# Ambidextrous riding?? well not really....



## Guest (Feb 21, 2010)

Ok so i am just starting and had my second full day out today. I was pretty sure i rode goofy... did all the tests - push from behind, slide accross my wood floor, kick a soccor ball, run up stairs etc and i always use my right foot to lead. So when i bought my new gear i set it up goofy. 

I was getting a lesson from my bro today and he was trying to get me to transition from heel side to toe side and i couldn't do it - until i ended up left foot forward (regular) then i came to me i was turning circles in no time. 

But... i can't skate accross the snow regular (left foot strapped in) i was falling all over and no crontrol of the board... but if i am skating around goofy i can easily manuver and use my edge to steer and glide around. And even at the top of the hill i want to lead goofy to start - but switch to regular in order to start turns. 

Is that weird? Do I just need to practise skating/gliding regular? Or can i set up my board to regular and then unstrap my left foot to skate around and lead with the tip instead of the nose of the board?


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## ETM (Aug 11, 2009)

I think your natural stance is regular, I often take off fakie after strapping in and then whip it around to do my run. The fact that you ride better regular is more important than skating around, you will easily get used to doing that.


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

If all those tests say goofy, it’s more than not likely that you are natural goofy, imo.

One “theory of newbie reversing” is that often, sometimes it feels more secure to hold your body up with the “stronger foot”. So if your left foot is strong and you “lean on it for support” it will make you go down the hill regular inadvertently. Lead foot has the weight. And perhaps since the left is strong, skating around using your left foot as a propulsion mechanism is easier for you.

Perhaps you can ask yourself if you actually feel more comfortable riding regular…or you are just accepting the fact that the board turned regular and you are just going with the flow at the moment.

But some people are “ambidexterous” too. But most of us are trained. And even for ambidexterous riders, you will get better at a single direction the more you ride in that direction. So it would be your choice as to how you want to distribute your “training”.


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## Altephor (Feb 4, 2010)

newbiesara said:


> Ok so i am just starting and had my second full day out today. I was pretty sure i rode goofy... did all the tests - push from behind, slide accross my wood floor, kick a soccor ball, run up stairs etc and i always use my right foot to lead. So when i bought my new gear i set it up goofy.


If you are leading in all these things with your right foot (i.e. if you get pushed your right foot goes out first), this means that you are right foot dominant. The dominant foot should be in the rear. So you are, in fact, regular.. most likely.


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

Altephor said:


> If you are leading in all these things with your right foot (i.e. if you get pushed your right foot goes out first), this means that you are right foot dominant. The dominant foot should be in the rear. So you are, in fact, regular.. most likely.


You got that backwards...

_Have a friend stand behind you. As you relax and stand comfortably, ask your friend to give you a gentle push, week between your shoulders. Not a shove, but just enough of a push to put you off balance to the point that you step forward on one foot. 

The foot you lift and step forward onto is the foot you'll likely feel more comfortable with placed forward while you learn to snowboard. 
How to Snowboard: Determining Whether You Are Regular Foot or Goofy Foot - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com_


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## SMDSkata (Mar 4, 2009)

Your most likely goofy, but it won't hurt to ride regular because as you progress, you'll want to learn both ways. Its beneficial even if your not riding freestyle. I don't know how many times I've been riding glades or even weaving through people to start my ride at the top, and I have to go on a switch edge to get around the object. Hell in glades when its pure ice, depending where you ride, in order to not plow the run off for future riders, Ill ride on my heel edge to a tree, and switch to swtich to get to the next tree on the heel edge. Trust me, if you just stay in a heel edge stop, plowing the run, people will get pissed.

It was funny for me because with snowboarding, I've been regular for the whole time, but I've always skateboarded, waterskied, wakeboarded, and sprinted off my right... 

I didn't think hard about it till this season, and from what I know...my first board was set up regular, and thats the way I learned... So one day this season, after blacking out hitting my head on a jump, I felt like I was meant to live...just side effects of the concussion, and I went all out bombing a switch run with out ever working switch before. Honestly, my buds thought that I was lieing when I told them I've never rode switch before, and pulled that off.

It was far near from perfect, but its just funny how it worked. It sucks though because of skateboarding, I ollie off my left foot...well when I ride regular, I'm popping off the right. Needless to say, my nollie is a lot more higher than my ollie.


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2010)

Ok I'm still kinda confused :dunno: i've been reading this older thread on the matter. 

Basically you steer with your front foot - so it needs to be the dominant foot. My right foot is dominant and therefore needs to go in the front. Which means im goofy.

I have my gear set up for goofy but it is a duck stance (+12 -6) so i can ride either except that my board has a 2" setback - so when i ride regular my nose is shorter than my tail - does that matter? 

Im wondering if i should switch my bindings and see how it goes... I have a lesson booked tomorrow and i dont want to waste my hour switching my bindings around. Maybe I should leave it goofy and hopefully the instructor can get me turning goofy footed.


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

There are different schools of thought on that “dominant foot steering” apparently. It’s kinda confusing to me too. In this other thread we were arguing about it as well as other threads I’ve found. According to “Snow Professor”, American instructors school of thought stresses the lower body steering with feet, and but the other’s stress upper body steering with lean. I saw a learn to turn video from Canada recently and its more how I learned (emphasizing lean). And for a while thought the back foot was “dominant” as that’s the reason why most ppl are regular since most ppl are righties. But the more I've seen friends snowboard and learn to ride for the first time, I'm thinking…maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with “dominant foot” at all. Perhaps more ppl are regular because in “skateboarding” most ppl kicked with the right (most ppl are righties) when they were kids and this carried over and influenced snowboarders. I guess hard and fast rules don’t apply all the time.

I mean, I've had this idea that I'm regular because my left eye is "dominant". Maybe I should take a survey and see if this holds? phht...who knows.

From what I’ve gathered, in higher speeds the longer nose will dampen the vibration more before it hits your feet. A shorter tail makes it easier to skid-turn because there’s less leverage opposing your rear foot. i.e. The shorter it is, the less ground you have to “scrape against” to skid in that direction. If you have come to quick stop, you would notice that you put a lot of weight on that rear foot to swing it arround 90 degrees. Imagine if the tail was 10 feet long. Skidding is like that in a way except it's not to a full stop. Most riding boards have a much longer nose than park boards, where the emphasis is on single direction vs. balanced.


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## Guest (Feb 22, 2010)

Thanks for the advice Snowolf. The board is a burton Lux. I believe it is a twin board but i does have a setback. So im not sure if that matters. 

I have a lesson at 1pm today (a couple of hours from now) so i was gonna get there early and try just doing garlands (both heel and toe) riding goofy and see if i can manange the turns any easier after some garland practise. My brother was actually an excellent teacher but he was really concerned with getting me to turn and maybe skipped the garland step... He was having me ride down make toe turn continue down switch heel turn - so i was litterally spinning... then he tried to take out the flat ride and not have me turn so wide - so that i was making c turns. and i was - but they were shakey. so im stepping back and doing some garlands before i see the instructor today.


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## dnguyenaz (Feb 10, 2010)

I do the same thing. Since Ive skateboarded before, I think it has something to do with having a mongoose foot(when you skateboard, you usually push with your rear leg, but if you havve a mongoose foot, you push with the front foot)

I ride goofy but I NEED to push with my front foot(so I go on the lift regular)


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## Guest (Feb 22, 2010)

Lesson was great - mystery solved - I definately ride Goofy. After my lesson I was linking turns and I looked like I was starting to know what I was doing... all goofy footed. I think the problem was while I was riding I had all my weight on my back foot... as soon as I shifted it to the front i was doing great.


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

I think that it’s always good to start off by lessons from a professional instructor. It’s worth the money and it’s safer. A lot of times, “friends” have good intentions but they don’t have the knowhow of teaching a newbie and also they sometimes take intermediate steps for granted or are just dead wrong. Many people who may be good, don’t really remember what it was like “back then” or are just unaware of what their own body is doing. Like walking. You never think about it, it just happens, but it’s actually pretty complex and when you ask why with all this technology, there still isn’t anything close to C3PO around.

Anyways the usual progression goes something like this:
1. How to fall! The most important aspect of snowboarding!
2. Skating and stopping along with chairlift instructions
3. Falling Leaf / Zig-Zag practice heelside then toeside
4. Garland / J-turns practice heel and toe
5. Linked turns
6. Olympic Half-pipe

Each step pretty much trains you for the next step incrementally.


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2010)

rasmasyean said:


> Anyways the usual progression goes something like this:
> 1. How to fall! The most important aspect of snowboarding!
> 2. Skating and stopping along with chairlift instructions
> 3. Falling Leaf / Zig-Zag practice heelside then toeside
> ...


So i just need to work on my double cork and i can call myself a snowboarder huh? :laugh:


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