# Another Critique the Crap out of my riding :D



## Efilnikufesin (Oct 8, 2011)

Couple of quick things I noticed. One, keep you upper body more upright, bend more with your knees and less with your waist. Two, keep yourself centered on the board. If you look in the video you can see that you have less bend in your leading leg than your trailing leg, hence you are leaning uphill while riding. Keep yourself centered with both knees bent equally, it may feel like you are leaning downhill, but you will initiate turns easier and have more control when you hit choppy terrain.

I at times notice myself still leaning on my back leg on steeper terrain and have to correct myself. If I am washing out alot on high speed turns it is usually because I am leaning uphill. By leaning uphill you are taking weight off your downhill contact point, making especially heelside turns harder to control. 

There are members on here that would know better than I though. I'm better at correcting myself than correcting others.


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## firstx1017 (Jan 10, 2011)

I totally know what you mean about watching your own videos. I've been posting videos for snowolf to help me on and in the videos I feel like I am doing one thing, but when I watch the video you can hardly tell what I think I am doing. I feel like I am bending my knees at a 90 degree angle but in the video I have straight legs. It's hard to remember "EVERYTHING" when you are on the hill! lol


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## Sick-Pow (May 5, 2008)

start hitting small jumps. the terrain does not lend it self to naturally taking that progression like it does out west. Don't think like a skier with form, think about playing, watch skateboard videos.


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## Death (Oct 21, 2010)

quixotic_elixer said:


> From the video I also seem to be quite static


Yep, that's about what I noticed, you aren't bending and getting aggressive in your carvings and your having your hands up like you do just looks like you're bracing yourself for a fall. But hey, with only 5 days under your belt that's awesome, I have more tips for the cameraman than your riding. You just need to get out and ride some more. Good job


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## designfemme (Mar 12, 2010)

firstx1017 said:


> It's hard to remember "EVERYTHING" when you are on the hill! lol



Me too!!! I decided to change my mental approach and did this: instead focusing on getting all the goals down in one run, I just try to nail down one or two areas I want to improve consistently — whatever feels right or necessary at the moment I'm going down the hill. Whenever I tried to "do this, do that, do this, don't forget that," I end up over-thinking and not really paying attention to the response of my body/board. Too many things to think about.

I realized that by tackling smaller pieces of my goals, I was establishing "muscle memory" much better. If I try to do twenty things off my mental checklist, nothing is consistently done and nothing ends up as muscle memory. 

I don't know if it will work for everyone, but it certainly worked for me!


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## boardaddicktd (Dec 31, 2009)

u look a lil stiff but if its only your 5th day of riding i'd say ur lookin pretty good. u gotta love the "crowdedness" of happy valley. that run is always crowded as hell. i usually run along the banks at the left side to stay away from everyone haha.


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## quixotic_elixer (Dec 14, 2011)

Efilnikufesin said:


> Couple of quick things I noticed. One, keep you upper body more upright, bend more with your knees and less with your waist. Two, keep yourself centered on the board. If you look in the video you can see that you have less bend in your leading leg than your trailing leg, hence you are leaning uphill while riding. Keep yourself centered with both knees bent equally, it may feel like you are leaning downhill, but you will initiate turns easier and have more control when you hit choppy terrain.
> 
> I at times notice myself still leaning on my back leg on steeper terrain and have to correct myself. If I am washing out alot on high speed turns it is usually because I am leaning uphill. By leaning uphill you are taking weight off your downhill contact point, making especially heelside turns harder to control.
> 
> There are members on here that would know better than I though. I'm better at correcting myself than correcting others.


1. I tend to naturally hunch over, this will be a tough challenge!
2. Completely agree with the fact that I am still leaning uphill. I actually realized this the day before and explained why I was falling a lot when on heelside. 

Today was my attempt at trying to lean forward mroe and remain centered. Was only able to accomplish a handful of times, and it was a clear difference in feeling when I did it correctly as my heel edge would dig in and pull me through the turns and was a fantastic feeling!



firstx1017 said:


> I totally know what you mean about watching your own videos. I've been posting videos for snowolf to help me on and in the videos I feel like I am doing one thing, but when I watch the video you can hardly tell what I think I am doing. I feel like I am bending my knees at a 90 degree angle but in the video I have straight legs. It's hard to remember "EVERYTHING" when you are on the hill! lol


It's definitely tough when you have so many little things that factor into your form, as well as thinking your doing it correctly when in fact you aren't!

Thank goodness for videos and this form 



Death said:


> Yep, that's about what I noticed, you aren't bending and getting aggressive in your carvings and your having your hands up like you do just looks like you're bracing yourself for a fall. But hey, with only 5 days under your belt that's awesome, I have more tips for the cameraman than your riding. You just need to get out and ride some more. Good job


I'm not sure what i'm suppose to do with my hands? lol should I have them spread out pointing head to tail? or should I keep them tucked towards my body? I've been leaning in with my shoulder when trying to initiate turns.



designfemme said:


> Me too!!! I decided to change my mental approach and did this: instead focusing on getting all the goals down in one run, I just try to nail down one or two areas I want to improve consistently — whatever feels right or necessary at the moment I'm going down the hill. Whenever I tried to "do this, do that, do this, don't forget that," I end up over-thinking and not really paying attention to the response of my body/board. Too many things to think about.
> 
> I realized that by tackling smaller pieces of my goals, I was establishing "muscle memory" much better. If I try to do twenty things off my mental checklist, nothing is consistently done and nothing ends up as muscle memory.
> 
> I don't know if it will work for everyone, but it certainly worked for me!


That is the exact same approach I am taking  Working from top to bottom!

So I guess my action plan for the next day is:
1: straighten my back
2: What do I do with my hands?
3. Bend knees more and try to lean forward
4. GO FAST!


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## designfemme (Mar 12, 2010)

Not to throw even more on your plate (  ), but I found that doing the "hump" (i.e., thrusting of the hips forward) on toeside was tremendously helpful. (As a forum lurker, you might've seen the "hump/dump" phrase before.) 

It's easy to do, and it's startlingly efficient. As you juggle all these things to remember, the "hump" part, I found, was the easiest to do and not mess up. And you'll feel an immediate difference, too, in your performance. :thumbsup:

As a beginner myself, I have mad respect for the progress you made. I couldn't do what you did in the videos after just 5-6 days of riding.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Just to add, when focusing on an isolated aspect or technique...really exaggrate the movement. As for the hands...cut them off at the shoulders...you don't need them....stick them in your pockets, grab da nutz, be like Prince Charles and hold them behind you. Don't be like Queenie and wave them around.


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## quixotic_elixer (Dec 14, 2011)

designfemme said:


> Not to throw even more on your plate (  ), but I found that doing the "hump" (i.e., thrusting of the hips forward) on toeside was tremendously helpful. (As a forum lurker, you might've seen the "hump/dump" phrase before.)
> 
> It's easy to do, and it's startlingly efficient. As you juggle all these things to remember, the "hump" part, I found, was the easiest to do and not mess up. And you'll feel an immediate difference, too, in your performance. :thumbsup:
> 
> As a beginner myself, I have mad respect for the progress you made. I couldn't do what you did in the videos after just 5-6 days of riding.


No worries, the more critiques I get the more I crave to go up and improve on them all! I will definitely try emphasizes on the hump/dump. Two things I should be a natural at 



Snowolf said:


> Okay, just had time to sit and watch your videos several times to see what is going on.
> 
> First, before getting started, to clear up a very common misconception, carving is a fairly advanced type of turn that uses only the sidecut of the board to turn and has virtually no skidding at all. It will be a while before you are actually carving a turn so don`t even worry about that right now. What you want is to get more fluid in your skidded turns and then make them more dynamic.
> 
> ...


I completely agree with your assessment. I'm going to start working on fixing upper body movements first, and work my way down to the harder stuff that requires more 'feel'. 

Mentioned earlier, I tend to hunch over and round my shoulders in... If I were to stick my chest out and open up my shoulders, will this correct my posture in correlation with my stance?

After lurking for a been, and reading a lot of your analysis of your riding it's quite clear a lot of people seem to fall int he same category as me in terms of back foot riding instead of front foot. I also realized this and tried to correct it. Chalk it up to fear of crashing hard, but I'm finding it nerve wrecking when putting my weight forward and the board takes off as it picks up speed really quickly. It's something that i'll progressively (which I am) getting used to. The logic and reasoning's make total sense, but the body just reacts out of fear! haha

My highbacks are leaning forward as much as they will go. I'm using 390boss with burton rulers. Is there anything else I can do?


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

quixotic_elixer said:


> Mentioned earlier, I tend to hunch over and round my shoulders in... If I were to stick my chest out and open up my shoulders, will this correct my posture in correlation with my stance?


Riding hunched over...yo butt tends to stick out...stinky butt. To help correct this: tilt your pelvis forward...like abit of humpin...but also tighten your abs; while also tightening yo butt cheeks and sink in your knees and pull back your shoulders.


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