Message #14779

[jim-ratliff]

 ?

It's a fact of physics.? Which makes it easier to pull a BIG nail out of a board, a hammer or a 12" crowbar.? The longer lever exerts more force when you are applying force to the end of the lever.

The width of the ski is also a lever, but in tipping the ski you are fighting against the leverage.? So if you edge 185 pounds off the snow with a lever of 35mm (half of the ski width) that doesn't take nearly as much force as doing the same weight with a 50mm lever.? A given weight at the end of a longer lever creates a lot more torque.? Ask your ankles (or ask mine).? When skiing a wide ski on a firm surface, how much more work do your ankles have to do to tip that ski.

I think those forces get passed up to the knees - and hopefully the knees are well supported by muscles rather than resisting the effort with ligaments.

However, I don't think there are a whole lot of muscles that support "twisting" of the knee so that is much harder on the ligaments.? Aren't most athletic knee injuries the result of quick changes of direction (or side impacts that the knee also was NOT designed to resist).