Riding Feedback: Do me! Do meee!!
So after being bored all night and checking out other members riding, iv decided to get advice/tips on my riding.
What will help, what I should change. All the goods.
I have heeeaapppsssss of video from Japan, just havnt uploaded much (but can)
So put a few links in of whats already public.
Cheers.
https://instagram.com/p/zEqw4LoqOO/ <—-im the first rider
https://instagram.com/p/zT-qAfoqF4/
Hey Matty,
I watched all four of your videos. Are you trying to make us jealous? 
From what I can see in these videos, you’re riding really well. I didn’t see anything glaringly obvious in regards to technique flaws, although there’s always room for improvement. I’d definitely like to see more videos. Preferably making turns (at the highest performance your ability will allow) on groomed runs. This allows us to see your use of the skills of snowboarding in a more obvious manner. It’s a bit hard to tell from POV video when half of your body is buried in powder! 
In one of the clips, my initial thought was I’d like to see you steering more aggressively with your lower body. You seems to (in a slight way) tend to rely on your upper body more than you should. I only noticed this in a few of the turns. Power, drive, and immediate response comes from steering with your lower body (using hips, knees, and feet/ankles).
Feel free to share more videos and I’ll give you feedback on what I see.
Hey Matty,
Power, drive, and immediate response comes from steering with your lower body (using hips, knees, and feet/ankles).
Does this mean I should try and strengthen my lower body going into turns? Try be a bit more solid?
I started surfing waayy before I’d ever snowboarded.
Had been trying to work on my snowboard style so it’s less surfy while I was in Japan.
I’ll have a look through some other footage and see if I can find anything else a bit less POV style.
<div id=“fb-root”></div><div class=“fb-video” data-allowfullscreen=“true” data-href=“https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152640944646222&set=vb.698131221&type=1”><div class=“fb-xfbml-parse-ignore”><blockquote cite=“https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152640944646222”>Posted by Matt Parish on Friday, 10 April 2015</blockquote></div></div>
This is probably the best I can get. Does get covered over for a bit, but it goes away, so keep watching.
hope it shows a bit more!
Thank you for making me realise we can embed Facebook videos here.
To answer your question, it doesn’t mean you necessarily need to “strengthen” your legs. It’s more about keeping your core strong, and being very reactive with your lower joints (legs). I always talk about keeping the lower joints “loose but reactive” — allowing you to flow over changing terrain but also be super solid on your board. As soon as a turn is initiated, your lower body (hips, knees, ankles/feet) should be actively “steering” (driving) the board in the direction of the turn.
Hold your core strong. Be loose (like suspension), reactive, and aggressive with your lower body. Don’t rely (too much) on your upper body to initiate turns (unlike when you are a beginner). Your turn performance will improve when you move away from using “upper body rotation” to make turns, and more towards using “lower body steering (driving)” to make turns.
Another thing I would like to touch on is “pressure control” — knowing when to absorb pressure and when to generate pressure (push back at the snow). You might be thinking: how can your lower body be loose and aggressive at the same time? By being “reactive”. You need to be loose to absorb pressure (say when riding over the front side of a mogul), but you need to be aggressive on the tail end of the mogul, to push back on the snow, to keep strong contact and stability with the snow. Your lower body might be loose — and it has to be when riding over changing terrain — but being reactive also means your lower body is ready to give it back (generating pressure onto the snow) equally as hard when the moment calls for it. Boardercross racers do this better than anyone. Strong lower body steering combined with good use of pressure control will greatly improve your riding.
Does that make sense?
It says video unavailable.
Jez you should make videos of your riding and sticky it here for people to look at as reference :D
I plan on filming a bunch of tutorials next season when I’m living in Whistler.
Hey Matt,
Nice riding bud! Your legs are absorbing all the bumps and changes under the snow really well!
So I know this isn’t the answer you want, but we really need some different video man.
It looks like fun and you appear to be riding it well, but from an analysis point of view, I would only be guessing at what’s going on. If you could get someone else to film you (preferably on a groomer like Jez said, but also on powder too) we’ll be able to see the whole picture). The reason for this is people usually tend to use the gopro pole as a lever to turn against. Which is not their usual style of riding.
But I’ll have a crack at it anyway, and if you get someone else to film you, let me know.
Here’s what I see: Good balance, good ability to absorb bumps and a way of riding that’s well polished (you look comfortable). I also see lots of counter rotation (twisting upper and lower body in opposite ways). This isn’t wrong to do, but it is pretty high level stuff to add to your turning, and it’s not used for all types of turns. I saw you do it one time to get a heel edge face shot (beautiful and used perfectly to achieve what u wanted). Most of the time though it’s making your board skid more than it needs to.
Try turning without using your upper body at all!
Stand still on your board and find a stance that feels good. It doesn’t matter if you want to keep your shoulders in line with your board or turn your hips/shoulders slightly towards the nose, your a good enough rider for either.
What does matter is then keeping your upper body still in this position and steering the board by turning your hips/knees/feet slowly through the turn. This will create rounder smoother turns and give you more drive out of them.
It will reduce the feeling of braking/skidding at the end of your turn and more of a “driving a car through through a series of tight corners” kind of feel.
If the board still skids at the end of the turn, finish the turn with more weight on the back foot.
But by all means keep the counter rotation skill that you have and play around with it on occasion to add some flair. ie. Face Shot, Slash, Lay Back, Boardslide, Shifty or a quick Speed Check in the trees. Remove it from your normal riding to add roundness and flow to your turns, but keep it to play around with here and there
Riders avatar pic for example!
Will have to try fix that vid while at home, came seem to do it on the phone.
Always thought I counter rotated a bit too often, especially while cruising around groomers, so started work on that on off days(non powder days) while in Japan.
Also had been trying to eliminate sliding turns alot, as it does seem to wipe off speed when unwanted. Trying for more edge to edge with no skid, leading into trying heel and toe Euro carving.
Unfortunately won’t be able to get any more footage until Perisher starts.
Andy, might actually get a lesson or two this season if you’re around again?
But riding like driving a car thru tight corners makes a lot of sense.
And great to hear iv got some skill behind my turns! Haha.
It says video unavailable.
Its working on my tablet now.
Wasnt watchable on the phone earlier tho.
Great thoughts as always, Andy.
Will have to try fix that vid while at home, came seem to do it on the phone.
Always thought I counter rotated a bit too often, especially while cruising around groomers, so started work on that on off days(non powder days) while in Japan.
Also had been trying to eliminate sliding turns alot, as it does seem to wipe off speed when unwanted. Trying for more edge to edge with no skid, leading into trying heel and toe Euro carving.Unfortunately won’t be able to get any more footage until Perisher starts.
Andy, might actually get a lesson or two this season if you’re around again?
But riding like driving a car thru tight corners makes a lot of sense.
And great to hear iv got some skill behind my turns! Haha.
Yeah man, you certainly do!
And yep, I’m at Perisher every season. So if you want a lesson or two to sharpen your skills or learn something new just let me know 
Thought I should add 1 thing too (for anyone reading this and wondering, you may already know this Matt).
Skidded turns are part of what we do, everyday. They aren’t bad.
You will always have skidded turns and carve turns until the day you die. Carve everything you can carve, and skid/slide turn everything that you can’t. ie. Carve everything that’s not too steep for you and skid turns on steeper runs and pow.
SO given that you will always use them, find ways to keep refining them! Like the idea I just gave Matt.
Give them more grip and directional control. It’s like making your skidded turn just a bit more carve-ish. This is just one way to improve them, but it’s a good one! Nice round turns with just a bit of skidding always looks and feel rad! Give it a crack 