taichiskiing 寫:To my experience/understanding, external supporting devices may give better support and comfort for some minor [joint]movements, but they don't really work for the full-blown, full-action sports. As Carver indicated, they may create more problems than they solve. The forces for the high level techniques must develop from inside/internal joint movements and supports.

I busted my knee when I was developing Taichi Skiing 1986. ...

Hi Taichiskiing, thanks for sharing your story. I'll use the knee breaces as preventive purpose to mitigate the possibility of getting injury. I'll pay more attention while I am using those as their limitation mentioned by Carver.

I like your two vedio clips about warming up. I think that it will be helpful to practice those exercises before jumping on the lift directly.

snowrider 寫:Hi Taichiskiing, thanks for sharing your story. I'll use the knee breaces as preventive purpose to mitigate the possibility of getting injury. I'll pay more attention while I am using those as their limitation mentioned by Carver.

The knee joints can only be bent like finger joints, that is, they can only be bent in one dimension and cannot be rotated or twisted, so, along with ankle joints, the knees most efficient movement is bending along the direction where the toes have pointed (so that's also how knees should be aligned with the feet when standing/站); any side loaded could potential hurt the knees. That is another reason I don't use "knee angulation." To rotate the knees, rotate the femurs/大腿骨; move the knees this way, one reduces the chance for knee hyper-extension.

I like your two vedio clips about warming up. I think that it will be helpful to practice those exercises before jumping on the lift directly.

Those are good exercises; the warm-up exercise is designed to lubricate all our body major joints, and adding the coordinated breathing, they become Shen style Taichi Qi-gong, good for pre-season conditioning, as well as everyday routines.

Good luck, :)
IS