Skiing Injuries: Clinical Study

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

controls with respect to a number of other vari- ables, including age when person first skied, history of previous injury, height, weight, ski length, sleep during each of the previous 2 nights, and marital status.The directions which further research might take are discussed, and strategies for prevention are outlined.TECHNICAL NOTE Physical forces applied to the body in skiing are the immediate and necessary cause of the injuries sustained.These in turn result from forces secondary to the characteristics of (a) the skier and his actions, (b) his equipment, and (c) the environment in which he skis.While this has long been recognized infor- mally, it is only very recently that Sprague has treated the physical parameters of these three aspects of the system analytically (9).On the basis of this work, he has derived the following equation for the velocities which can be reached on given slopes.These agree closely with velocities observed under racing condi- tions (personal communication).v=K (W (sin 0-K cos ) )1/2 v=maximum attainable velocity (the "terminal velocity" at equilibrium, i.e., the speed at which wind resistance and friction of the skis balance the force of gravity), in miles per hour.K=0.68 (with this term= 1.0 the equation gives v in feet per second).W=weight of skier, in pounds.G=slope angle in degrees.K.= coefficient of friction.A= frontal area of skier, in square feet.K.=coefficient of wind resistance.According to Sprague, for a 190-pound skier in a medium crouch (A = 5.6 ft.2), with well-waxed skis and under optimum skiing conditions, K,= 0.02 and K.==0.0009.v then varies with G as follows:Slope angle Velocity (degrees) (mph)