LanoX riding comment

HI All

well this is my 9th time ever on snowboard so please comment and let me know how i am doing, you may criticize me as much as you want and tell me what i need to work on.

Thanks

i already know my arms are going everywhere lol .,.

Dude, you’re snowboarding in an awesome place on awesome snow - so it’s ALL good! 

thanks mate, but i look so awkward now when i look at it ... lol

The instructor types on here have some handy advice on keeping your arms in check. Mine would be to over emphasise your arm/hand position until you get used to it (and you’ll naturally tone it back a bit) - so try scratching your nuts with your front hand, and your arse with your back hand. You’ll soon adopt a better position, and avoid nasty itches as well!

Lano, you’re doing very well after so few days snowboarding. It’s great you want to focus on your technique and improve your riding.

As instructors, we are taught to focus on the most important issues first. The main one being stance, because if your stance is off, everything else will be more difficult. This is the most obvious thing to fix in the video, and to be honest, there isn’t much else wrong for a basic turn.

I’ve taken this screenshot from the video you posted. It shows you in a very ‘counter-rotated’ position:

The image below shows the comparison between a counter-rotated stance and an aligned stance:

An aligned and balanced stance is what you want to go for:

From about 0:50, you seem to be holding onto your pants with your back hand. Your riding stance improves significantly from here. However, you are still in a counter-rotated position at times and your front arm is flailing around a bit. See screenshot below. You will notice your upper body is open at the end of your turns:

Be more patient with your turns. Don’t rely so much on swinging your arms around to get the turn happening. Be patient, make bigger turns, and concentrate on initiating the turn slightly with your upper body, but then pushing (steering) the turn around with your lower body, starting with your hips, knees, and even your feet (feet will come later). The more you can get away from big upper body movements to make the turn happen, and move towards using your lower body to steer the turn, the more you will improve and the more performance you will get out of your turns. This comes with time though. Start thinking about smaller movements with your upper body, holding your core strong, and getting your lower body more active.

The other thing I picked up on is you seem to have more weight on your back foot during your toeside turns. This doesn’t seem to be drastic but I can notice it at times, and don’t worry, this is a very common problem. You really want to get your weight forward, so you have even weight on both feet, and so your body is perpendicular to the slope. If the slope is steep(er), get your weight forward so your body is perpendicular to the angle of the slope. You want to be in this even position throughout the turn. It will give you more control. If you need an exercise for this, pretend you are bouncing a basketball with your front hand during your turns. Getting your front hand down will encourage you to get your weight forward.

And I’m going to cheat. This next bit is a partial copy and paste from the ‘Common Problems’ section on the ‘Basic Turns’ tutorial I wrote:

Counter-rotation occurs when your upper body rotates in the opposite direction to the turn. When this happens, your body is not aligned with your snowboard - which causes a variety of problems. It is important to rotate your upper body in the direction of the turn, while keeping your body aligned directly over your snowboard. Initiate with your upper body, and follow with your lower body.

Placing too much weight on the back foot causes turn initiation and completion to be very difficult. Shift your hips forward, so you are centred over your snowboard. This will also enable you to place pressure onto your front foot when needed - giving you much better control over your snowboard, as well as making turn initiation and completion much easier.

OK, I hope that all makes sense and isn’t too overwhelming for you. Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Thanks heaps for the comment Jez, i agree with most of the things you have outlined and now that you have said it they are so clearly visible, i think i need to spend more days this winter at snow.

Do you think i can do anything to practice off season or i guess i just have to work on the things you said while i am at the snow ?

apart from strapping in, or using a freebord there is not much you can do until you get on snow as far as i know…

thanks deano…..

Hey Lanox
I’ve only got time for a quick comment.
So what Jez is saying is right on the money.  Just a few tips on how you can learn to not counter rotate in your turns:

Right now your tracks down the hill are zig zags. Try and make them big S shapes (really big S shapes). Slow down your edge change and all your movements and make your turns big, slow and round.
* When we first learn to snowboard the thing we worry about most is catching an edge. But you’re better than that now, so slow it right down.

I noticed you started holding you’re pants with your back hand and pointing with you’re front hand. This is good to do, but, that front hand has to point where you want the nose of the board to point.
Right now it’s pointing downhill all the time so your upper body has to separate from your lower body.
Try pointing your front arm to the trees on your right when on your heel side and then slowly move your arm to point at the trees on your left when changing to your toe edge. This will make nice round turns and keep your upper and lower body together.
Hope that helps bro

thanks Andy

Much appreciated for the time and feedback from both of you guys, and i will definitely take all this things on board and try to fix what i am doing wrong.

I have done lots of reading and video watching before i went to hakuba and i tried to follow some basic rules hold the pants with back hand etc but we all i guess forget or excitement take over us so yeah half way down i remember hold your hand etc.

hopefully this summer in aus i will get to ride with you and Jez and the rest of the crew and improve and get some more feedback…. i cant wait for this aus winter.

Awesome lanox! Keep it up, you’re doing a great job for 9th day of snowboarding

Thanks skip yeah doing okay considering never done it before.

Thanks

Way to go lanox!!!!! 

Mizu Kuma - 23 February 2012 03:31 AM

Way to go lanox!!!!! 

Thanks dad

I haven’t got much to add to the advice above but it’d be great to see another video of your riding perhaps when you get to 15 days or something like that.

Aidy - 23 February 2012 10:15 PM

I haven’t got much to add to the advice above but it’d be great to see another video of your riding perhaps when you get to 15 days or something like that.

Hi Aidy

Thanks, i want be adding any more since i am back home in australia and snow is nowhere to be seen here right now, but once the snow season starts up here i will definitely update….

Thanks