Diary of a knee injury

Just a short clip from today confirming you can eventually ski again after knee injury. No real offpiste yet, never managed to ski past lunchtime and need plenty of lessons to try and get confidence back and iron out technical flaws. Importantly you will eventually start to enjoy even if confidence is not 100% there yet. Plenty of work to do but making progress.

http://youtu.be/FhWpdhci98M

I too had knee surgery in December - consultant told me I would be on the easy stuff in March, I am not so sure so have resigned myself to a week of enjoying being in Austria, sitting on the slopes in a deckchair, going around on the local buses, walks and cake shops. Medical and Physio Team think I might be OK to try two days equipment hire and ski pass (also so that I don't waste a shed load of money) so I can ski the easy nursery slopes below the main gondola! Been very painful having it all cleaned out, and knee cap realigned, but light at the end of the tunnel now!!

Your body will let you know when ready. However if someone were to ask me at what point you can ski again I would say when you can skip with rope. If you can do that confidently you have good power and control back in leg.

Considering how badly you trashed your knee and how long you've been out that looks pretty good to me, give it a couple weeks and you should be up for the Pas de Chevre :D.

It's very difficult to tell for sure in that light, but it looks to me that your left leg is a bit knock-kneed. Have you had your alignment checked?

My mum would be proud, bad genes or malnutrition. Am pretty sure knee is aligned as have been in and out of physio, could it be knee brace on that side? Regardless we were not working on knock knee, mainly of trying to ski faster/more dynamic, playing with angles, behavior of upper body and ski contact (for/aft pressures). Video and then watching frame by frame is definitely a good way to relate to what is actually going on. Some new drills to play with today which should be fun for a few hrs.

Ranchero_1979 wrote:My mum would be proud, bad genes or malnutrition. Am pretty sure knee is aligned as have been in and out of physio, could it be knee brace on that side? Regardless we were not working on knock knee, mainly of trying to ski faster/more dynamic, playing with angles, behavior of upper body and ski contact (for/aft pressures). Video and then watching frame by frame is definitely a good way to relate to what is actually going on. Some new drills to play with today which should be fun for a few hrs.

You might be onto something with the knee brace thought.
Anecdotally.....
I was wearing a brace last year for a minor left knee problem.
After the first day I found my "good" knee struggling and so put a brace on both knees for the rest of the week (I had taken a strong brace with hinges and metal and a softer one with plastic bands for support).
Wearing a brace on both knees seemed to balance me up much better.

I thought I'd mention it because a knock-kneed stance stresses the knee. The ligaments and tendons are stretched on the insides and pinched on the outsides. This is one of the reasons why women suffer more knee injuries than men. A woman's pelvis is wider, which means the femur approaches the knee at a wider angle.



One of the local women I know has severely injured one of her knees 3 times and another friend (a mountain guide) ruptured her ACL and MCL two weeks ago.

I don't think the physio would have spotted it, unless you were wearing ski boots. It could be the brace, but as I've never had to use one I don't know what effect they have. It might be worth asking your instructor as she has a much better view.

Most people have some degree of misalignment. My right leg is a bit bent, and because I skied on it 'as is' for 20 odd years I now have some knee damage.

I was actually saying the brace in terms of one knee being 2-3cm bigger than other by time you have brace on and have then folded over thermals etc. You would need to play frame by frame and give a time where you see something funny. Was actually made to do lots of squats jumps etc in front on physio and osteopath with very little on. Cannot see why adding ski boots would change anything apart from you start to see ski technique issues vs physiological ones. Importantly I guess there is little you can do about it anyway.

What we were really working on is trying to correct are things like.
Stance width:- trying to widen it in order allow creation of more angle. see sec 28, 33. Something I really need to focus on when setting off and then seems to stay there.
Are both skis working. see 35 (good) and 36 (not so good for a fraction of second and then good).
My right arm has a tendency to follow through a bit. Not a disaster but aesthetically not very pretty and definitely more of an issue in bumps and powder. See end of second 36, arm should ideally hot have come that far through. Next turn sec 37 much better for radius of turn. If you see someone doing pole drills in Chamonix is likely me.
Lastly my legs which occasionally wants to lift vs feeling edge change. Again not good for bumps or aesthetics. (23, 39).
The run was a steep black with perfect snow conditions and very close to perfect fall line. Aim was really to ski it as fast as possible doing short turns.