Is slalom skiing physically demanding?

[Taelan28]

First of all my definition of physically demanding is an activity that requires

speed

strength

endurance

agility

a wide variety of movement

and some more endurance.

 

I dont believe skiing is physically demanding. When I finish a set I feel a little winded and stressed but I dont feel like skiing demands too much from my body. Slalom skiing is turning side to side and maintaining a pull. A lot of balance and agility is required to right onesself on a sloppy turn or any other mistake, but there is no opponent like in football or hockey actively trying to take you down. Quickness is required to move the body front a reach to a pull. However there is not a wide variety of movements that other sports require, tennis, basketball (any sport that has an opponent), and gymnastics.

 

The muscles are flexing and maintaining their position but they are not contracting. One does not become stronger by holding up 200 lbs on his shoulders but by actually squatting 50 lbs. I believe 11 grade physics said carrying 200lbs from pt A to point B required any word, but lifting it two meters up did.

 

Running the course takes 16.08 seconds. Thats way to short to be physically demanding. Even the most out of shape person can do something intense for 16.08 seconds, but not everybody can run 10 miles, or climb a mountain with a backpack full of gear. Not everyone can swim a half mile either. Sure you say you're breathing heavy when you're done and so do I even though Im in shape, but I also breathe heavy running up a flight of stairs, or sprinting a few hundred feet. Are those physically demanding? no.

 

Finally, I've seen a very, very, out of pudgy man nearly run 35 off. This dude wasnt big and squishy, he was big and jiggly. Props to him for skiing far better than I can and in all likelyhood a stronger grip, but a guy that looks like that skiing that well tells me slalom skiing is more technically demanding than physically demanding... like golf.

 

Overall skiing is not physically demanding because no true strength is required as the muscles are flexing but not contracting. The motions made are repeditive and similar rather than dynamic spontaneous. The time taken to run a course is tiny and slalom skiing seems to be more technically demanding.

 

This being said I'd like to point out that I believe most olympic sports are not physically demanding. Shotput, track and field, rowing, weight lifting and almost every individual sport where there isnt a direct opponent. What makes the athletes of these sports so strong, quick and athletic is the training. Usain Bolt didnt run as fast as he does just by sprinting 100 meters all day. It was the parachute runs, running 200m, quickness drills, and doing everything it back to back with less rest and some weight training that allowed him to do it. Running 100m within and of itself is not hard, as is rowing a boat, lifting a weight, or throwing a ball, but doing these things at athletic levels is accomplished through physically demanding trainign.

 

Like wise skiing itself from left to right is possible to most abled bodied people, but the course at any length is hard as hell just as a 10s 100m spring is, running a mile in under 7 minutes, hiking up a mountain with gear, is. Athletes get to their high marks through strenuous training. Skiers run the short like be improving their technique, doing some physically demanding training and, of course, running the course many many times.

 

Thoughts, comments, disagreements.

 

PS. I found this posted in the comments section of a youtube video

Observe which side resorts to the most vociferous name-calling and you are likely to have identified the side with the weaker argument and they know it. Charles R Anderson .