Feedback on my riding
Hey, would you guys be kind enough to give feedback on my riding? This was taken 2 weeks ago or last week. I think there is another one taken yesterday but my friend hasn’t edit it yet.
For some reason it can’t be embedded, see if the link below works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VydlbdMgD5g&fb_source=message
This may help
Thanks ozgirl!
you look good to me but then again i am not the one who should be commenting there is lot more experienced/instructors on here.
keep it up./...
Looking pretty good to me. If you want to ‘look’ better, drop that rear hand and hold on to your pants or something.
From here, if I were you, I’d start riding everywhere switch. Riding like that switch shouldn’t be too far off if you stick at it.
Hey Skip,
You’ve improved heaps. Keep it up! Here are a few things I picked up on:
Your back hand is trailing in front of your body on some turns. Hold your upper body stronger and try to stay aligned over your snowboard.
Pause the video on one of your heelside turns. Your will notice both your hands are reaching out in front of your body, and you’re breaking forward at the waist. Get those hands just besides your thighs, aligned over your snowboard. Hold them strong and flex your core. Use your upper body to initiate the turn, but then hold it in position and really strong throughout the rest of the turn. Lean further back with your upper body (not really far back, but further than you are now). Rather bend your knees more and sink lower to get better angulation.
You’re getting decent angles on your toeside carves, but most of it’s coming from leaning over. Get more aggressive with your lower body. Drive your knees closer to the snow. Really flex at the ankles and knees, and push those knees down. You’ll be able to ride more aggressively with better angulation and pressure control.
You’re riding so much better than you were. Keep focussing on your technique and you will continue to improve. 
Skip, I’m looking forward to getting into this. I hope to soon!
From here, if I were you, I’d start riding everywhere switch. Riding like that switch shouldn’t be too far off if you stick at it.
I like that suggestion.
Thanks a lot guys! Appreciate the advices
@rider: Regarding the hand infront of the body during heelside carves. I try to keep it by my side but sometimes I do that to get more balance otherwise sometimes I fell. I’ll try to keep more at the side next time.
Yep, if you’re getting off balance when your arms are aligned with your snowboard, there’s obviously a stance problem elsewhere. When you break at the waist, your butt sticks out and you need to compensate by grabbing forward with your arms. Get your upper body further back as mentioned, bend your knees more, and keep your upper body aligned over the snowboard.
Hey Skip, Looking good mate!
It looks like your super comfortable with the turning that your doing which is the best feeling in snowboarding I think. Feeling really in control is awesome.
So from here:
Switch like AJ said is always a good thing to practice. And the good thing is, your switch will never be quite as good as your regular so because it’s behind your regular u can teach yourself how to improve it!
What Rider said about your arms is true. But what he said about angulation in your toeside carves was what stood out for me.
So I’m not sure how much instructor lingo you know so I’ll give u a run down and if you already know it then just ignore this part.
When it comes to leaning into turns there are 2 parts:
Inclination: Leaning your body to put the board on more of an edge (board on more of an angle to the snow)
You are doing this on both your toe side and your heelside, well done.
Angulation: Is bending the lower joints to put your board on more of an angle (hips, knees, ankles) This lets you Incline (lean) while still allowing you to stay over the top of your board. If you only incline, any little bump will throw you off balance.
When angulating on the heelside most of the bend is done with the hips. You are doing this, well done. Of course we can always go faster and bend more 
When angulating on the toeside most of the bend is done with the knees. Your toe side is leaning like hell but you not bending your knees very much.
SO, Bend your knee way more and you’ll find you will be so much more stable on your toeside.
I challenge you to try and drag your back knee on the snow through a carve 
@rider: Upper back further back meaning more inclined? I think part of the problem is I have to sit back a little bit even when I squat (like I can’t do it with my back really upright)
@andy: Yes I’m trying really hard to bend my knees more during toeside. I don’t know why it’s just so hard and feels unnatural. But will definitely practice using more angulation.
@AJ: Will try doing more switch runs. Right now I can only do switch on green runs and going really slow.
not bad at all. and you’re confident…
I’ve not read the other comments yet, as I don’t want to be biased when responding…
I’ll point out what I see rather than bunch of “you should do this rather than this”
When transitioning from toe edge to heel edge, one of the first body movements that I see helping initiate the turn is moving your rear arm from dangling behind your heel edge, to handing over your toe edge. this starts your transfer of body weight from heel edge to toe edge.
I’d encourage you to initiate the transfer from edge to edge using more lower body movements.
This movement could also contribute to rotational movements and assist the board to skid rather than hold an edge and carve… but it doesn’t look like a carved turn is your intended turn in this clip. if it were… that’s a whole other discussion and I’d start by suggesting a higher edge angle at the beginning of your turn as a place to start. Which means tipping the board onto it’s edge much earlier… but again that may not be the goal here. skidding turns is fine.
Another thing you are doing when going from heel to toe edge. is rising up from a low position to a more tall position which is reducing the weight off the board and helping you initiate the turn… is this good or bad? I don’t think it matters… is it right or wrong? no such thing.
but it is interesting to think of that body movement that you make when ready to go from heel to edge and see if you can do it with a different movement instead.
Why do I keep pointing out the heel to edge transition??? because I think you spent more time on your heel rather than your toe on this clip… is that due to terrain? I don’t know. but it could be that you just feel more comfortable on your heel… you’d have to examine that yourself.
But consider spending an equal amount of time on each edge. One way to do this is through a musical or counting style… count to three on each edge with a rhythm… of course differences and turns in terrain often change that plan too. but your turn shape ends up being influenced y the amount of time you spend on each edge… if your toe edge turns are less time (which they are) then they need to be tighter turns… which they are. and with so much time on your heel edge you end up just skidding on your heel’s edge eventually… which you ALMOST got to that at one time.
I think that the old “hump and dump” might be something that you could experiment with…
I’m wanting to comment on your body’s position when you are in the turn at it’s fullest point. In the deep part… in the “belly” of the turn is what I’m trying to say. and it is usually at this point in the turn that you want to be most extended. Where your body is most layer out. This is true for carved turns and upper level skidded turns too. Which what you are doing is a skidded turn.
One thing I don’t see is a lot of independent use of your legs.
What I mean is that your back leg just follows your front leg…
Consider what the role of the front leg is vs. the back leg in a more advanced turn. try out different things with that.
Consider using each leg independently and intentionally rotating the board through the turn - like a shifting motion. Not that this would be effective (or how you would ride all the time - but as an exercise), but it would allow you to FEEL different parts of the turn… take a slow turn on a simple hill and add a 90degree shifty in the middle of your turn… see how each leg HAS TO work independently and oppositely in order to do that. that is only ONE way you can have independent use of your legs.
Now that I’ve read the comments from others, I’ll respond further.
AJ has a good suggestion, ride switch and do it a lot!
and funny thing that Jeremy suggests to “use your upper body to initiate the turn” This I believe is a difference in one countries methods of teaching vs another… Because I said above to use lower body movements to initiate your turn…
What I’d say is to experiment with both… and I believe that lower body movement will get a response in your board sooner than upper body. for example you can move your ankle and the board will move. I see no reason to start at the shoulders. and if it is rotation that you desire. rotate your hips. they are directly connected to your legs, which are connected to and will move the board, rather than the shoulders rotating because I can rotate my shoulders without moving any of my lower body… but I can’t rotate my hips without moving my legs and therefore the board…
Stand on your board on the carpet strapped in and see what body movements… even the smallest movements do to flex the board in different ways. then take that to the snow on a slow green groomer see what the result is - there is much for us all to learn on that.
I mentioned the “hump and the dump” above as well.. Jeremy also alluded to this when talking about angling your body more throughout your turn… because a more angulated position assumes a more advances turn. on your toe edge press your hips toward the snow… Jer said drop your knees to the snow.. yes do that! and open your hips up rather than bend over. (you weren’t bending over but just emphasizing the movement) and on your heel edge assume a “dumping” position and yet straighten your back a bit. experiment with almost leaning back just to experiment. eventually you will get out of your comfort zone and learn a little different way. This is a good thing.
A good rider is a versatile rider.
Don’t just learn one way to do something.
Glad I could contribute!
Hope I’ve helped.
@snowslider: Wow, thanks a lot for the detail analysis snowslider.
This movement could also contribute to rotational movements and assist the board to skid rather than hold an edge and carve… but it doesn’t look like a carved turn is your intended turn in this clip
I was actually trying to practice my carving in this clip. But as a lot has mentioned, I need to use higher edge angle and more angulation.
Another thing you are doing when going from heel to toe edge. is rising up from a low position to a more tall position which is reducing the weight off the board and helping you initiate the turn
Do you mean up-unweighting? I always try to remind myself doing that but for some reason when I ride I can’t do it really well. Another problem that I have is after I rise up, it’s hard for me to get low again. Is there something I’m doing wrong? And I also find it hard to up-unweight on my on my heelside (down-unweight for some reason is much easier).
One thing I don’t see is a lot of independent use of your legs
This is the first time I see this being mention for regular turning. Could you elaborate more on this? What’s the purpose of individual leg action?
on your toe edge press your hips toward the snow….. and open your hips up rather than bend over
What do you mean by pressing the hips toward the snow and opening the hips?
Again, thanks a bunch for the detail analysis. Really appreciate it.