As a member of the “ACL Rehab Club”, I have a personal interest in ACL Rehabilitation, particularly how skiers can safely manage their return to skiing.
For most people the psychological aspect of getting back on ski’s is fraught with uncertainty, not least the fear of damaging the ACL again and undoing the hard rehab work to this point.
Looking back at my rehab diary I was back on skis after about 20 weeks and back in the alps after about 7 months. Although I made a fast return to skiing, I had my concerns and tried to manage my return to skiing in a sensible way.
Based on my experience I’m now helping other skiers do the same.
The first thing is to agree the target with your physio (and perhaps surgeon), and only reach for your skies when they are happy you are strong enough.
Once back on ski’s my strategy is to re build balance, propreoception, confidence and gradually speed, starting with the simplest flat land exercises. Choosing an very quiet slope, starting very slowly on the flat, and gradually building up from there as appropriate.
I recently helped a friend, Mark, through this process.
Phase 1 and I used our local dry slope during an empty session to start the process. While plastic slopes do cause you some apprehension, the beauty of the approach is that it allows a slow and gradual building of movement and speed in a controlled way. An empty slope means that fear of collision is much reduced, and as a coach i could manage the progress in conjunction with feedback from Mark. We called it a day after about an hour and a half, working up to some gentle snow ploughing.
^^First time on ski’s after an ACL knee injury
Phase 2 involved a trip to a snowdome during an off peak session a week or so later. Mark warmed up off slope and we started of with a few runs off the beginners ramp, and with building confidence we were soon skiing off the top.
In my own skiing, I’m super focused on skiing ‘centered and balanced’ to avoid any tendency to be ‘back’ on my heals, especially in difficult conditions. Attempting to recover from a slow, backwards is a classic ACL injury mechanism and how I managed to damage my own.
‘Centered and balanced’ was the mantra for the majority of the 3.5hr session and has set Mark up for his upcoming season in the Alps.
BaBack on snow after an ACL injury
Hello everyone,
Mark here, just updating with how my skiing has progressed with David’s help, both in the initial stages of getting back on skis, outlined in the above blog, and also with encouragement and suggestions after sending a couple of videos to David, so he can see how well I have progressed since my first very apprehensive and nervous slides on the dry slope and the indoor slope.
On reflection of 3 months of skiing in the Alps so far; Having David’s coaching, from someone who had also had ACL injury and rehab, really boosted my confidence and along with critique and modification of my skiing technique, this really helped me be able to start back skiing with far less knee pain and far more confidence.
Last week, 16/03/19 I competed in the Serre Chevalier ski Grand-Prix race and came 501 out of 1056, and this is just over 12 months after a set of very serious injuries, not just severed acl.
I have a long way to go with my skiing technique, but plan on more coaching from David again, Im sure without his help, my return to skiing would have been a slower process.
Thank you for all your help buddy, stay centred and balanced!
Cheers for now Mark.
Cheers Mark, looking forward to skiing with you again soon.
Hi are you still doing coaching, I am 7 months post acl reconstruction.
Hi Sara, Sorry for the slow reply, I missed the comment alert from wordpress. I’m coaching and hope your rehab is going ok. Drop me an email to info@mediacopy.co.uk ?
Best wishes
David