Hello from Saas Fee, Switzerland!
This is one of my favorite places in the world to ski in the summer/fall because the training is usually pretty awesome with lots of sunshine (if the weather cooperates), the town is so cute and fun to walk around and get coffee in with friends, and the surrounding valley has so many post skiing activities (amazing hikes, tennis and beach volleyball courts, mini golf, soccer field, ice baths and more!). You can read this blog from my time here last summer for more details about what a day in the life in Saas Fee is like.
Today’s blog is a bit of a deep dive into the intricacies of my equipment set up, a follow up on last week’s blog and also an attempt to answer my Uncle’s question in a previous blog post “what the heck is a ramp angle???” It might get a little technical and nerdy, so if you want you can always just skip to the photos at the end :)
This past week I took a train to the Head Factory in Kennelbach, Austria to meet with Zamir, one of the Head (my ski sponsor for the past two years) reps who helps me fit my boots for the season. Zamir helped me a ton last season and he was also in Chile this summer, so we were able to talk about my current boot set up, what I was struggling with in my skiing, and what changes I could make in my set up to possibly help solve some of my problems. We agreed on what boots he was going to build for me this summer, and then I went to the factory two days ago to get them ‘fit’ to my feet, which basically means grinding them and making sure everything feels perfect.
Making sure my equipment (skis, boots, bindings) is set up in the best way possible is extremely important, and boots are a huge part of that.
I used to think equipment set up didn’t matter that much, and it was best for me to just focus on the skiing and fix all my technical and tactical problems, and THEN I could think about tweaking and perfecting my ‘set up.’ But Shaun Goodwin, a NYS native and now US Ski Team Coach, who has been a huge mentor and role model for me, made me realize how equipment can sometimes limit your ability to change your skiing and make the improvements you’re working on. He sat down with me and looked at my boot set up and helped me make some really important and impactful changes. Ever since then, I’ve taken ownership over my equipment making sure I’m doing everything I can to optimize my set up so that it isn’t preventing me (or making it harder for me) to change my skiing and get faster.
As it turns out, there are a TON of things you can adjust with your set up.
With the skis, there is the angle of the side edge and the base bevel, making the skis more or less aggressive. This can also be adjusted at different parts of the ski: tip, tail, or underfoot. I don’t change my edge angles that much and have pretty much kept them the same way for the past couple of years, but my ski technician will sharpen the edges differently for different snow types.
For bindings you can adjust where you’re mounted on your skis and you can also play around with how high you’re mounting them by putting different sized lifters (pieces of plastic) underneath the toe and heel. The difference between the toe height and the heel height is called the ramp angle :) and this angle can also be adjusted inside your boot as well.
For boots there is a whole slew of things you can adjust: the footbed, your canting (lifting the inside or outside of your foot to change how aggressive your set up is and how quickly the edge will catch at the top of the turn), ramp angle from the boot board (plastic piece in the bottom of the boot), actual flex/stiffness of the boot, and then of course you need to make sure they fit as snug as possible around all our ugly skiing bone spurs :)
This isn’t even getting into the different models of skis and boots and bindings or the intricacies of tuning the skis each day for training and races. So it’s safe to say there is a TON of equipment adjustments that can be changed that can make a small or big difference in your skiing.
Some athletes leave all these decisions to their coaches and technicians and couldn’t tell you what their set up is, and others make all the decisions and change their set up almost daily. Everyone has a different opinion on what the best way to go about this is. But I personally think it totally depends on the athlete. I wouldn’t feel good in a start gate not knowing what my skis are set up and tuned like, so I like to talk about this a lot with my technician. I try to only change my set up if I think it is getting in the way of me making positive changes in my skiing, but it can be hard to determine if it’s the skis or if I’m just having an off day. In these cases I usually defer to not changing my equipment.
There is definitely a delicate balance of trying to learn as much as possible about my equipment without overthinking it too much. For my boots specifically I am trying to get them in a place now (before the season starts) where I feel really comfortable in each event (I have a different pair for Dh and a pair for SG and GS) and don’t have to think about adjusting them constantly throughout the season (which happened a bit last year).
Zamir, the Head rep, has helped me a lot this pre-season, both giving me set up guidance and actually making me the boots. He is one of the (many) people who have been incredibly supportive of me and has gone out of his way to help me in any way he can both with equipment and advice on how to approach the World Cup. This is definitely not always the case with ski reps because they are usually totally focused on helping just the top athletes and don’t make time for the up-and-comers (like me), but Zamir said that he thinks its good for Head to have as many fast racers as possible! He told me to always remember to go full attack and to believe in myself on race day (two very common and important reminders :)). He also said that I ask a lot of questions, and I should maybe try to trust myself more to know what’s best for me. I think this is also very good advice and something I am continuing to work on.
Now for some photos from Saas Fee!
Awesome that you're working on an understanding of your setup, esp. boot alignment. I was introduced to these concepts in the early 1970's by Warren Witherell. A lot has changed since then, but the basics are the same. Harald Harb was a coach at SMS in those days, and he's still professionally involved in the art and science of equipment setup. I've found his book on modern boot alignment well worth the time to study. https://harbskisystems.com/collections/books/products/alignment-technician-course-manual. Wishing you a breakthrough season!
So good to hear how things are going. Glad that Head is supporting you.