Are you skiing this year? Do you hope to have the best season yet, here are some tips from Function Jigsaw, Tom Heeley. Things not to miss and things not to forget.
- Build up strength
Prior to your trip make sure you complete some simple exercises to improve your fitness and reduce the risk of injury whilst you are away. Skiing is a very specialist sport and uses a host of different muscles, which you often would not use playing football, rugby or cycling.
Lunges, squats and balance drills are great ways of training the specialist muscles and skills to be prepared for your holiday.
Here is Team GB and British Skier Pete Speight discussing his rehab and strength training.
- Have a practice before you go
Make sure to brush up on your technique before you go, visit a local snow centre for a quick lesson before you go. With the Sheffield ski centre soon to return, that will make 15 snow centres available to practice at. A perfect chance to trial your new boots, goggles and skis to make your holiday that little bit more fuss free.
The new £22.5m renovation at the Sheffield ski centre just shows how much the UK snow scene has come on in recent years.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-42157424
- Make sure your clothes are suitable
Make a list of items needed and tick them off as you go. Have a little dummy run of trying all items on and making sure everything fits. Even items from last year, you may have put on some extra pounds during the seasonal period.
Here is a little list:
- Socks
- Leggings
- Under tops
- Fleece
- Goggles/ sunglasses
- Hat
- Gloves
- Balaclava
- Jacket
- Salopettes
- … don’t forget the hip flask!
TK Maxx and Decathlon are good places to start looking for items, ski clothing can be expensive too, if you can, plan ahead to buy in the sales saving yourself some money.
- Have your skis serviced before you fly
If you are lucky enough to own your own skis, make sure to visit a local mountain shop to have the edges sharpened, bases waxed and the bindings checked.
Renting skis is easily done too and can be organised here before you fly. Intersport, skiset, ski hire, twinner, are all good places to start looking and they will often do deals so if you are traveling as a group it may be worth booking together to save.
- Get a helmet
It sounds a little bit daft to say this but the severity of head injuries is being taken more and more seriously. A concussion is simply the brain being rattled against the walls of the skull-causing mild to severe bruising on the brain.
Football are taking large steps into the impacts of heading the ball, rugby and NFL already do so, and boxing is looking into the long term effects of recurrent blows to the head.
If you want more information, the two links below highlight the importance of correct concussion (or any bang to the head) management.
https://functionjigsaw.co.uk/blogs/taking-concussion-seriously-scat-test/
- Enjoy the après
Every ski resort has plenty of bars and clubs to visit and enjoy, mulled wine is a must and most bars have a happy hour. Time it right and you could easily travel from bar to bar hitting each happy hour. Don’t have too much though, skiing with a hangover is certainly not a great plan.
Al Folie Douce is the place to be seen in many French resorts, be sure to check out the plans at these bars before you go away.
https://www.lafoliedouce.com/en/
For any further information from Function Jigsaw visit British Ski and Snowboards website below.
http://www.teambss.org.uk/about-us/injury-management
