# Tail press help???



## cadencesdad (Nov 18, 2008)

I almost always seem to spin right (clockwise, I ride normal) when I tail press. I have tried leaning back grabbing the tail end for balance, but still spin right.

I seem to get less spin at higher speeds??

any tips on what to try or where to lean to balance out my butters? 

Thanks guys


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

cadencesdad said:


> I almost always seem to spin right (clockwise, I ride normal) when I tail press. I have tried leaning back grabbing the tail end for balance, but still spin right.
> 
> I seem to get less spin at higher speeds??
> 
> ...


Try practicing on the carpet inside or some place. Maybe you can work on balance. If you lean to a side, the board will too. Maybe sure there's enoung room so you don't break something if it does.


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## Fizzlicious (May 12, 2009)

Sounds like you might be moving your leading shoulder (in your case, left) to the right causing your body to rotate. When you press it try to make sure that your leading shoulder is over the board so you go straight.


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

Fizzlicious said:


> Sounds like you might be moving your leading shoulder (in your case, left) to the right causing your body to rotate. When you press it try to make sure that your leading shoulder is over the board so you go straight.


Without a video you can't be sure of this. You can rotate your left shoulder to the left but if your body leans on the right side, you will still rotate clockwise. Ultimately, you just have to make sure that you're balanced along the long axis of the board. It takes practice. It takes some while moving too and the board is vibrating.

Ultimately, you're going to stick your butt out to the left. You have to find the right body position to counter this. Your hands might help. But you have to do it since everyone's body and stance, etc. is different.

Look how in this pic, he sticks his butt out and uses both hands to weight the other side.









versus this dude who just bends more at the waist.


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## Thad Osprey (Feb 18, 2009)

Ramasyean is right in that ultimately it has to do with aligning yourself with the central axis of your board. Unwanted rotation when trying to tail press could have a lot of attributary causes. Your lead shoulder could be going off to the left/right, you may be supporting all your weight on your backfoot favouring either your heels/toes etc. Sometimes the terrain you are on is uneven, meaning that even if you do a theoretically perfect tail press with everything aligned you still dont go straight. To make things more complicated your binding set-up could be off centre, or you could have too much forward lean on your bindings. Even anatomical differences come into play so everyone in reality presses different. What all this means is that somehow you are going to have to "compensate" for uneveness to be going straight and there is honestly "no correct way" for this. But here are some things that can help:

a) Make sure you are tail pressing properly. The most commonly taught method to tail press is to shift your body weight backwards, not pull up with your front leg which causes you to be severely imbalanced. Shift your hips (where your centre of gravity is) over your back bindings towards your tail and lean back (you can pull your front leg up for added "steeze" if you will once u get the hang of it).

b)When you press make sure you channel pressure evenly along the central axis of the board backwards to your tail. Meaning no favouring of either toe or heel (altho in order not to catch and edge, or when compensating, u need to improvise a bit). Remember to keep your body weight stacked over the board, so shoulders and hips need to stay over the board. No inadvertent leaning of ur ass outwards or having twisted shoulders over a straight board. Keep aligned. 

c)Look where you are going. This is commonly overlooked. Dont look down at your board or behind you or to the side. Look straight in the direction you want to go. Just trust that you are pressing correctly and in balance. Dont look at your shadow in the snow either to check your form, this will just throw you off. Which leads me to:

d)It could be you trying to grab the board that throws you off cos u tend to turn around and look at the tail to do so. If you are a regular rider and you do that, you start initiating a backside spin unconsciously, thus causing you to turn clockwise.

Lastly, as with most tricks, higher speeds somehow make it easier for you to shift your bodyweight with less dramatic movements. Perhaps this could be a factor. 

Good Luck,

Master G.


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

Thad Osprey said:


> Lastly, as with most tricks, higher speeds somehow make it easier for you to shift your bodyweight with less dramatic movements. Perhaps this could be a factor.


He’s prolly toe-edging as he rotates CW. Your rear foot is still like a pivot. As you’re moving faster, the tail’s toe edge is experiencing much more force from the speeding ground trying to push it CCW around the pivot…hence less CW rotation speed.


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## SPAZ (May 2, 2009)

my problem is my bindings is at a wide angle when i press. whats your stance?


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## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

My guess would be that you are putting weight on your toe edge. This will also cause you to rotate during a tail press. I was having this problem when I was learning to grab my tail during the press. I practiced it on the top of the run and at the bottom where it is flat. That was the best way for me to learn the balance. Another helpful hint is to nollie into a tail press. It is harder to do the press without the nollie. The best part is, the nollie makes it look steezy. Like Rasma said, there are many ways to balance yourself without rotating. I bend low and more at the waist similar to Rasma's lower pic. You have to be conscious of how you are balancing your feet. Keep that rear foot flat based. If you are lifting your heel, you will be favoring the toe edge which will make you spin that direction.


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## Guest (Mar 16, 2010)

ya just make sure your flat based getting on the box. make sure your not coming on urban too. but seriously find a good spot where you can go flat from do a couple 50 50s to where your making it all the way without adjusting on the box. then you can do the same thing and just lean back.


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## cadencesdad (Nov 18, 2008)

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Much thanks to Rasmasyean for the pics also. My presses are more like the guy in the first pic. 

so I am assuming that since my butt sticks out to my left, I have been trying to compensate by riding the toe edge, causing clockwise rotation. so I'm guessing I should counter weight my butt by extending my arms in front of me and bending more at the knees.

since I have been rotating clockwise, that would seem counter-intuitive to add more weight to the toeside, but actually makes sense when you think about it.

I'll give it a shot next week.


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## n2i1c3k7 (Jun 23, 2009)

does being able to hold a tail press have anything to do with strength or is it all about balance and technique?


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## rasmasyean (Jan 26, 2008)

n2i1c3k7 said:


> does being able to hold a tail press have anything to do with strength or is it all about balance and technique?


Both. 

Strength: if you flex the rear leg to hold a small press by lifting the nose and weighting the rear, your leg will burn.

Balance: if you extend the rear leg and hold a large press by shifting your weight far over the tail, you don’t need as much leg strength but you have to balance it more since your board is higher and is more like a pogo stick

YouTube - sierrasnowboard's Channel

IMO...I would say that the first method is "easier" with a soft board since you don't need as much effort to bend the board. The second method is "easier" with a stiff board since it won't wobble as much with minor adustments when you're balancing on it.


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## Thad Osprey (Feb 18, 2009)

Rama is right. Its both. Although I would actually say balance and technique need to be dialed in right first. That way you can actually press properly, but over easy terrain and not for very long periods of time. The strength and endurance that comes with it, regardless of either technique in the video (Rama is quite good at finding illustrations I note), is a result of practise and doing it over and over again. Also its not so much a "carry a house" type of brute strength than a "muscle memory" kind of strength where your body needs to get used to the movement and your muscles adapt to it. So dont get upset if you cant press for 2 minutes on end at first.


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## n2i1c3k7 (Jun 23, 2009)

ok cool so i just need to give it some more practice, what is the difference between good and bad technique when tail pressing?


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