Ski bindings - what are they and how do they work?Ski bindings are those oddly shaped lumps fixed onto the upper side of your child’s skis. They do more than just keep boots and skis attached, they’re designed to minimise injury during your ski holidays by releasing your boots.
How to get your child's boots clipped in As you can see from this picture, there’s a toe piece and a heel piece for each boot. Your child will step into them by lining up his boot toe first, followed by the heel. He’ll then push his heel down and the binding will clip up so securing his boot.
Small children will probably need help with this until they become used to lining their boots up and are strong enough to push down. In this case you simply have to make sure that the toe of the boot is in its place. Then line up the heel and then pull the release lever up at the same time as your child pushes his heel down. We’ve found that by about the age of five, our children were strong enough to be able to step into their bindings by themselves. So do they just hold ski and boot together? You might be thinking that now you’ve got your child clipped in and ready to go, that the job of the ski binding is done. Not at all, because they will reduce the risk of injury when your child falls over. Let’s face it, it’s going to be question of when, not if he falls over when he’s first learning to ski. Actually, when you think about it, they’re very cleverly designed. They absorb the force of your child when he's skiing or shuffling around. But if he twists as he falls, he’ll be released from his skis. That means that he’s far less likely to hurt himself than if the skis had stayed on. To do this, the toe piece gives your child’s ski boot sideways release, with the heel giving upwards release. Quite a sophisticated arrangement for those lumps! You’ll also see that each heel part has a brake. In this picture, it's the white piece lying horizontally at the base of the binding. If the bindings release, the brake falls down and drags along the snow. This is extremely useful because it means that your child’s skis shouldn’t shoot off down the mountain if they become detached from his boots.
How are the settings altered? The most important thing to remember is to make sure that the ski binding settings are altered specially to suit your child. Equipment shops in resort on ski vacations, both sale and rental, will be well experienced in this area. They’ll set them according to your child’s weight, height, age, ability and the length of the boot. All of these combine to release the boot at the right time, under the correct force. It’s very important to get the setting right. If they release too easily, there could be a risk of injury just as much as if they don’t release at all. Before you start to worry about all the technicalities involved – don’t! That’s where the experience of the technician in the hire shop comes in. Ski binding settings are easily altered, and are adjusted according to a DIN number. This is an international scale to ensure that bindings from different manufacturers will release when under the same force. In general, the setting will be low for beginners. Alterations must be made with the boot to be worn. The technician will test whether the setting is correct by clipping the boot into the bindings, and then forcing it out again. You’ll see the technician push the boot sideways to make sure that it comes out when it should. When you hire skis, the bindings are already attached and are usually mounted so that there is usually more tolerance in the size of boot they can take than if you have your own equipment. If you buy ex-rental gear, you may find that one pair will take two different boot sizes – another way to help you get the most usage from your child’s kit. If you do have your own equipment, it is essential to make sure that it is regularly serviced. A technician will check that the ski bindings move freely, and that they are correctly set. We found that we had to have our own re-set after a weight gain – and then re-adjusted after a weight loss! So the next time you wonder about those peculiar lumps, remember that they’ll probably save your child from injury and should always be carefully set and checked. To return to from the ski bindings page to the ski equipment page, please click here. Alternatively, please click here to return to the home page.
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