h.harb wrote:However, the fact that Atomic has screwed themselves, by not understanding technique and alignment for critical adjustments for their top racers
This was actually the genesis of my original question. Listening to your podcast last week I was reminded that one of the best technical skiers ever was flailing due to trying to ski in newly designed Atomic boots until you had her change back to her old boots, and since the change back she'd won every Slalom Race she'd entered (8 or 9). That's a huge problem if you're Atomic (I think).
But, the more that I'm studying up on alignment and reading about all of the measurements used etc. the more aware I am of the range of individual anatomy and biomechanics and how much that influences a skier's equipment needs. It seems as though the better a company makes it's equipment work for one of it's star skiers the more likely they are to create equipment that works for absolutely no one else. I seem to remember you commenting that Bode's design input really screwed up certain Head skis (I could be wrong and I don't remember which discipline) because his unique and homegrown skiing style meant that skis he did well on were nightmares for most other skiers.
Given the known problems with sensitivity/specificity (anything that works for a wide range of people is very unlikely to work really, really, well, for one person and vice versa if something is designed very well for one individual it likely won't work for a wide range of people), how could anyone ever expect entire ski teams over multiple years to ski the same equipment and be successful. The law of averages seems to suggest that that just won't ever work.
With that being said, I'd first assumed Atomic had designed boots that worked really well for someone, just not MK (because how could a multi-million dollar company go to market with a product that no one did well on); and that the problems were related to her specific alignment needs and anatomy, plus the boot techs/reps incomplete understanding of technique & alignment. However, I think you're suggesting that there is actually a basic design flaw. That they've designed that boot system around the frozen ankle/frozen foot/gross motor movement style of skiing a la Surefoot and that that type of boot is never going to be a good race boot for anyone no matter who works on it. Am I understanding correctly?
I admit, I find that rather confounding. Even if you assume that there is a segment of the population that will always be happiest skiing with their ankles encased in concrete (I don't believe this, but go with it for the sake of argument), logic says that that population is the exact opposite of the highly skilled racing population. In my experience the more skilled a person becomes at a movement the more a) subtle/fine motor adjustments they are capable of making and b) the more different ways or choices they have about how to perform that movement. So how is it a good idea to take away an experts' ability to move something. I'm so confused. Am I misunderstanding what Atomic has done or just hopelessly ignorant about the whole system.