going for a functional movement analysis in a wk or two ...to me it's a win win just like when you go to physio for something that is not working

in my books you're only as strong as your weakest link

I've been using the FMS protocol to help evaluate structural discrepancies for awhile among skiers, and I find it a useful tool. The movements all look simple, but are not necessarily that easy to perform with 100 percent accuracy. I agree with your points and applaud your contribution.  I would share with readers of this post, however, that first, it does take some practice with a number of subjects to train the eye to properly identify anomalies, for instance, according to the criteria established by FMS, a few points could be made about the individual in the video as displaying some eccentricities. And second, once a movement pattern is identified as needing improvement, it is sometimes not quite so obvious what the best corrective exercises might be, despite the guidelines in the pdf file. For instance, someone presenting a degree of lumbar lordosis during movement may not realize that working on stretching and elongating the psoas muscles might be indicated. Individuals wanting more information can go to www.functionalmovement.com. There is a full-on certification program that they offer for health and fitness professionals (and it's not particularly cheap). For more immediate information, there are several YouTube videos that show some of the assessment movements in action, and the book Athletic Body in Balance by Gray Cook gives a good overview of how FMS works into athletic development, available on Amazon.

P.S., Elsbeth, are you FMS certified?

Edited by georgert - 9/24/11 at 10:15pm

Great stuff, Thanks Eviano!!!!!!!!!

 

http://www.functionalmovement.com/experts/ElsbethVaino
 

 

Well, like you I am a CSCS. I am also a personal trainer and group fitness instructor in the summer and coach ski racing in the winter. (I spent a couple of weeks at Hood this summer with Jazz and her group by the way.) I actually stumbled across FMS just by surfing around the web and bookstores looking for information that would give me a better understanding of biomechanics and functional training. I picked up a copy of Cook's book, read it, did a self assessment with a video camera (not pretty), and then started trying it out on some of the athletes with whom I work. I am not certified in FMS, I'm currently working on a group fitness instructor cert from ACE. Incidentally, although I didn't get much in the way of details, I was recently at the NSCA facility in Colorado Springs and was speaking to one of the trainers there. He told me that the NSCA had not signed off on FMS yet, i.e., it's not something they endorse, although I saw an article on movement screens in a back issue of the the Strength and Conditioning Journal. Cheers.

 

Elsbeth, nice job with the mini and the start of correctives. Its a sized chunk easy enough for someone to get a start with & want for more when they feel some results. Docbrad brought up Chris Fellows book total skiing. Check it out when you can as it has some nice on snow assessments to play around with. Along with great skiing info.

Harddaysnite thanks for posting the specific descriptions of how to achieve an athletic posture. I would emphasize the glute/hip complex activation is to bring the pelvis forward to a proper alignment with the spine. The slight outward femur rotation is a good key that the knees are not being locked in error or compensation for weak glutes. I needed the ribcage & scapula reminders. And of course you're dead on with the entire thing and the benefits are lifelong when it is habit.
Athletic posture has been around a half century or more under the guise of proper posture. Taught to many during our Jr.High phys ed classes. Most commomly described as "squeeze the butt, suck in the gut, chest up,shoulders back, head up, eyes forward." Some took it serious, but at that.agemostarewIn the slumps of trying on a variety of postures expressing rebellion, refusal, boredom. Hence your experience with juniors. Plus, juniors often have an inability to access memory of things their supposed to do:rolleyes.

CTKook, the various sport specific ready positions are for a moment in time til the gun gos off and the action starts. Players walk up to a line of scrimmage,most looking like strong pillars, the set position is just a moment in time. Baseball players at elite levels stand in the field in an athletic posture until the pitcher starts his windup. In unison 7 players ready in to a spring position for just the moment it takes the ball to cross the plate or go in play.
The commonly understood ready position is commonly misunderstood and often overused as an "always" ready position much to the detriment of a junior players structural development. Lots of excesses and imbalances develop setting them up for injury or time consuming hard work to correct for future success..
Edited by 911over - 9/26/11 at 11:31pm

 

 

Here are some cueing tips from Piulates that may help you find this posture:

 

i) practice finding your "neutral spine" by gently tilting your pelvis up (shortening the distance between your pubic bone and bottom of your rib cage using your abdominal muscles) and down. It may be easiest to do this from a supine position first, gently imprinting your lower back (taking the natural curve out and flattening it against the floor/mat) then reversing the motion into a gentle extension, increasing the curve by making your tailbone heavy. Be very gentle when doing this! A neutral spine should be in between, with a slight curve and you will have 3 "anchor points": your should blades and tailbone. Additionally, the ribs should not be in extension and the back of the lower rib cage should rest on the ground - but this will require strong obliques and transverse abdominus mucles so don't worry too much about this last bit yet. Keep your breastbone soft and try not to extend your upper body initially.

 

ii) In Pilates we will cue activating your "powerhouse" (a cylinder bounder by the pelvic floor on the bottom, diaphragm on top, tranversus abdominus are the walls and the seam are the multifidus of the spine) by drawing your lower abdomen (belly button to pubis) in to your spine. Most people will tighten their rectus abdominus and not activate their core completely.

 

iii) good exercises to "landmark" are 1) kneel on all fours with your wrists beneath your shoulders and knees beneath your hips and keep your spine neutral (no extension or flexion). Stand tall on your arms to draw the shoulder blades apart then sink down to bring them together. This will help mobilize the should blades. 2) Draw your shoulders up towards your ears, then lower them by reaching your fingertips to the floor keeping. Do this keeping your shoulder blades together. These exercises will help you feel the correct posture described above.

 

iv) we will cue neck position by thinking of generating length through the back of the body. Hold a broom handle (or other straight pole) against your spine and adjust so that your neck and thoracic spine are against the broom handle. Nod your head gently forward from the top of the cervical spine.

 

When doing these be gentle and don't force anything. Some of us are very tight so it will take time to generate the flexibility and mobility required for good posture.

 

Hope this helps. PM me with any specific questions.

 

 

Another useful cue for squats is to think of widening the sit bones as you descend. To rise, push from your heels to activate the glute/hamstring muscles rather than pulling primarily with the quads. Reaching your breastbone and sit bones in opposition helps maintain a balanced position that'll keep your shoulders, knees and ankles in line. Keep your knees in line with your big and 2nd toe to avoid them winging out or inward.

 

Practicing these movements in the off season definitely helps reprogram the bad movement habits many of us picked up over the years. Crikey, I'm still working on them after 6 or 7 hours of Pilates a week for the last 18 months...