Skisailor
Angel Diva
OK, I get what you're saying. So in what situation would a lift be helpful? Isn't there a point at which they might help certain people be balanced just right, to where they don't feel too far forward or too far back?
On another note, I just put my boots on, and on flat ground it's hard to stand up without using my quads. Is that normal? I only find I can do it easily if I stick my hip way forward.
No. That’s not normal. You should be able to stand up comfortably in your boots. Sounds like you have a lot of forward lean in your cuff. That’s a recipe for quad burn and backseat skiing unless you adopt a stance that is a bit more racer-like. The angle of your back should match the angle of your shin. So if your shin angle is more acute and your knee is pushed forward, you need to hinge more at your hips and bring your shoulders forward to match.
A more upright boot is typically the way to go.
There are very few situations where a heel lift is truly helpful. One is for people who have ankle problems so that they have VERY limited dorsilflexion. Keep in mind that we are not in tennis shoes and we only need 15-18 degrees or so of ankle range of motion in a ski boot. So a person would have to have very limited dorsiflexion indeed to need a heel lift.
Many boot fitters slap in a heel lift to take up space or to reposition the ankle or calf relative to the boot shape for comfort purposes. This is an easy bandaid “fix” which may provide some comfort but introduces all kinds of fore-aft stance problems. It is WAY overused by bootfitters trying to sell and move boots out the door.
The REAL fix is a different boot and/or a smaller boot. Or in some cases, raising the whole foot up within the liner rather than raising the heel relative to the forefoot.
We are not all Ginger Rogers afterall, and can’t do everything Fred Astaire did backwards and in HIGH HEELS.