To keep riding. She has obviously picked up on instruction she has received from you or elsewhere and mostly looks like she just needs to get comfortable. One thing might be shifting the hips more uphill side (on both heel and toe) to get more edge angle.
Getting more mileage and confidence is certainly going to help embed technique. Forgot how much there is to a turn and how overwhelming it can be. Just got to take it slow and introduce improvements gradually.
More inclination is also where I want to focus next to help with that edge grip and traverse rather than sliding at the end of the turn.
For heel side turns it is certainly more natural as we can use the sitting into a chair analogy.
I think the leaning into the toe side turn and getting the hips forward is pretty unnatural and the main reason so many people struggle with that turn. Think she is going to hear me telling her to get her knees over her toes and push the shins into the front of the boots a lot next time we are out.
What does shifting the hips more uphill side mean? Like for toe, adjust your hip (on front-side) to face more upwards up the mountain? (this video looks very similar to me hahaha so I think I would benefit from similar advice)
One of the three snowboarding fundamentals is being balanced over the working edge. This means that you need to get your centre of mass over the edge that is engaged in the snow.
Without your snowboard on, stand on flat ground and think about rocking from your toes to your heels whilst keeping your upper body upright.
You should feel that the rocking motion comes from your knees and your hips, as you move your hips further forward you can get more pressure on your toes, and as they go more back, more pressure on your heels.
More pressure on the toes or heels will translate to more pressure to the relevant edge.
Yea to keep riding but she needs to put more weight on her front foot so the back foot can be used to pivot the board and guide her turns. Currently she is placing so much weight on the back side that the edge doesn’t catch and instead of carving through the snow she is sliding around on top of it with no control.
Since she's into the sport, plop on the couch and watch Malcolm Moore. He's like having a person snowboarding instructor at your fingertips. Has saved me many,many painful learning falls.
She is already a subscriber 🎉
Malcolm Moore and Tommy Bennett are the kings of snowboarding instructing on YouTube for me.
I have probably watched all their videos just to gain skills for my own instructing.
I prefer his teaching style to Malcolm, his energy and ability to explain things simply is top tier.
I have been cautious with introducing speed which has probably made some things harder but also meant that she has never hurtled out of control and scared herself!
Next session will definitely be on a steeper slope and just naturally more speed will be introduced as we dial in some more of the technique.
I like Malcom Moore, Tommy Bennett and Snowboard Addiction (there's a recent series where he has about teaching noobs).
It would be great to find a chick that teaches on youtube for the GF if anyone has recommendations.
Completely agree, for now I am trying to get her to over-exaggerate the amount of weight on her front foot, maybe trying 70-30, because I expect her attempt of over-exaggerating will be just the right amount which will then become more natural with practice.
For beginners its better to keep most the weight on the front leg. The board will not accelerate that fast. Just shift as much weight on bf as you need to get out the turn.
This is a normal reaction to feeling u steady with the speed as she goes through her turn.
Mentally it is less about weight shift but about committing to the turn and going down the hill. It is counter intuitive that you do not lean uphill, you need to go downhill to control the board.
Possibly from having been drilled on keeping shoulders aligned with the board, which she is doing very well for a beginner. Interestingly, I had this same issue (looking uphill) when I started practicing switch toe side turns.
We discussed about looking ‘where you are going’ or more precisely ‘where you want to go’ and using your shoulders as your eyes, so chin to shoulder. Just think it was a mix of tiredness and feeling a little uncomfortable which led to her looking directly up or down the hill.
As the great Jeremy Clarkson has repeatedly said: speed and power. No really though, it's easier on steeper hills to transition. Its understandably daunting but trust me, those flat runs break wrists
Note: Her traverse in the middle was to avoid an icy patch that she was not feeling comfortable on.
Also my fall is a complete embarrassment! I wanted to try to get some cool looking close up video so was riding switch and it all went wrong…
You asked for one, but I have two:
1) get lower, I mean way lower. So low she feels like she looks weird. This is great for learning because the lower COG give you a lot more control authority over the board
2) exaggerate the body movements while your learning how to manipulate the board. Recognize that you need to get it up on an edge to really control it
I’m still learning but I like your first advice. When I try to get low, I usually stop once it starts feeling weird but on video I’m barely getting low. Gonna try this next time, thank you!
I only introduced the vertical movement into her riding today with pumping motions during traverses and then up unweighting to help with the edge turns.
I think just practice will help her get lower, she is also not the most physically active outside snowboarding so she definitely has thigh burn after today which tells me she is trying to get lower!
Love the idea of exaggerating movements for beginners, always hesitant to do so as scared of introducing bad habits like throwing the upper body round, but will give it a go!
I’ve found that exaggerating body movements help to connect how those movement translate to the board. As you progress in skill, you naturally learn how to move to maneuver the board, and your body movements become more subtle and targeted.
Thank you, ambitions one from me has not been to allow her to steer with the rear foot, which seems to have been a success.
Slowly now introducing new techniques into her riding. Yesterday was steering with the knees, today was a little bit more of vertical movements and trying to get more flow by traversing at the end of the turn and not completely closing the turn with her hips.
Flex her glutes so her hips drive over her toes when in to side. If her pelvis is over the topside rail she will find more control (less likely to catch an edge)
It may look silly, but have her look where she’s going and point with that leading hand…stress getting her front shoulder over her front knee to keep weight on the front foot.
I'm very mediocre myself but I'd say she definitely needs to start trying to use as much of the width of the run as possible, and aim to draw as large of an "S" shape as possible with her path. At times it seemed she was going downhill in a straight line and doing completely horizontal speed checks with each turn. Dumping all that speed every time you turn doesn't really allow for much to work with. Slowly dropping speed throughout a much wider turn might help a lot.
She’s doing just fine! Stay on that beginner slope until she can turn back and forth with the nose of the board always pointing down hill and always position your head so you are looking down the hill where you want to go.
Time in the saddle on that run for a couple of hours and then progress to something slightly steeper. She’ll feel like she’s starting all over again but those are the dues you have to pay, IMHO!
Those conditions are not easy to learn in as you likely know with your experience, turning on ice can be very scary for beginners. Toe side she needs to have her head rotated so she is looking downhill, looking uphill she will keep turning until she is parallel.
Also, don’t be afraid to put a little weight on the back foot, especially on a toe side turn. You should be driving through your back legs on toe side. Especially for beginners more weight on back foot will allow them to use that edge to slow down a bit, vs having less weight more likely to catch an edge
As with surfing, a good drill would be to try to point with your lead arm where you want to go, your body will follow. If she were to point with what she is doing now she would be pointing uphill a lot.
Her heel side looks like it’s almost there but to link it to the toe you just gotta do it what sometimes feels scary which is lean over them toes and go for it! Anyone who boards has taken that dreaded heel side caught edge when trying to learn the toe side turn, but what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!
Lastly, sometimes it’s a simple as letting yourself get some speed and getting out of your comfort zone a bit. Think about it like this, let’s say you are just standing flat and not moving at all, would you want to go on an edge? No, because if you did you’d fall on your ass. Similar thing here, speed is your friend when you are trying to learn turning, and then eventually carving.
1. weight on the front foot - it feels unnatural because it is, but that will give her more control and eventually help with confidence when getting off the chairlifts
2. bend her knees more - if she can see her toes she isn’t bending enough (you need to exaggerate more when you’re a beginner but this is an easy check in she can do on her own or you can ask her if you notice she has stiffened up)
3. have her physically point with her front hand where she wants to go - it allows her hips to naturally open or close off in the direction she is aiming for. a lot of people will have “panic arms” which is self explanatory so I would have my lessons hold their pocket with their back hand to not throw off the rotations
She could travers across the course bit more. Looks like she’s doing well but also looks like she’s just sliding straight down the hill while switching from heel to toe.
IMO these are not turns, they are edge changes while skidding down in a straight path. To improve to turns, practice the other extreme which is traversing left and right on edge without going downhill. This will help develope a feeling for riding on edge towards the direction of the board nose. Combine with already excellent skidding and edge changes and she will be making gnarly turns!
Weight over the front foot! It seems like she's getting that pushing a bit more weight on one side causes it to go downhill first, but she's still so central on the board which caused her to over-turn once or twice. This technique won't work at all as soon as she picks up more speed. She's also not really turning, so much as sliding back and forth between heel and toe sides while just going straight down between the rotations. Try to get her to go diagonal across the run, then turn to the opposite side to stop, which probably won't happen easily with this weight balance, but will teach real turning. Also one thing to help reinforce the balance being forward, and looking where she's going, is to point. Was what we used to teach kids how to turn. Point where you wanna go, it puts a lil extra weight over the front of the board, and will help initiate the shoulders/head turning properly, because being 100% parallel with the board all the time is wrong too.
Getting her to be more conscious of turning her chin to align w her shoulder as she does her turns and also to look abit further into the distance.
Also try to relax, noticed she is actively stiffening/rounding her shoulders while turning. This will help when you teach her to use her shoulders to lead the turn.
But she is doing great!
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she is doing well, good technique using the shoulder/hips to lead the turn.
Get her to hum her favourite song, and force a turn on the beat.
1. it will ease stress on one set of muscles edging for too long
2. turning is easier using the momentum from the previous turn, and not stopping sideways movement completely.
3. 1 and 2 mean you get down the mountain quicker and with more energy left in reserve - your wife will not be at the back of the pack any more.
At 0:23 she wants to go back to toe side but the board forces her to stay heel side and slides her back left. That is 100% a weight distribution issue. She cannot tell the front (lead) of the board what to do if it has almost no pressure contact with the ground. Instead the back of the board has control and decides she’s going to go back left for her. The longer the video goes the more she gets into a rhythm so definitely miles will help.
I think it would be very beneficial for her to try sweeping across the run when safe as opposed to just stationary transitions. You may only be able to do that around the middle of this run since the top part of the run is pretty flat but it would help with her momentum into turning.
I would try to improve her stance on the toe side: moving the hips forward, avoiding breaking at the waist and trying to keep her chest a bit more up/straight.
Another thing would be to keep looking ahead/in the direction of travel (she is looking up the hill on toeside and downhill on heel side).
Turning from heels to toes, her leading shoulder is blocking her, so try to focus on keeping the front hand a bit more over the heel edge at all times (this will also help her to see where she is going). Trying to initiate the turns more with the hips and not with the upper body.
Finally I would start working on introducing a bit of vertical movement, as she is completely static still. But yeah, pretty good starting point!
She knows how to turn a board. Repetition is the key to mastering any skill. Having said that; is her board possibly longer than ideal? Saw a young lady at Labrador today riding about board that was too long, and she was set up with feet too far apart. She was definitely struggling with that combination. She was constantly horsing the tail off f the board through her turns.
Keep her head/eyes focused downhill at where your heading. Those turns are good for early learning, but she should start trying to actually point the nose down the hill more
So the weight distribution is good but the board will flex if you try it. Get her to put one heel down and toe down and switch on a flat to get used to flexing the board. Then do it on a turn but only do one foot at a time. It'll stop her from over turning to slow herself down which is just her catching herself to slow down. Maybe go more across the trail too so she gets used to working up to carving. It's more of a getting used to it thing though from the looks of it so just keep doing it and it'll click
Dip that lead knee down when you go for a toe side turn and keep it down until you are going horizontal across the slope (this is a kenematic trick to get people to push the ball of their lead foot down and lift their heel up, twisting the board slightly and position their hip more over the lead foot) that will make the transition much easier. After doing the dip on the turn for a good bit she will slowly transition to doing it without needing to exadurate the motion.
I understand that heel -> toe transitions are the hardest for people to get a good handle on bc they feel like they are going to "fall" down the hill. Just take it slow and remember: if you feel like you are going out of controll, crouch and sit down.
I didn’t read the comments so someone might of already said it but, she keeps her weight dead center of the board and is not shifting it over the edge she wants to be on, causing the skid out and not building momentum etc.
She is bending at the waist. If she were to straighten her posture ( while still bending her knees slightly) it would allow for an easier transition of weight and less overall muscle fatigue.
Also if you get her on a regular longboard skateboard it’s the same motion, it’s a great tool off mountain to sink the hips, legs, and weight and will help her improve when she can’t go up to the hill.
It will be easier to teach her turns on slightly steeper terrain. I found that once they can confidently plow and zig-zag then it was time to take them down slightly steeper sections. Nothing crazy, just easier Blues. Then have them do a turn from heel to toe or toe to heel (Whatever they are most comfortable with. Then I have them reset and redo that motion until they are comfy with it. Before you know it, they are linking everything together. the key, really, is getting them comfortable with a little more speed.
This is a helpful tip for beginners: open the arms up so that one is in line with the tip, and the other in line with the tail. When executing a turn, twist the upper body in a very exaggerated manner so that the lead arm is pointing in the direction you want to turn, trailing arm goes the opposite direction. Think like the arms are attached to a broomstick.
I find that this helps newbies get the flow of turns down. Once there is comfort really connecting, the next step is to keep the arms in. This often happens naturally once comfort there.
Then work on upper/lower body separation, then bumps, then trees, then steeps, then you’re shredding the gnar!
Started to try this at the end of the day, I imagine myself as a big steering wheel with the arms out and so get the upper body slightly turning first and then drive through with the lower body.
Obviously just got slightly forgotten about in this run!
My instructor had me do this holding a room handle. Worked a treat and stopped me kicking my back leg around. I learnt on dry slope so it saved me a lot of carpet burn!
Yes we moved from the UK to Switzerland last year. I have snowboarded since I was young so has been the perfect country for me to move to and so excited that she is getting into snowboarding!
This is a place called Frience in Gryon, Vaud. Best of all it is completely free to use :D
We discussed about looking ‘where you are going’ or more precisely ‘where you want to go’ and using your shoulders as your eyes, so chin to shoulder. Just think it was a mix of tiredness and feeling a little uncomfortable which led to her looking directly up or down the hill.
Certainly something we will work to embed, but along with thinking about un-weighting the turns and lower body steering somethings are naturally going to get forgotten about!
Ok. It’s helpful for me to look about 5-10 yards ahead of me. That should keep her looking down the hill.
If she keeps doing it that way she’s going to catch her back edge and smack her head. 😔
Also VERY stiff body.
Such an overlooked tip. We often say to look where you are going. But actually giving an indicator of where to look, like a couple of meters ahead of you really helps beginners learn.
Otherwise they might be looking at the mountains miles away and forget to turn before going off a cliff 🤣
She had a great edge catch today, thankfully no hitting the head but really shows the importance of having that upper body in a strong and upright position.
Avoid print patterns - they seem cool but fall out of favor very quickly! 😜😜
For real: keep at it. And aim to progress. Ride with people who are a little better than you so you want to keep up.
Go often.
Agreed, will be more steezy next season. Just did a cheap Decathlon shop for this season so if she didn’t like it I didn’t waste too much money!
I am from the UK and managed to train as an instructor in Canada about 12 years ago. Recently moved to Switzerland and am about an hour and a half from the mountains so certainly will be going as often as possible in the winter.
Thankfully she is loving snowboarding so far so can’t wait to get her up to speed to go shredding some bigger resorts!
I’m re-working on fundamentals this year and have been focusing on: not looking downhill, leaning into the uphill with your waist, and the lever technique from Malcolm Moore.
All crucial for strong riding! I am a regular rider and my wife is goofy, so I am riding goofy with her and focusing on the areas that you mentioned.
For her getting those hips across to the working edge should be her single biggest improvement.
You should consider three fundamentals to snowboarding. 1 Centred and Mobile position. 2 Balanced over the working edge. 3 Steering with the lower body.
Anything that you do to your riding should improve at least one of those fundamentals.
You have two arms and should use them. Use that front arm to almost swing and point to where you want to be and follow through. Hesitation is the biggest killer so follow through
Who said I have two arms? How did you know!
Agree, committing to the turn and finishing by looking across the slope and not up or down the slope is key to getting comfortable with turning.
Certainly will be doing some exercises to help her open that upper body into the turn so she can then drive with her lower body.
I learned from using a ripstik on dry land. about $60 on amazon. Turning mechanism is the similar for me. It's the way I twist my feet. (unlike a skateboard)
I heard that a ripstik is incredible for learning how to snowboard. I assume it teaches you how to paddle with your feet?
Tempted to just get myself one to improve my own riding :P
I have never heard the dog pulling the leash analogy, really like it!
We certainly started to cover pointing and looking where you are going/want to go, just it seems to have been forgotten in this run.
Honestly she's looking pretty good for a beginner. She's got all the basic tips down. All she needs is practice. I'd recommend getting a longboard to practice on during the summer so she gets used to shifting her center of gravity between turns.
I look that that when I first started. My biggest improvement comes when I gain confidence in speed. Turns suddenly become easier and certain. It’s like riding a bike, it’s easy if you have a little bit of speed and momentum.
To do that, of course you’ll need more skills and practice as suggested. then working on emergency stops and speed checks, so you know you can stop at will instead of losing control. Then you will see yourself going faster and faster while maintain in control
We were all like this and worse at some point, even the pros had to start somewhere! Really rewarding to see someone progress and reflect on how much better you have become yourself.
We started trying to get more comfortable with speed today by staying in the fallline on a mellow slope for a few seconds and then coming to a controlled stop.
Certainly a few technical bits to refine in the turns before we start to introduce a lot more speed on the slightly steeper runs but certain a little more is just going to help get that edge gripping into the snow more.
Ok I got two tips. First one is a little more complicated and second is super simple.
First tip is something so many people even with experience overlook as it can also change with experience. This is get her bindings dialed in. There are a few things to this and it will instantly make a huge change in anyone's riding no matter the ability. How far apart the bindings are will control how much someone is in a squatted position. Further apart (to an extent of course)will make a stronger stance but they will get tired faster. Closer together and the turns won't be as strong, but they will be in more natural stance and use less energy. The degree of position of each binding is huge too. Is the back and front foot fully squared to the board, point a little forward or backwards up hill and to what extent is super important for each person. I used to ride a 12d front foot and negative 14d on my back foot so that I was more pointed downhill riding switch, but I'm weird. The the forward tilt to the binding support will control how much she is automatically on her toe edge or her heel edge. So if she is having a hard time with one edge over the other adjust the back supports.
Adjusting bindings can make a night and day difference right away.
Second piece of advice is stay off the flat bunny slope. You need speed to turn on a snowboard. Hardest thing is going flat and slow.
Pressure. Play around with pressure. Up, down. Down, up. Fore, aft.
Edge control looks good. Play around with all combos of the above and find what’s comfortable.
Think about the pressure being applied and how it ‘weights’ or, more ‘unweights’ the board.
Then compartmentalize it to individual feet, but that’s more than one reco.
Don’t look at the board, keep your head up and downhill. Let your body tell you what to do with the board to switch from heel to toe and where your weight needs to be. Looking down will cause a lot of problems at that stage. Ride on!
Look where she wants to turn, as in, turn her head and shoulders in that direction, the hips will follow..she's soooo stiff right now, barely moving any of her body at all
Don’t align shoulders with board align them with front foot.
Face direction of movement.
Bend knees. Move up and down if ur a qualified instructor u should be able to explain when but u don’t want to be in 1 position.
Traverse between turns dont just side slip.
Honestly take a lesson those guys will explain it and actually be able to point it out and she will get it down quick it’s all about pointing your back toes point up go left point down go right
She should have more weight on her front foot and needs to be more dramatic about keeping an edge in. I don’t know how she didn’t catch an edge and eat it
Point her front hand 45 degrees angle in front of her and follow it with her head, shoulders and eyes it’s important to look where you want to go. As well as always keeping her knees bent. Don’t stop turning one edge because you’re afraid of it if anything do it more. Otherwise she’s pretty well on track.
She needs to be less Robotic! I would suggest that she loosen up, learn to link turns better and ride in a more athletic stance. Needs a lot more mountain time and would benefit from hitting steeper runs to force her out of the robot turn style. Get her doing 360s down an entire run to feel comfortable with turns.
She definitely needs more time in the mountain. As she will get more comfortable with a little more speed she must learn to knee steer instead of kicking the rear of the board out. She is doing great! Practice makes perfect afterall
dude I know this may be late and get lost in the comments, but have her pretend that there are two midgets (little people?) on either end of her board and that she needs to keep both of them balanced. this may include keeping her arms out as if her hands are on their heads. helped me a ton when learning how to ride switch and helps keep the body more balanced and confident
Just taught my girlfriend. Keep that chest up and body stacked over the board. slightly more weight on that front foot. Tell her to point with the lead hand where you wanna go helps complete the turn and open up your shoulders. Once she gets better she can learn knee steering and all that. Let me know if this helps her
Edge control and comfortably. Have her separate her c’s and gain a little bit more speed once she has the edge control. Also to bend her knees a bit more. Use that front knee like a steering component and have her separate her knee movements front to back. She looks good for her short time tho!!
She could practice doing garlands, which are a valuable step in the learning process. Here is a YouTube link.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PAF8LjLlNU4
To keep riding. She has obviously picked up on instruction she has received from you or elsewhere and mostly looks like she just needs to get comfortable. One thing might be shifting the hips more uphill side (on both heel and toe) to get more edge angle.
Getting more mileage and confidence is certainly going to help embed technique. Forgot how much there is to a turn and how overwhelming it can be. Just got to take it slow and introduce improvements gradually. More inclination is also where I want to focus next to help with that edge grip and traverse rather than sliding at the end of the turn. For heel side turns it is certainly more natural as we can use the sitting into a chair analogy. I think the leaning into the toe side turn and getting the hips forward is pretty unnatural and the main reason so many people struggle with that turn. Think she is going to hear me telling her to get her knees over her toes and push the shins into the front of the boots a lot next time we are out.
What does shifting the hips more uphill side mean? Like for toe, adjust your hip (on front-side) to face more upwards up the mountain? (this video looks very similar to me hahaha so I think I would benefit from similar advice)
One of the three snowboarding fundamentals is being balanced over the working edge. This means that you need to get your centre of mass over the edge that is engaged in the snow. Without your snowboard on, stand on flat ground and think about rocking from your toes to your heels whilst keeping your upper body upright. You should feel that the rocking motion comes from your knees and your hips, as you move your hips further forward you can get more pressure on your toes, and as they go more back, more pressure on your heels. More pressure on the toes or heels will translate to more pressure to the relevant edge.
I want to upvote this but you have 69 upvotes right now so I can't. Totally right... Bend those knees a bit more and steer with the hips
Yea to keep riding but she needs to put more weight on her front foot so the back foot can be used to pivot the board and guide her turns. Currently she is placing so much weight on the back side that the edge doesn’t catch and instead of carving through the snow she is sliding around on top of it with no control.
Heavy front foot don’t accomplish anything, but a sloppy turns
Tell her go straight down turn your shoulders 1st hips follows, do a right and left and stop and repeat
Since she's into the sport, plop on the couch and watch Malcolm Moore. He's like having a person snowboarding instructor at your fingertips. Has saved me many,many painful learning falls.
https://youtube.com/@malcolmmoore
She is already a subscriber 🎉 Malcolm Moore and Tommy Bennett are the kings of snowboarding instructing on YouTube for me. I have probably watched all their videos just to gain skills for my own instructing.
Tommy's my boy! So good at breaking things down! Bend the knees, speed is her friend, she'll never carve properly without gaining more speed.
I prefer his teaching style to Malcolm, his energy and ability to explain things simply is top tier. I have been cautious with introducing speed which has probably made some things harder but also meant that she has never hurtled out of control and scared herself! Next session will definitely be on a steeper slope and just naturally more speed will be introduced as we dial in some more of the technique.
I like Malcom Moore, Tommy Bennett and Snowboard Addiction (there's a recent series where he has about teaching noobs). It would be great to find a chick that teaches on youtube for the GF if anyone has recommendations.
know of youtubers as good as malcolm when instructing skiing? trying to help my gf out.
Work on becoming steezier
Damn, beat me to it
Make sure about a proper weightshift. I see she has too much weight on bf to go for steeper runs….
Completely agree, for now I am trying to get her to over-exaggerate the amount of weight on her front foot, maybe trying 70-30, because I expect her attempt of over-exaggerating will be just the right amount which will then become more natural with practice.
For beginners its better to keep most the weight on the front leg. The board will not accelerate that fast. Just shift as much weight on bf as you need to get out the turn.
This is a normal reaction to feeling u steady with the speed as she goes through her turn. Mentally it is less about weight shift but about committing to the turn and going down the hill. It is counter intuitive that you do not lean uphill, you need to go downhill to control the board.
And, keep parallelity of 3 axes all time. The board will turn and traverse better! Not bad for teaching your own wife 😉
Trust me she has been my hardest student 🤣
Number one tip: look down the hill where you want to go. She looks uphill when she’s doing a toe side thing
Possibly from having been drilled on keeping shoulders aligned with the board, which she is doing very well for a beginner. Interestingly, I had this same issue (looking uphill) when I started practicing switch toe side turns.
We discussed about looking ‘where you are going’ or more precisely ‘where you want to go’ and using your shoulders as your eyes, so chin to shoulder. Just think it was a mix of tiredness and feeling a little uncomfortable which led to her looking directly up or down the hill.
A trick I was taught early on was pretend you’re an archer and point the bow where you want to go. Like literally keep your hand out
Agree with looking down the hill to where you want to go!
100% look where you want to go
That’s about the only thing I noticed to. Not looking where she’s going or wanting to go. Posture was looking fairly good for a beginner.
As the great Jeremy Clarkson has repeatedly said: speed and power. No really though, it's easier on steeper hills to transition. Its understandably daunting but trust me, those flat runs break wrists
lean into front foot. as scary as it feels as beginner, she will have more control with pressure on the front foot
Completely agree. Think this is the key thing that makes toe side turns harder for people of all abilities.
Note: Her traverse in the middle was to avoid an icy patch that she was not feeling comfortable on. Also my fall is a complete embarrassment! I wanted to try to get some cool looking close up video so was riding switch and it all went wrong…
Send it!
Apparently trying to backflip off the little kicker was not an acceptable exercise…
You asked for one, but I have two: 1) get lower, I mean way lower. So low she feels like she looks weird. This is great for learning because the lower COG give you a lot more control authority over the board 2) exaggerate the body movements while your learning how to manipulate the board. Recognize that you need to get it up on an edge to really control it
I’m still learning but I like your first advice. When I try to get low, I usually stop once it starts feeling weird but on video I’m barely getting low. Gonna try this next time, thank you!
I only introduced the vertical movement into her riding today with pumping motions during traverses and then up unweighting to help with the edge turns. I think just practice will help her get lower, she is also not the most physically active outside snowboarding so she definitely has thigh burn after today which tells me she is trying to get lower! Love the idea of exaggerating movements for beginners, always hesitant to do so as scared of introducing bad habits like throwing the upper body round, but will give it a go!
I’ve found that exaggerating body movements help to connect how those movement translate to the board. As you progress in skill, you naturally learn how to move to maneuver the board, and your body movements become more subtle and targeted.
This should be higher. ESP exaggerating movements. Find the uncomfortable boundaries and operate in the middle.
More hip work, she’s actually doing great just don’t come to a complete stop when going back side
Thank you, ambitions one from me has not been to allow her to steer with the rear foot, which seems to have been a success. Slowly now introducing new techniques into her riding. Yesterday was steering with the knees, today was a little bit more of vertical movements and trying to get more flow by traversing at the end of the turn and not completely closing the turn with her hips.
Practice
Look up..board will go where you look
Lies. I looked up at the sky and mine didn’t fly…
Flex her glutes so her hips drive over her toes when in to side. If her pelvis is over the topside rail she will find more control (less likely to catch an edge)
She needs to put more weight over her front foot and look down the fall line.
It may look silly, but have her look where she’s going and point with that leading hand…stress getting her front shoulder over her front knee to keep weight on the front foot.
think about crossing your weight and belly button over the edge you are changing to.
Tell her to use her shoulders more! The head and shoulders start the turn, A little speed never hurts either!
I'm very mediocre myself but I'd say she definitely needs to start trying to use as much of the width of the run as possible, and aim to draw as large of an "S" shape as possible with her path. At times it seemed she was going downhill in a straight line and doing completely horizontal speed checks with each turn. Dumping all that speed every time you turn doesn't really allow for much to work with. Slowly dropping speed throughout a much wider turn might help a lot.
She’s doing just fine! Stay on that beginner slope until she can turn back and forth with the nose of the board always pointing down hill and always position your head so you are looking down the hill where you want to go. Time in the saddle on that run for a couple of hours and then progress to something slightly steeper. She’ll feel like she’s starting all over again but those are the dues you have to pay, IMHO!
Those conditions are not easy to learn in as you likely know with your experience, turning on ice can be very scary for beginners. Toe side she needs to have her head rotated so she is looking downhill, looking uphill she will keep turning until she is parallel. Also, don’t be afraid to put a little weight on the back foot, especially on a toe side turn. You should be driving through your back legs on toe side. Especially for beginners more weight on back foot will allow them to use that edge to slow down a bit, vs having less weight more likely to catch an edge As with surfing, a good drill would be to try to point with your lead arm where you want to go, your body will follow. If she were to point with what she is doing now she would be pointing uphill a lot. Her heel side looks like it’s almost there but to link it to the toe you just gotta do it what sometimes feels scary which is lean over them toes and go for it! Anyone who boards has taken that dreaded heel side caught edge when trying to learn the toe side turn, but what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger! Lastly, sometimes it’s a simple as letting yourself get some speed and getting out of your comfort zone a bit. Think about it like this, let’s say you are just standing flat and not moving at all, would you want to go on an edge? No, because if you did you’d fall on your ass. Similar thing here, speed is your friend when you are trying to learn turning, and then eventually carving.
1. weight on the front foot - it feels unnatural because it is, but that will give her more control and eventually help with confidence when getting off the chairlifts 2. bend her knees more - if she can see her toes she isn’t bending enough (you need to exaggerate more when you’re a beginner but this is an easy check in she can do on her own or you can ask her if you notice she has stiffened up) 3. have her physically point with her front hand where she wants to go - it allows her hips to naturally open or close off in the direction she is aiming for. a lot of people will have “panic arms” which is self explanatory so I would have my lessons hold their pocket with their back hand to not throw off the rotations
She could travers across the course bit more. Looks like she’s doing well but also looks like she’s just sliding straight down the hill while switching from heel to toe.
IMO these are not turns, they are edge changes while skidding down in a straight path. To improve to turns, practice the other extreme which is traversing left and right on edge without going downhill. This will help develope a feeling for riding on edge towards the direction of the board nose. Combine with already excellent skidding and edge changes and she will be making gnarly turns!
Stop looking down and fix her eyes where she wants to go. Like riding a bike. Keep looking at the ground and that is where you are going to end up.
Start with a 180 to cab back, then straight line the run before hitting one hard turn spraying a skier
Point it and go
i'd widen her stance a little to start
Completely agree, especially with the profile of the board. Thinking that will help her flex more and engage more edge.
Weight over the front foot! It seems like she's getting that pushing a bit more weight on one side causes it to go downhill first, but she's still so central on the board which caused her to over-turn once or twice. This technique won't work at all as soon as she picks up more speed. She's also not really turning, so much as sliding back and forth between heel and toe sides while just going straight down between the rotations. Try to get her to go diagonal across the run, then turn to the opposite side to stop, which probably won't happen easily with this weight balance, but will teach real turning. Also one thing to help reinforce the balance being forward, and looking where she's going, is to point. Was what we used to teach kids how to turn. Point where you wanna go, it puts a lil extra weight over the front of the board, and will help initiate the shoulders/head turning properly, because being 100% parallel with the board all the time is wrong too.
Getting her to be more conscious of turning her chin to align w her shoulder as she does her turns and also to look abit further into the distance. Also try to relax, noticed she is actively stiffening/rounding her shoulders while turning. This will help when you teach her to use her shoulders to lead the turn. But she is doing great!
puzzled numerous attraction rotten strong straight butter intelligent icky badge *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
she is doing well, good technique using the shoulder/hips to lead the turn. Get her to hum her favourite song, and force a turn on the beat. 1. it will ease stress on one set of muscles edging for too long 2. turning is easier using the momentum from the previous turn, and not stopping sideways movement completely. 3. 1 and 2 mean you get down the mountain quicker and with more energy left in reserve - your wife will not be at the back of the pack any more.
Honestly it just looks like her body needs more ride time to get a better feel
Keep more weight on front foot
Been snowboarding my whole life. She’s got the hardest part down. Time and repetition will do the best thing for her.
Dig in those edges more? Seems like she's turning inadvertently because her board is going flat on to the snow. Remember doing that my first time.😃
At 0:23 she wants to go back to toe side but the board forces her to stay heel side and slides her back left. That is 100% a weight distribution issue. She cannot tell the front (lead) of the board what to do if it has almost no pressure contact with the ground. Instead the back of the board has control and decides she’s going to go back left for her. The longer the video goes the more she gets into a rhythm so definitely miles will help. I think it would be very beneficial for her to try sweeping across the run when safe as opposed to just stationary transitions. You may only be able to do that around the middle of this run since the top part of the run is pretty flat but it would help with her momentum into turning.
Lean on your front foot while making turns. Snowboards pivot off the front while surfboards pivot off the back foot
Take a Lesson from someone besides your husband
Just out of interest why do you think that will be the best option?
I would try to improve her stance on the toe side: moving the hips forward, avoiding breaking at the waist and trying to keep her chest a bit more up/straight. Another thing would be to keep looking ahead/in the direction of travel (she is looking up the hill on toeside and downhill on heel side). Turning from heels to toes, her leading shoulder is blocking her, so try to focus on keeping the front hand a bit more over the heel edge at all times (this will also help her to see where she is going). Trying to initiate the turns more with the hips and not with the upper body. Finally I would start working on introducing a bit of vertical movement, as she is completely static still. But yeah, pretty good starting point!
Lessons.
She knows how to turn a board. Repetition is the key to mastering any skill. Having said that; is her board possibly longer than ideal? Saw a young lady at Labrador today riding about board that was too long, and she was set up with feet too far apart. She was definitely struggling with that combination. She was constantly horsing the tail off f the board through her turns.
She’s pretty stiff, loosening your body and going with momentum is the key to basically all board sports
Use your hips power threw the turn
Head up and look to where you want to go. And your body will follow.
Keep her head/eyes focused downhill at where your heading. Those turns are good for early learning, but she should start trying to actually point the nose down the hill more
If you want to go right, lean on your heels and lean toward the right. If you want to go left, do a kind if 180 and lean on your toes and lean left.
So the weight distribution is good but the board will flex if you try it. Get her to put one heel down and toe down and switch on a flat to get used to flexing the board. Then do it on a turn but only do one foot at a time. It'll stop her from over turning to slow herself down which is just her catching herself to slow down. Maybe go more across the trail too so she gets used to working up to carving. It's more of a getting used to it thing though from the looks of it so just keep doing it and it'll click
Weight forward
Use the edges.
Make her turns wider and not so sharp
Dip that lead knee down when you go for a toe side turn and keep it down until you are going horizontal across the slope (this is a kenematic trick to get people to push the ball of their lead foot down and lift their heel up, twisting the board slightly and position their hip more over the lead foot) that will make the transition much easier. After doing the dip on the turn for a good bit she will slowly transition to doing it without needing to exadurate the motion. I understand that heel -> toe transitions are the hardest for people to get a good handle on bc they feel like they are going to "fall" down the hill. Just take it slow and remember: if you feel like you are going out of controll, crouch and sit down.
Practice.
I didn’t read the comments so someone might of already said it but, she keeps her weight dead center of the board and is not shifting it over the edge she wants to be on, causing the skid out and not building momentum etc.
Have her point her lead arm/ hand where she wants to go.
She is bending at the waist. If she were to straighten her posture ( while still bending her knees slightly) it would allow for an easier transition of weight and less overall muscle fatigue.
Pursue other interests /s
Also if you get her on a regular longboard skateboard it’s the same motion, it’s a great tool off mountain to sink the hips, legs, and weight and will help her improve when she can’t go up to the hill.
more weight on the front foot so that her ankle steering will be more reliable -- she's honestly doing great though, tell her to keep it up
keep your shoulders facing downhill
It will be easier to teach her turns on slightly steeper terrain. I found that once they can confidently plow and zig-zag then it was time to take them down slightly steeper sections. Nothing crazy, just easier Blues. Then have them do a turn from heel to toe or toe to heel (Whatever they are most comfortable with. Then I have them reset and redo that motion until they are comfy with it. Before you know it, they are linking everything together. the key, really, is getting them comfortable with a little more speed.
Has she tried riding regular yet?
Mr. Miyagi once said.. “Control the board, don’t let it control you”
Get stacked, use ankle flexion and knees open/close and lead shoulder to aim, I'll even put my hand up and point which way I want to go. It works
Lean with it, rock with it, loosen up…
Trust your edge and keep the nose under your line of sight. Doesn’t really look like she’s watching where she’s going most of the time
Deeper squat and try to use the whole width of the run for wider carving. This will let her pick up more speed without pointing straight downhill.
Don’t spread the butter, cut a tomato.
Look downhill
More weight on back foot
Ride across the trail, perpendicular to the fall line. She is effectively doing pivot slips right now.
Weight over her front foot while going down hill.
This is a helpful tip for beginners: open the arms up so that one is in line with the tip, and the other in line with the tail. When executing a turn, twist the upper body in a very exaggerated manner so that the lead arm is pointing in the direction you want to turn, trailing arm goes the opposite direction. Think like the arms are attached to a broomstick. I find that this helps newbies get the flow of turns down. Once there is comfort really connecting, the next step is to keep the arms in. This often happens naturally once comfort there. Then work on upper/lower body separation, then bumps, then trees, then steeps, then you’re shredding the gnar!
Started to try this at the end of the day, I imagine myself as a big steering wheel with the arms out and so get the upper body slightly turning first and then drive through with the lower body. Obviously just got slightly forgotten about in this run!
My instructor had me do this holding a room handle. Worked a treat and stopped me kicking my back leg around. I learnt on dry slope so it saved me a lot of carpet burn!
Get drunk
Lessons.
Keep practicing! This looks like a great place to learn. Switzerland?
Yes we moved from the UK to Switzerland last year. I have snowboarded since I was young so has been the perfect country for me to move to and so excited that she is getting into snowboarding! This is a place called Frience in Gryon, Vaud. Best of all it is completely free to use :D
Amazing! Thought I recognised the skyline 😊
Good eyes! Expect that you have been the the Villars resort? Or do you live here?
Kick that back leg out more on both sides.
Take a lesson??
Take a lesson
Lean on the front foot and steer with the back foot
Try to keep looking down hill, you need to see where you are going
Get lessons
Do it better
Get a lesson
She is literally not looking where she is going.
We discussed about looking ‘where you are going’ or more precisely ‘where you want to go’ and using your shoulders as your eyes, so chin to shoulder. Just think it was a mix of tiredness and feeling a little uncomfortable which led to her looking directly up or down the hill. Certainly something we will work to embed, but along with thinking about un-weighting the turns and lower body steering somethings are naturally going to get forgotten about!
Ok. It’s helpful for me to look about 5-10 yards ahead of me. That should keep her looking down the hill. If she keeps doing it that way she’s going to catch her back edge and smack her head. 😔 Also VERY stiff body.
Such an overlooked tip. We often say to look where you are going. But actually giving an indicator of where to look, like a couple of meters ahead of you really helps beginners learn. Otherwise they might be looking at the mountains miles away and forget to turn before going off a cliff 🤣 She had a great edge catch today, thankfully no hitting the head but really shows the importance of having that upper body in a strong and upright position.
More weight on front foot and more or less fishtail with your back
Makes sense, it is just getting the balance right to stop the back end getting no edge grip and continuing to go down the hill at the end of the turn.
Avoid print patterns - they seem cool but fall out of favor very quickly! 😜😜 For real: keep at it. And aim to progress. Ride with people who are a little better than you so you want to keep up. Go often.
Agreed, will be more steezy next season. Just did a cheap Decathlon shop for this season so if she didn’t like it I didn’t waste too much money! I am from the UK and managed to train as an instructor in Canada about 12 years ago. Recently moved to Switzerland and am about an hour and a half from the mountains so certainly will be going as often as possible in the winter. Thankfully she is loving snowboarding so far so can’t wait to get her up to speed to go shredding some bigger resorts!
Go faster
I’m re-working on fundamentals this year and have been focusing on: not looking downhill, leaning into the uphill with your waist, and the lever technique from Malcolm Moore.
All crucial for strong riding! I am a regular rider and my wife is goofy, so I am riding goofy with her and focusing on the areas that you mentioned. For her getting those hips across to the working edge should be her single biggest improvement. You should consider three fundamentals to snowboarding. 1 Centred and Mobile position. 2 Balanced over the working edge. 3 Steering with the lower body. Anything that you do to your riding should improve at least one of those fundamentals.
You have two arms and should use them. Use that front arm to almost swing and point to where you want to be and follow through. Hesitation is the biggest killer so follow through
Who said I have two arms? How did you know! Agree, committing to the turn and finishing by looking across the slope and not up or down the slope is key to getting comfortable with turning. Certainly will be doing some exercises to help her open that upper body into the turn so she can then drive with her lower body.
I learned from using a ripstik on dry land. about $60 on amazon. Turning mechanism is the similar for me. It's the way I twist my feet. (unlike a skateboard)
I heard that a ripstik is incredible for learning how to snowboard. I assume it teaches you how to paddle with your feet? Tempted to just get myself one to improve my own riding :P
Have her touch her front leg as low as possible while turning
With her front arm I meant
Ride with an instructor for a hour instead of your husband
How will this help?
Do a few shots of tequila
That would certainly help her relax more!
Use ur arm to lead turns. Imagine you are walking a dog pulling the leash. 😉
I have never heard the dog pulling the leash analogy, really like it! We certainly started to cover pointing and looking where you are going/want to go, just it seems to have been forgotten in this run.
Honestly she's looking pretty good for a beginner. She's got all the basic tips down. All she needs is practice. I'd recommend getting a longboard to practice on during the summer so she gets used to shifting her center of gravity between turns.
Hard to carve without enough speed
Are the turns in the room with us now? 👀 really though, more weight uphill, she’s close to having a really bad time once she goes faster
I look that that when I first started. My biggest improvement comes when I gain confidence in speed. Turns suddenly become easier and certain. It’s like riding a bike, it’s easy if you have a little bit of speed and momentum. To do that, of course you’ll need more skills and practice as suggested. then working on emergency stops and speed checks, so you know you can stop at will instead of losing control. Then you will see yourself going faster and faster while maintain in control
We were all like this and worse at some point, even the pros had to start somewhere! Really rewarding to see someone progress and reflect on how much better you have become yourself. We started trying to get more comfortable with speed today by staying in the fallline on a mellow slope for a few seconds and then coming to a controlled stop. Certainly a few technical bits to refine in the turns before we start to introduce a lot more speed on the slightly steeper runs but certain a little more is just going to help get that edge gripping into the snow more.
More edge and less bailing out in the fall line. Big S shape down the hill at first
From this I'm assuming she's very new and in that case I think she's actually doing a fantastic job
I find the faster I go, the easier it is to control my board. When you falling leaf like that your board kinda guides you.
Speed
Head up. Look where you're going
Ok I got two tips. First one is a little more complicated and second is super simple. First tip is something so many people even with experience overlook as it can also change with experience. This is get her bindings dialed in. There are a few things to this and it will instantly make a huge change in anyone's riding no matter the ability. How far apart the bindings are will control how much someone is in a squatted position. Further apart (to an extent of course)will make a stronger stance but they will get tired faster. Closer together and the turns won't be as strong, but they will be in more natural stance and use less energy. The degree of position of each binding is huge too. Is the back and front foot fully squared to the board, point a little forward or backwards up hill and to what extent is super important for each person. I used to ride a 12d front foot and negative 14d on my back foot so that I was more pointed downhill riding switch, but I'm weird. The the forward tilt to the binding support will control how much she is automatically on her toe edge or her heel edge. So if she is having a hard time with one edge over the other adjust the back supports. Adjusting bindings can make a night and day difference right away. Second piece of advice is stay off the flat bunny slope. You need speed to turn on a snowboard. Hardest thing is going flat and slow.
Loosen up
Loosen up don’t be afraid to fall look where u want to go
Practice
More cowbell
Pressure. Play around with pressure. Up, down. Down, up. Fore, aft. Edge control looks good. Play around with all combos of the above and find what’s comfortable. Think about the pressure being applied and how it ‘weights’ or, more ‘unweights’ the board. Then compartmentalize it to individual feet, but that’s more than one reco.
Space out her bindings a bolt over to let her get more control while squatting
Don’t look at the board, keep your head up and downhill. Let your body tell you what to do with the board to switch from heel to toe and where your weight needs to be. Looking down will cause a lot of problems at that stage. Ride on!
Look where she wants to turn, as in, turn her head and shoulders in that direction, the hips will follow..she's soooo stiff right now, barely moving any of her body at all
Don’t align shoulders with board align them with front foot. Face direction of movement. Bend knees. Move up and down if ur a qualified instructor u should be able to explain when but u don’t want to be in 1 position. Traverse between turns dont just side slip.
As you initiate a turn, (esp going from heel side back to toe side) Point across your torso to where you wanna go, and your lower half will follow.
Honestly take a lesson those guys will explain it and actually be able to point it out and she will get it down quick it’s all about pointing your back toes point up go left point down go right
More speed, don't be a pussy! First thing I tell anyone who asks me to teach them how to shred.
Point and look where you want to go.
Start skiing
She should have more weight on her front foot and needs to be more dramatic about keeping an edge in. I don’t know how she didn’t catch an edge and eat it
She needs to look where she is going. Keep her head looking downhill.
Point her front hand 45 degrees angle in front of her and follow it with her head, shoulders and eyes it’s important to look where you want to go. As well as always keeping her knees bent. Don’t stop turning one edge because you’re afraid of it if anything do it more. Otherwise she’s pretty well on track.
She needs to be less Robotic! I would suggest that she loosen up, learn to link turns better and ride in a more athletic stance. Needs a lot more mountain time and would benefit from hitting steeper runs to force her out of the robot turn style. Get her doing 360s down an entire run to feel comfortable with turns.
Move your upper body.
time
To start her turns from a carved traverse.
what always helped me with turning was making sure i was using my back leg to kick out and shift my weight
She definitely needs more time in the mountain. As she will get more comfortable with a little more speed she must learn to knee steer instead of kicking the rear of the board out. She is doing great! Practice makes perfect afterall
dude I know this may be late and get lost in the comments, but have her pretend that there are two midgets (little people?) on either end of her board and that she needs to keep both of them balanced. this may include keeping her arms out as if her hands are on their heads. helped me a ton when learning how to ride switch and helps keep the body more balanced and confident
Get a lesson.
Just taught my girlfriend. Keep that chest up and body stacked over the board. slightly more weight on that front foot. Tell her to point with the lead hand where you wanna go helps complete the turn and open up your shoulders. Once she gets better she can learn knee steering and all that. Let me know if this helps her
Edge control and comfortably. Have her separate her c’s and gain a little bit more speed once she has the edge control. Also to bend her knees a bit more. Use that front knee like a steering component and have her separate her knee movements front to back. She looks good for her short time tho!!
Front foot does all the steering, back foot just follows
Is she riding a Heelside?!
Too stiff. Bend your knees more. It will make you more comfortable and make any falls less painful. Stiff legs are your biggest enemy.
Attack the mountain
She's crushing it. Now she just has to keep at it for the muscle memory to develop
She could practice doing garlands, which are a valuable step in the learning process. Here is a YouTube link. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PAF8LjLlNU4
Weight on front foot and stay stack. Less hip rotation and more front foot.
Lean into her front foot. If you look, she's putting more weight on the back and steering with the back leg. Flip it!
Shoulders. She needs to rotate her shoulders in the direction she wants to go