Article on Knee Injuries

[jayfrizzo]

And a bit about how to prevent them.
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jan/01062004/tuesday/tuesday.asp

I don't know jack about ski binders. Do they release to prevent the 2 types of injuries discussed? I'm thinking about turning my DIN way down, and only turn it up if I lose skis when I don't wanna. I fell a couple times yesterday and my knee and hips didn't like the forces applied to them.

J-

[Vinman]

Unfortunately binders do not release in these types of injuries. Currently there is no way for the binding to "sense" these types of forces. In fact, in the phantom foot type of injury bindings are designed to old the boot in, since this is basically the same type of mechanics as a normal turn but with the body off balance and in the backseat. The binding has no way of knowing that the skier is in the backseat and ast the ski continues to turn and the body stays back it places too much stress on the ACL and "POP" another on bits the dust.

[Crinkle]

The researchers identified six elements that, if all were present, inevitably led to injury to the downhill knee. They occurred in almost any order during a sudden loss of balance or control:
* Uphill arm back.
* Skier off-balance to the rear.
* Hips below the knees.
* Uphill ski unweighted.
* Weight on the inside edge of the downhill ski tail.
* Upper body generally facing the downhill ski.


and where is the fun in this:


To prevent such injuries, skiers need to break habits that can land them in dangerous situations, avoid risky behavior and learn to disrupt the sequence of events that ends with a pop.

[altagirl]

Even if you had bindings set on zero you could still tear an ACL.

To me, the biggest thing is learning to actually quit/take it easy when I'm too tired and sore. I tore my acl after 4 straight days of bell to bell in October (so obviously not in ski condition to start with). So stiff and sore I could barely walk that morning and I went out and skied bumps first run. I'm a genius.

The large majority of the people I know who trashed their knees skiing did it when they should have listened to their body and quit (or at least taken it easy) but didn't. That and staying out of the backseat (in addition to letting yourself fall once you're falling - don't try to recover on a knee that's strained and off-balance) are the main factors, the way I see it. The rest are freak accidents that you can't do much to prevent.

(Aside from that whole avoid risky behaviour nonsense...)

[Vinman]

Originally posted by altagirl
Even if you had bindings set on zero you could still tear an ACL.

The large majority of the people I know who trashed their knees skiing did it when they should have listened to their body and quit (or at least taken it easy) but didn't. That and staying out of the backseat (in addition to letting yourself fall once you're falling - don't try to recover on a knee that's strained and off-balance) are the main factors, the way I see it.

Right on. especially the 0 DIN part and the listening to you body part.

[splat]

I went through the mechanics of the backseat fall with Jason Levinthal and the engineer for Line's Pivogee binding last year at SIA. The amount of force necessary to get a standard binding to release in that scenario is enough to snap a 2x4.

[truth]

Originally posted by splat
The amount of force necessary to get a standard binding to release in that scenario is enough to snap a 2x4.

Splat, I'd use a circular saw for resizing 2 x 4's, the extra dust is not really that bad with all the time you save.

[Theodore]

When does that Line binding come out? I have a bad knee and it looks very promising. They have a full write up on it at their website.

Ted

[splat]

Originally posted by Theodore
When does that Line binding come out? I have a bad knee and it looks very promising. They have a full write up on it at their website.

Ted

Maybe this year. Heard there was a problem with some parts or something.