# Keeping my back straight and control trailing arm *Video*



## WasabiCanuck (Apr 29, 2015)

You need to post a better video bro. We can't even see you ride.


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## ek9max (Apr 8, 2013)

Get somebody to follow you and film. It would help out a lot.


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## Snow Hound (Jul 21, 2012)

Ha ha I can't help other than to say I have the exact same problems. I've actually got some footage of me being followed a bit that I'll post up.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

It's called being an old white dude syndrome. Bet you can't dance either.


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## Snow Hound (Jul 21, 2012)

You'd lose that bet as I can certainly dance. No videos though.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

Me too, got all my moves from Elaine


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## Snow Hound (Jul 21, 2012)

Sorry to hijack your thread but we have the same issues and crashing your party will hopefully lessen the impact - I can be a smartarse on here and now I'm about to prove that I haven't got the riding to back it up.

Anyway sorry again for the poor footage but it does have the smallest ollie ever and a skier falling over so thats good.


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## WasabiCanuck (Apr 29, 2015)

Snow Hound said:


> Anyway sorry again for the poor footage *but it does have the smallest ollie ever* and a skier falling over so thats good.


That's probably better than my ollie, I think I get an inch off the ground. haha, but it feels awesome.
:snowboard1::snowboard1::snowboard1::snowboard1:


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## XxGoGirlxX (Jan 15, 2016)

WasabiCanuck said:


> That's probably better than my ollie, I think I get an inch off the ground. haha, but it feels awesome.
> :snowboard1::snowboard1::snowboard1::snowboard1:


I suggest a contest for worst ever / smallest _______ LOL:grin:


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Ok...my hack 2 cents from all the vids....

2 things...

1 get the pelvic tilt...tilted/thursted forward...hump, and thus you can straighten you back and then really sink in the knees...instead of bend at the waist. Might have to widen your stance a tad.

2 compact/tighten up your upper body...get your elbows glued to your ribs and your hands keep close to your body. Its kind of like a boxer with the fist up ready to protect his face. AND then using your shoulders in coordination with the rotation (toe/heel side) of your hips. But DO NOT have your arms flying about...its more of a boxing "duck and weave" with the shoulders and upper body/torso.

Anyway sort of allude to some of this in the creepy basement vid.


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## OMG_MOVE (Oct 22, 2015)

Thanks for chiming in wrath. 

Yah that creepy guy in the basement is pretty awesome. I've watched your video many times just a matter of executing it. I find when I really key in on the pelvic thrust it almost feels like I'm falling backwards. I'm assuming this is because I'm not disconnecting my upper body from my lower body. 

As for the arm tuck I'm doing that on my heel side where I'm tucking in my elbow but my arm is up in a clenched fist, is that OK? You can see that in my poorly put together video (I'll get more in Austria) 



Sent from my HTC One M8 using Tapatalk


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## Rogue (Nov 29, 2014)

XxGoGirlxX said:


> I suggest a contest for worst ever / smallest _______ LOL:grin:


:laughat: hahahaha


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## Alpine Duke (Jun 21, 2015)

The very awesome snowboard instructor that trained me when I joined the Ski Patrol was about to whip me for these bad habits (and I'm not saying I am over them either). I can't see you do this but i would have my back hand with my elbow at 90 and my hand pointing up toward the sky. He would make me ride with my back arm behind my back and threatened to tape it there to try to work this habit out of me.  

The tips WD posted match what he was teaching me BTW


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

I honestly don't even grasp the mechanics of an ollie. I honestly do feel like Elaine dancing when I do it.


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## XxGoGirlxX (Jan 15, 2016)

f00bar said:


> I honestly don't even grasp the mechanics of an ollie. I honestly do feel like Elaine dancing when I do it.


Well you can't expect to win first place for worst Ollie without providing any evidence!


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## Justin (Jun 2, 2010)

f00bar said:


> I honestly don't even grasp the mechanics of an ollie. I honestly do feel like Elaine dancing when I do it.


lol just treat it like a press. Don't lean back, shift your hip back or shift your tail under your body weight. Don't let your shoulders tilt, keep them level, you will have to tilt your pelvis.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

My whole issue getting the board up in general, be it jumps or just a flat 180, is that when I extend my legs I don't pressure straight down and the board kind of slides out from heel to toe, if that makes any sense.

I actually practiced a bit today and was doing much better but I really have to concentrate to do it. Which means I actually do it about 2s after I really wanted to.


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## XxGoGirlxX (Jan 15, 2016)

wrathfuldeity said:


> a boxer with the fist up ready to protect his face. ....... its more of a boxing "duck and weave" with the shoulders and upper body/torso.


I love doing this when I ride, hands up like I'm fighting / dancing , I'll have to incorporate the duck n weave - what a great mental image haha... I also like riding with elbows glued to knees tipping back and forth... must be funny to watch. Somebody please send me a gopro Angel to tape my ride so I can entertain u all...


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## Noreaster (Oct 7, 2012)

Snow Hound said:


> Sorry to hijack your thread but we have the same issues and crashing your party will hopefully lessen the impact - I can be a smartarse on here and now I'm about to prove that I haven't got the riding to back it up.
> 
> Anyway sorry again for the poor footage but it does have the smallest ollie ever and a skier falling over so thats good.


Are you getting exhausted after an hour of riding? You should because you turn by throwing your entire body weight around. And you're not just riding with a friend you're hailing an ambulance. Try this: sit lower in the knees, suck your butt in and straighten your back, lower your right arm and grab the pants where your palm rests on your side. Now do the slow simple wide turns, from one edge of the trail to another. Keep your body calm and turn with your feet. And keep holding to your pants with the back arm, the reason it goes up like that in the first place is because you're bending at the waist so much your arm is balancing it out. You learn to keep your back straight there will be no need to have the arm up but it's a bad habit at this point and you need to break it.


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## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

Snow Hound said:


> Sorry to hijack your thread but we have the same issues and crashing your party will hopefully lessen the impact - I can be a smartarse on here and now I'm about to prove that I haven't got the riding to back it up.
> 
> Anyway sorry again for the poor footage but it does have the smallest ollie ever and a skier falling over so thats good.


Love that tune, ever hear the DJ Food + DK mix? So good after all these years.


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## zenboarder (Mar 5, 2009)

f00bar said:


> My whole issue getting the board up in general, be it jumps or just a flat 180, is that when I extend my legs I don't pressure straight down and the board kind of slides out from heel to toe, if that makes any sense.
> 
> I actually practiced a bit today and was doing much better but I really have to concentrate to do it. Which means I actually do it about 2s after I really wanted to.


How much forward lean do you have? Typically I find that near 0 forward lean works best for anything involving jumps/rails/ollies. Only time forward lean is helpful is riding pipe... Ollies should be pretty straight forward. You should try to practice them while stationary on flat ground. It's really all about getting near completely flat based, shifting your weight back and loading the tail. Once the tail is loaded you jump up off the back leg which will bring you up in the air. From there you just have to level yourself out and then land. It's more of a timing thing than anything but yeah work on them while not moving on flat ground. Hell strap yourself in on carpet and home and try them out. Quite easy when you get the idea.


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## stillz (Jan 5, 2010)

If your board is sliding out from under you when you jump or land, then it wasn't really under you to begin with. Stand with your center of mass directly over your board and the problem should go away.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

stillz said:


> If your board is sliding out from under you when you jump or land, then it wasn't really under you to begin with. Stand with your center of mass directly over your board and the problem should go away.


That might be a possibility. I'll have to pay more attention but it would fix a ton of issues. I think its more along the lines of pushing from my heels rather than keeping my ankles stiff when I push, so its more like a wedge than a flat surface i'm pushing down on.

I say this because I have gotten fairly successful doing toe side 180s where I'm forced to keep my ankles fairly firm. Heel side is a mess, I think because as I push off I'm also raising my toes for some reason, probably fear.


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## stillz (Jan 5, 2010)

I'm no park wizard, but I think taking off the heels is just weird, from a biomechanical perspective. You don't see basketball players jumping from their heels. Or high jumpers. Or anyone but snowboarders, right? Humans just don't jump like that. Why would we expect it to be natural with a board attached to our feet?

That said, there are things I do like about taking off of the heels, like my spins generally staying level. This is huge. Spinning level makes landing so much simpler, even with 180's. Sometimes I unintentionally go off-axis taking off of my toes. This often causes me to under-rotate, and always makes landing harder. User error, I know. Like I said, I'm no wizard at this stuff, I just get a good bit of time to practice and think about it. My frontside rotations off of a heelside nollie also come around VERY fast, which is nice. I want to start landing 540's this year (week), and I expect the first good one to be a cab 540 off my heels for these reasons. Also, throwing backside rotations off your heels just feels badass.


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