# Good tip for keeping your shoulders parallel with the board



## drew_08 (Dec 25, 2012)

Thanks for the tip! I'm still a beginner and notice myself doing this as well. Gonna take your advice next time I go out and try to break this habit early!


----------



## Lamps (Sep 3, 2011)

mastershake said:


> This saturday I went out with the goal of breaking my bad habit of opening up my shoulders and ruddering with my back foot.
> 
> One thing I noticed for keeping my shoulders in better line with my board was where my arm was hanging. Usually my front arm would hang by my side and maybe a little bit out almost over the heel edge. I noticed that bringing in my hand and placing it palm down on the front of my thigh helped keep my shoulders more tucked in and in parallel with the board.
> 
> Hope this helps someone out.


This is a great drill, I do it often myself and with my kids, front hand on the front thigh.


----------



## MeanJoe (Jul 20, 2011)

This is also a bad habit I have, ingrained over 20+ years of riding, opening my chest downhill.

Two other drills that are similar to above have helped me:

1.) A bit more of a dramatic body positioning exercise but something that helped me as I had a LOT of ingrained muscle memory so I almost felt like I needed "bigger" steps. I placed my downhill hand (I ride goofy, so right hand) near my left shoulder. Think of it like placing your hand over your heart when saying "The Pledge of Allegiance" but hand placement is farther over. When riding with a small backpack, I'd go as far as to grip the shoulder strap on my uphill shoulder (left). With my other hand, I would bring it around behind my back with the back of my hand resting against the small of my back - like a one-handed Parade Rest. Riding like this helped to keep me from opening my chest downhill. The downside for me was my right arm across my body (Pledge of Allegiance) tended to make it harder for me to turn my head fully 90 degrees to look downhill.

2.) Like the one above, instead of placing my hand on my thigh I lightly grip a section of my pants, between the cargo pocket and top of thigh.

MeanJoe


----------



## jml22 (Apr 10, 2012)

I did, hands in the pocket to get the feeling down.


----------



## cb1021 (Nov 21, 2010)

Another tip is to set the binding angles low, ie. 5/-5. This way, as soon as you open your chest to the bottom of the hill, you will come to a full stop giving you a warning. Also it just makes the stance easier in general.

If you look at hard-boot riders, you see that their chest is always open. That's probably because they have a wide angle on their board making that open chest natural posture. It's hard to have let's say 15/-15 on a twintip board and not to have chest open, especially for beginners. You can force it by keeping your hands in your pockets, but that's not natural posture as soon as you want to use your arms for balance.


----------



## jml22 (Apr 10, 2012)

well you couple it with forcing yourself to leverage your board properly and bend/squatand torsion the board opposed to swinging your arms around to do the same .


----------



## mastershake (Jan 9, 2012)

cb1021 said:


> Another tip is to set the binding angles low, ie. 5/-5. This way, as soon as you open your chest to the bottom of the hill, you will come to a full stop giving you a warning. Also it just makes the stance easier in general.
> 
> If you look at hard-boot riders, you see that their chest is always open. That's probably because they have a wide angle on their board making that open chest natural posture. It's hard to have let's say 15/-15 on a twintip board and not to have chest open, especially for beginners. You can force it by keeping your hands in your pockets, but that's not natural posture as soon as you want to use your arms for balance.


this is actually quite interesting. personally i ride 18/-9 (i will probably lower 18 to 15 or 12 soon) but i see what you mean...and i think park riders in duck stance tend to need their chest open a lot more than when riding which makes sense...


----------



## liner (Jan 8, 2013)

another way would be to hold on with both hands to the bottom of your jacket. Keeps your shoulders nice and controlled, and the stress when you twist your torso lets you know when you open/close them.


----------

