# position for a female rider?



## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

Hips should generally be centered front/back. (as you get better, all rules can be broken at times) Turns are initiated using flexion (bending) of the low body and shifting the knees and hips. Knees toward the front of the board a bit on heelside and toward the inside on toeside. Hips thrust forward (in relation to your body, a humping position) on toeside and backward (like you are taking a dump) on heelside. Hump and dump, hump and dump.

It is good to lead with your hips, but it sounds like you are rotating your upper body and leading with your shoulders. If you can have someone take a video of you, we can give you a lot more specific advice.

It is true that women often shift there hips forward on the board. This usually means you have your back leg straight. It works fine on the bunny hill, but as soon as you ride through the choppy steeper stuff you're going to get bounced all over the place. In order to really ride well, you have to bend your knees and ride dynamically, absorbing the terrain and actively engaging your edges. 

If you get to the bottom and don't feel like your legs are getting a serious work out, you are doing it wrong.

Lessons with a good instructor are usually worthwhile. Snowolf has some great videos as well.


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## Quantity (Oct 20, 2011)

face down, ass up
position for female rider


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

cifex said:


> If you get to the bottom and don't feel like your legs are getting a serious work out, you are doing it wrong.


....or you're in phenomenal shape
.... or maybe are built like Chun-li (http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/04/chunli.png).


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

designfemme said:


> Hello, beginner snowboarder here!
> 
> I heard of a phenomenon where female riders have a tendency to drive the board with their hips forward — due to having wider hips and thus a different range of movement. I even catch myself swiveling and leading with my hips as I exit a toeside turn and enter a heelside turn. Is this the start of a bad habit? Should I be pushing my lead knee out even more instead? :dunno:
> 
> ...





Quantity said:


> face down, ass up
> position for female rider


Uh huh. didn't see that coming. Some thread titles you just have to wonder if the OP is trolling just a little bit.


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## designfemme (Mar 12, 2010)

Quantity said:


> face down, ass up
> position for female rider


Face down, ass up, that's the way I like to *ride*
I like the *regular foot*, it's my favorite position
But I'm tired of the front, so that's why I'm *switchin*'

Um…I don't know how to finish the song. Somebody else do it.


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## designfemme (Mar 12, 2010)

cifex said:


> Hips should generally be centered front/back. (as you get better, all rules can be broken at times) Turns are initiated using flexion (bending) of the low body and shifting the knees and hips. Knees toward the front of the board a bit on heelside and toward the inside on toeside. Hips thrust forward (in relation to your body, a humping position) on toeside and backward (like you are taking a dump) on heelside. Hump and dump, hump and dump.
> 
> It is good to lead with your hips, but it sounds like you are rotating your upper body and leading with your shoulders. If you can have someone take a video of you, we can give you a lot more specific advice.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the detailed information! I found myself swinging my hips around because I wanted to get more into riding dynamically. I remember from one of Snowolf's videos about "unhinging" at the waist. I'm linking turns but I am still very rigid in my form. Time to move the hips more — but more towards toeside and heelside.

I never thought to pay attention to what my shoulder was doing! I think you are right, I might be leading with my upper body (which would explain the hip swivel).

I've had 2 useless lessons (instructors were too inexperienced), but my last instructor was very good. I will consider going back for more lessons.

Thanks!


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## AAA (Feb 2, 2008)

Yes, drive your hips front-back and/or fore-aft as needed, but not in rotation (for now... Like alot of things in life, you learn the "proper" basics, then at some point in your advancement you throw that out and relearn something completely different.) 

Actually, women have the advantage of a lower center of gravity in snowboarding, which is more stable. You should all be kicking men's butts! :laugh:


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## designfemme (Mar 12, 2010)

AAA said:


> Actually, women have the advantage of a lower center of gravity in snowboarding, which is more stable. You should all be kicking men's butts! :laugh:


I do kick butt…













at wicked slow skidded turns. 

I appreciate the encouragement and advice, everyone (and the 2 Live Crew reference ).


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

designfemme said:


> Hello, beginner snowboarder here!
> 
> I heard of a phenomenon where female riders have a tendency to drive the board with their hips forward — due to having wider hips and thus a different range of movement. I even catch myself swiveling and leading with my hips as I exit a toeside turn and enter a heelside turn. Is this the start of a bad habit? Should I be pushing my lead knee out even more instead? :dunno:
> 
> ...


You can steer with head shoulders, hips, leading knee and foot/ankle. However the further away from the board the more slow the response and more inefficient. The torsional twist/leading knee steering is where a beginner ought to start. However you also want the ankles, hips and shoulders aligned, stacked and working together. You really have 3 axis to coordinate for turns...fore/aft, toeside/heelside and lowering/raising your center of gravity (cog)....and women have a lower center of gravity than guys which results in a more flowing riding style with less articulated movements. Perhaps get a private lesson with a good female instructor. Good women riders can be hellishly fast and just seen to float along...I haven't been able to keep up with my daughter since she was 14.


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## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

Snowolf said:


> For toe side, a movement that often gets totally overlooked is rolling your back knee back toward the tail. This adds some rotary at the tail of the board that favors this toe side movement.


I would just add that results will vary with this depending on whether you are riding a duck stance.


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## designfemme (Mar 12, 2010)

Thank you, everyone!

I really appreciate that you guys are not only giving me advice but also explaining the reasoning behind the advice. Obviously the best way to learn is get out there with an instructor, but, between riding days, I like to think about the mechanics and do visualization. (Actually, I'm terrible at physics — BUT they way all of you have broken down the information into digestible, easy-to-understand details is tremendously helpful.)

Oh, the thing about rolling the lead knee back towards the tail on toeside turns…I discovered that by sheer experimenting last time! Last season, I kept driving my lead knee forward for both heelside AND toeside entry. As you guys could probably guess, my toeside turn felt more like a sideslip with a dramatic drop in speed, kicking up a lot of snow. This year, I tried pulling my lead knee instead, and volia! — suddenly my toeside turn finished more smoothly and felt more "rounded."

Small accomplishments. So much fun at this newbie stage 

My goals for next time:
1. make sure I'm not initiating a turn with my shoulder
2. more emphasis on ankle/knee flexion as the primary force for driving
3. don't obsess over the hip thing, but make sure it's not the dominating force over other actions
3. consider fore-aft movements (something I have not tried before!)
4. hump and dump! (I always forget to do the hump part)
5. try to get a video up of my epic faceplants for the amusement of strangers — I mean, "my fantastic progression in snowboarding for movement analysis"

I will report back if anything interesting comes up. I promise to start it off with an even more suggestive thread title


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## sb60 (Oct 5, 2010)

One thing that helped me stay square with my board when I was learning-- not bending at the waist or swiveling around- was to imagine I had a penguin on each end of my board and had to keep my hands on their heads. It sounded silly but it helped. When I felt off-balance I'd just think penguins.


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## designfemme (Mar 12, 2010)

sb60 said:


> One thing that helped me stay square with my board when I was learning-- not bending at the waist or swiveling around- was to imagine I had a penguin on each end of my board and had to keep my hands on their heads. It sounded silly but it helped. When I felt off-balance I'd just think penguins.



I love penguins :thumbsup:


But as a Monty Python fan, I'm afraid I'll keep visualizing them as exploding:

The Exploding Penguin - YouTube


So maybe whenever I feel off-balance, I'll imagine a penguin at each end of my board and tethered to a tripwire to each of my shoulders. Then I'll tell myself to keep aligned with the board — otherwise, If I twist my upper body too much, I'll detonate them.


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