The anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL for short, crosses from the underside of the femur, or thigh bone, to the top of the tibia, or shin bone. This important ligament maintains knee alignment during weight-bearing activities. Approximately 20,000 American alpine skiers tear their ACL each year, reports VermontSkiSafety.com. Proper ski binding adjustment may help prevent this injury.
DIN Settings
Your ski bindings have an adjustable release setting called DIN -- an acronym for Deutsches Institut fur Normung. The DIN setting indicates the amount of force required for the bindings to release your skis during a fall. A ski shop technician can use your boot sole length, your height, your age, your weight, your level of skiing proficiency, your skiing style and your preferred terrain to calculate your DIN setting. Beginning skiers, who have yet to master the art of falling on the slopes, use a lower setting, meaning their skis easily release in the event of a fall.
DIN Settings & ACL Tears
Alpine skis may look lightweight, but anyone who has ever carried a pair knows they are actually quite heavy. If your skis stay attached to your bindings when you fall, their weight exerts a torque or twisting force on your knee, which may, in turn, tear your ACL.Your ski technique makes you more susceptible to this injury, reports Dr. Carl Ettlinger, co-developer of the Vermont Ski Safety study. Shifting your weight to your ski tails and keeping your uphill arm behind your body are common beginner errors, which may trigger a backward, twisting fall. If your binding releases during the fall, you are less likely to tear your ACL. Use a lower binding release setting until you improve your skills.
Binding Pre-Release
Binding pre-release, as it's called in the ski industry, is not always a good thing. In deep powder, for example, a released ski may be impossible to find, and equally difficult to reattach. Steep terrain poses other safety issues. If your ski releases on a steep incline, it may travel down the slope at top speed, leaving the skier on an advanced slope, with no viable means of descent. Fear of the pre-release inspires people to choose a higher DIN setting, but often at the expense of their knees.
New Developments
The team of researchers that worked on the Vermont Ski Safety study created a new type of ski binding. Called the Knee-Binding, the product has added bells and whistles such as a left and right binding and a lateral release system at the heel. When the binding senses the possibility of a twisting fall -- the most common type of fall to tear the ACL -- it releases the ski. The binding is allegedly smart enough to determine when the fall will not cause an ACL tear, and therefore responds by not releasing the ski.
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