ACL Injuries and Downhill Skiing

I had my knee replaced recently after this ski season. I ski with others who have had their knee replaced. They seem to be doing well while skiing. When I start skiing next season, I’m going to be very apprehensive and cautious. Do you have any recommendations for me for the up coming season. Thanks.

awee you sounded in so much pain. I felt so bad hearing you. Give us an update on how you healed. It happened to me too but with my MCL.

roses are red
blueberries are blue
the moment you’ve been waiting for is 1:42

Hey man, tore mine on Dec 30th 2015 Sucks. Would love to talk to you about how you recovered, initial days etc.

Awesome drive from Filip Zubcic!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYHqDtACP3Q&feature=youtu.be

It amazes me when I hear skiers and snowboarders say “I don’t need a helmet because I don’t suck” It happens to the pros too. If he didn’t have a helmet on, that ski could have went right into his head.

Question…What is the correct way to fall?  My ski instructor said the best way is to fall backwards…

Btw, the conditions were not bad icy courses are liked by lots of WC athletes. I watched that live on TV i cried, cause you immediately knew that’s a career ender, insanely brutal injury.

Lol i just fell on skiis and twisted both my knees like craazy, was lucky however nothing snapped or broke, no pain only a bit swollen. Dangerous stuff!

I just want to comment and say I wish I would’ve watched your video before falling (like this) and successfully tearing my ACL.

Spend a few days studying anatomy videos of all the muscles and tendons of the leg, hips and foot. How they all work together to perform movements we take for granted, it’s remarkable. Then look at the skiers traveling at very high speeds and the massive forces their limbs can endure at when things go wrong. These can often life be long injuries that never fully heal. These skiers operate at the highest levels. They know the risks and push things to the limit, but might come to regret it later in life.

I feel so bad for you man… ACL tears are no joke. One of my friends runs his own business, and he tore his ACL fucking around on a bunny slope. He had to shut down his company for over 6 months to recover. I see this video was posted 4 years ago so I hope you’re going well man

Ouch! Videos amazing but please make them longer. They way to short. Once u hit play sat on the couch, found comfortable position it’s gone

I was hit from behind by an idiot on skis and crashed in early December. My left ski didn’t eject and my left leg twisted somehow. Fortunately my ligaments are ok however my meniscus is torn, I do not know how much as I never got given the results of the MRI I had in January. Still waiting for a complete diagnosis and any sort of treatment (I live in England…) and could be many more months yet as our healthcare system is shut down. For the last month the injury has worsened, I’m getting a pain in a more central position in my knee (initially it was only in the medial area) which is making walking difficult, I am struggling on stairs a lot and downward gradients, my knee is hyperextending and giving way. Any thoughts on why this may be and how I can try and improve it while I’m stuck at home. I am doing some exercise biking, walking, leg raises and some exercises with elastics and Pilates ring. I am desperate to get back to sports but the damage just feels too bad.

This is my biggest fear in skiing. I’m trying to study these videos to find a way of prevention. I was thinking maybe if you tucked your leg in it might’ve saved your ACL. From the videos I’ve been watching at 0.25 speed it seems almost all ACL tears happen when the leg is extended.

Hey james. Nice video. You also got some tips on how you should fall if you lost control of your skis?

He didn’t break anything, he tore his ACL,MCL and maniscus. Which is 10x worse than breaking any bone. I can tell you from personal experience it’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life compared to a broken collar bone, broken arm, broken leg, fractured fingers…it’s bad.

Thanks, that was a really good insight into the injury which I now have.
It’s been close on 10 months, but I’ll be back on the slopes in a couple of weeks!

Great content as usual. Greetings from a hardcore skier from New Hampshire/de facto family
& neighborhood ski technician. Are you aware of any information on the mechanics of ski
touring? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the impression that the combination of a hinge
point at the toe piece, a free heel at a relatively high angle in relation to the toe piece, a stiff boot
and a relatively forward stance, put the knees in a vulnerable position. Could you make a video
on this subject? Keep up the good work Cynthia. Stay safe during this pandemic.

I’m sure you can all relate but don’t hesitate, the crash is at 1:38 thank you.

He’s currently racing and doing well. The compression that occurs going from steep to flat caused his crash, he didn’t prepare for it probably due to being tired at the end of the course. And ski racers prefer a firm to icy surface because it will be more consistent, fair and safer (less to catch). The longer speed skis have more than enough holding power and razor sharp edges. Finally, I’ve raced on easier courses and have broken several bones as well as ACL, other injuries. They all hurt and are different depending on the situation hard to say one is worse than the other but I think fear of the unknown and shock are worse than simple pain.

Wow! I learned a lot about how to keep my knees safe. Really informative! Definitely incentive to make sure I stay in shape and do it in a way that will be protective of my knees!

Thanks for the tutorial! I also heard a pop while I was in the lodge, but then I realized that it was just Anthony opening up my beer! Cheers, Cynthia, stay healthy!

When he fell.. you could just see how unnaturally his legs moved and bent.. it absolutely horrified and made me cringe so much

One of the reasons that skiing injuries clan be so bad is that the skis are set up to only come off if a force of more than 200kg (approx.) is extorted on the bindings. This means that they will stay on as you roll down the slope and they’ll pull and twist your leg in any way they want.

When downhill skiers crash it is almost never their fault.

The massive set of stones between their legs messes with their balance.

And my couch was bitching about his bindings topping at 16 DIN…

Guy on a radio show I listen to had a pretty bad tibial plateau fracture from skiing. Hit a patch of ice and slid into a pole. That was over a year ago and it’s still bothers him.

I went skiing with school on January to Austria and someone smashed into me and I fell and my ski didn’t come off and twisted my Leg It fricking hurt but I carried on for the day because it was our last run but then the trachers had to inspect our health and I showed them my leg and it was double the size and was bruised so they took me to a hospital there and turned out it was my ACL so now I have 2 metal rods on my leg and I’m not aloud to do no more exercise for months

Love the Intro…
Great subject and presentation!!
I appreciate the thorough explanation in regards to this ubiquitous athletic injury.
I have spoken ad nauseam with others regarding fitness vs injury, with little success… It seems that most folks just want to get out and Ski… with little regard for the consequences.
Thanks for delving into this one with such great detail!
Thanks so much!:)

Tore my acl and meniscus during gs training for the race I had the next day. Extremely painful

This video is so informative! And demonstrating what you are talking about is so helpful. Thank you for making this entertaining too!

I’m curious what binding and DIN setting he was using.. and if he felt lower release values would have saved the ACL.

I’m 6′ 200lbs and I voluntarily run super low DIN-7, because I want that binding to release rather than hurt me. However, I know enough skiers who have torn ACLs using normal safe alpine bindings and DIN settings, that I’m careful anytime I’m on the twin stick ACL killers.

Anicdotally, the gentlest ski fall hurts my knees more than any snowboard fall I’ve ever had. I have 300+ days snowboarding and 50 days skiing, and I’d say 90% of my snowboard falls are just silly fun. The triangle of the board and legs just doesn’t afford any of this kind of knee twisting danger. The common snowboard fall is edge catching, and that only happened to me a couple times in the first 20 days of learning (during which I heeded advice and wore wrist guards). I don’t see any way to sustain this type of injury snowboarding calmly in powder conditions.

Of course crazy drops, flips, jumps, collisions, and speed can hurt you no matter what you ride, and Snowboarding does have an increased risk of being dragged under during an avalanche.

I’ve recently developed an interest in backcountry, and while the alpine touring setups look nice and efficient, I think it’s insane that anyone would lock themselves into AT bindings at all, let alone in the backcountry. I’m intrigued by the new safer Solomon SHIFT and Fritschi Vipec/Tecton AT bindings, so I’m trying to decide if they are “safe enough” or if I should just deal with the awkwardness and inefficiency of splitboarding because it seems so much safer to me.

On every jump your just waiting for it to happen holding your breath��

I tore my acl on a stupidly easy glade run, I just lost my balance and twisted the wrong way and watching videos like this I don’t know how I didn’t tear my acl every fall. I was scared out of my mind even though it didn’t hurt because I was all alone on the side of a mountain for about 30 minutes just to think. Because it didn’t hurt at all I edged down on my skis and then I just couldn’t. 2.5 more months to go.

Winter Olympics may not get the amount of fanfare as Summer Olympics, but Jesus Christ, it’s a 100 times more dangerous. Eek.

That snow really isn’t in good condition because u can here mostly ice