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Grasshopper technique questions!



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 29th 04, 06:17 PM
Tom
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Default Grasshopper technique questions!

Having grasshopped my way from novice to nutcase last week, I made some major
breakthroughs, gradually refining my technique and learning to understand the
physics of the board, and my muscle reactions / aches, enough to get my board /
bindings set up really nicely.

Now..one grasshopper question on technique...

Turning from toes onto heels is fine at all speeds, but I had quite a few falls
at first turning from heels to toes, especially at high speed. The final
breakthrough seemed to come when I started bringing the back leg round more
purposefully as I turned from heels to toes, as I'd seen others do - really
consciously flicking it round as I made the turns. From that point, my crash
ratio went down rapidly. I was already OK with my body / shoulder / hip
movement and weight distribution, but this made an extra difference.

So, my question is, is the above something that most people do a lot, is this
correct technique (at medium to high speed - clearly you sometimes have to do
that, eg sharpo direction changes at low speed) or does my need to do this mean
that there's still something not quite right in my technique? It felt fine, but
quite tiring and took a lot of concentration. That said, it was only my second
week boarding, apart from practicing on indoor snow in the UK.

Many thanks anyone - I am one happy grasshopper on a board!

Tom
High Wycombe
UK
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  #2  
Old January 29th 04, 07:08 PM
jaycb74
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Default Grasshopper technique questions!

The flicking of the board on your front-side turn with your back foot is
something that I teach newbies all time. That heel to toeside is one of the
tougher things for newbies to get and this really seems to help. However,
that said...I've heard many people say this is incorrect form? My
philosophy is to give people something they can work on and get comfortable,
they can then tweak it from there. By being able to really throw the board
around on your toe edge, gives you much more confidence and allows you to
slow your speed much more easily. Again, maybe bad form but it does seem to
work for people, I think its tough to expect new riders to just go out and
tell them 'heel to toe'...'heel to toe'.

"Tom" wrote in message
...
Having grasshopped my way from novice to nutcase last week, I made some

major
breakthroughs, gradually refining my technique and learning to understand

the
physics of the board, and my muscle reactions / aches, enough to get my

board /
bindings set up really nicely.

Now..one grasshopper question on technique...

Turning from toes onto heels is fine at all speeds, but I had quite a few

falls
at first turning from heels to toes, especially at high speed. The final
breakthrough seemed to come when I started bringing the back leg round

more
purposefully as I turned from heels to toes, as I'd seen others do -

really
consciously flicking it round as I made the turns. From that point, my

crash
ratio went down rapidly. I was already OK with my body / shoulder / hip
movement and weight distribution, but this made an extra difference.

So, my question is, is the above something that most people do a lot, is

this
correct technique (at medium to high speed - clearly you sometimes have to

do
that, eg sharpo direction changes at low speed) or does my need to do this

mean
that there's still something not quite right in my technique? It felt

fine, but
quite tiring and took a lot of concentration. That said, it was only my

second
week boarding, apart from practicing on indoor snow in the UK.

Many thanks anyone - I am one happy grasshopper on a board!

Tom
High Wycombe
UK



  #3  
Old January 29th 04, 07:17 PM
Bob
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Posts: n/a
Default Grasshopper technique questions!


"Tom" wrote in message
...
Having grasshopped my way from novice to nutcase last week, I

made some major
breakthroughs, gradually refining my technique and learning to

understand the
physics of the board, and my muscle reactions / aches, enough

to get my board /
bindings set up really nicely.

Now..one grasshopper question on technique...

Turning from toes onto heels is fine at all speeds, but I had

quite a few falls
at first turning from heels to toes, especially at high speed.

The final
breakthrough seemed to come when I started bringing the back

leg round more
purposefully as I turned from heels to toes, as I'd seen others

do - really
consciously flicking it round as I made the turns. From that

point, my crash
ratio went down rapidly. I was already OK with my body /

shoulder / hip
movement and weight distribution, but this made an extra

difference.

So, my question is, is the above something that most people do

a lot, is this
correct technique (at medium to high speed - clearly you

sometimes have to do
that, eg sharpo direction changes at low speed) or does my need

to do this mean
that there's still something not quite right in my technique?

It felt fine, but
quite tiring and took a lot of concentration. That said, it was

only my second
week boarding, apart from practicing on indoor snow in the UK.


Try this. Traversing the slope, drop the leading edge of the
board by lowering the heel/toe of the front foot slightly. This
will actually twist the board. As you initiate the turn by
dropping the leading edge of the board, twist the front foot in
the direction of the turn. Do not twist the body, just apply
force with your ankle and knee. As the board points down the fall
line, switch to the new edge with both feet, and twist the back
foot also. Make all changes smoothly/gradually. Keep your body
aligned with your feet throughout the turn. Holding your rear
hand beyond your heelside edge throughout the turn may help keep
you from "opening up" toward the front of the board.

Good luck.

Bob


  #4  
Old January 29th 04, 07:29 PM
Tom
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Posts: n/a
Default Grasshopper technique questions!

By being able to really throw the board
around on your toe edge, gives you much more confidence and allows you to
slow your speed much more easily.


Thanks for the encouragement. That's exactly how it feels - if I really trust
myself to get that foot round and dig in, it usually always comes off fine. The
momentum nicely absorbs the edge and the turn is solid. I can't think of hardly
any occasions where I did this and I came too far round, or caught the edge too
thick or anything, it just seemed quite natural.

Tom
  #5  
Old January 29th 04, 07:30 PM
Tom
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Grasshopper technique questions!

Try this. Traversing the slope, drop the leading edge of the
board by lowering the heel/toe of the front foot slightly. This
will actually twist the board. As you initiate the turn by
dropping the leading edge of the board, twist the front foot in
the direction of the turn. Do not twist the body, just apply
force with your ankle and knee. As the board points down the fall
line, switch to the new edge with both feet, and twist the back
foot also. Make all changes smoothly/gradually. Keep your body
aligned with your feet throughout the turn. Holding your rear
hand beyond your heelside edge throughout the turn may help keep
you from "opening up" toward the front of the board.

Nice one, Bobs. I must say I haven't tried that, consciously thinking of feet /
ankles. I'm hoping to get out again before and of season and all the adice i
grab off of here will be useful.

Tom
  #6  
Old January 29th 04, 07:58 PM
Neil Gendzwill
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Posts: n/a
Default Grasshopper technique questions!

I dunno, maybe it's too long since I was a beginner - but all this
kicking the foot, twisting the board stuff sounds pretty limiting. Your
goal is really edge transfer by dynamic leg movement. Probably you
are standing up too straight on your heel-side turn, which really limits
your ability to get to the toe edge. Try getting as low as you can on
the heel-side, and if you think you're too low you're probably still too
straight. As you transition from the end of the heelside and want to
switch edges, rise up and kind of suck your board through and under your
body and onto the other edge, then sink back down into a low toeside
turn. It is easier to stay flexed and low on toeside so that's probably
why you can switch to the heel edge more easily.

My .02 CDN

Neil

  #7  
Old January 30th 04, 12:38 AM
Arvin Chang
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Posts: n/a
Default Grasshopper technique questions!

EMOVE (Tom) wrote in message ...
Having grasshopped my way from novice to nutcase last week, I made some major
breakthroughs, gradually refining my technique and learning to understand the
physics of the board, and my muscle reactions / aches, enough to get my board /
bindings set up really nicely.

Now..one grasshopper question on technique...

Turning from toes onto heels is fine at all speeds, but I had quite a few falls
at first turning from heels to toes, especially at high speed. The final
breakthrough seemed to come when I started bringing the back leg round more
purposefully as I turned from heels to toes, as I'd seen others do - really
consciously flicking it round as I made the turns. From that point, my crash
ratio went down rapidly. I was already OK with my body / shoulder / hip
movement and weight distribution, but this made an extra difference.

So, my question is, is the above something that most people do a lot, is this
correct technique (at medium to high speed - clearly you sometimes have to do
that, eg sharpo direction changes at low speed) or does my need to do this mean
that there's still something not quite right in my technique? It felt fine, but
quite tiring and took a lot of concentration. That said, it was only my second
week boarding, apart from practicing on indoor snow in the UK.

Many thanks anyone - I am one happy grasshopper on a board!

Tom
High Wycombe
UK


Hi Tom, the reason why you crashed before is because you are stil
mastering fine edge control - as you turn you board in the toeside
direction (right for regular footed riders) you may have difficult
maintaining proper pressure while teetering on your toeside edge.
Since you are essentially "balancing" on the edge) as you rotate the
board in a turn, you can accidentally swing too far off your toeside
edge and then catch you heelside edge. The heelside edge gripes into
the snow like an anchor and whips you down into the ground hard like
none other.

To visualize this, pretend a CD case (any rectangular object) is your
snowboard and slide it across your desk. Now keeping the direction
almost the same, slowly turn the board in the toeside direction while
raising the heelside edge in the air, you will notice the toeside edge
is skidding "across" the direction of travel, now wobble the heelside
edge to simulate the constant teetering of balance that you have with
someone who is still hasn't quite mastered edge control, if that
heelside edge ever wobbles too far down and comes down to the ground,
you "catch" your edge and crash.

As you have noticed, this "kick-out" method dramatically reduces your
chances of crashing as it whips the board around, dramatically
reducing the "danger time" where you need to balance on the edge but
your board/body haven't quite lined up for it yet. Most beginners do
this a lot and regular riders will do it when they *really* want to
turn the board (at low speeds as you mentioned).

However, in terms of technical snowboarding, it is bad technique for
medium to high speeds. You really want to "carve" with the board by
pressuring the edge such that the board transcribes an arc in the snow
itself. There is no skidding because you board is always pointing in
the direction of travel. When done properly, it is rather effortless
in terms of energy used to intiate the turn.

When you carve you will change the direction of motion much more
quickly. Note that this slightly differs from the changing direction
that your board points in. With the skidding method, you will change
the direction your board points very quickly, yet you will notice you
still are moving in virtually the same direction.

Hence, you can see for the most part carving is superior to skidding
when you are going at higher speeds (unless you want to slow down), it
allows you to change the direction of travel more quickly, wastes less
speed, and uses less energy. I won't go into it too much, but your
board is designed for carving (that why it is flexible and has a
sidecut).

So now it's basically a matter of personal preference. You could keep
up with the "kick-out" skidding method until you get better edge
control, and *then* unlearn it in the future when you want to do
really carved turns. Or you can start trying to learn the proper way
now, accepting the fact that you will crash a few more times - however
the benefit is that you won't have a long ingrained bad habit.

Another poster mentioned "twisting" the board with the front foot.
This works for lower speeds and less torsionally stiff boards. However
at high speeds, the less torsionally stiff (i.e. most twistable) board
tend to be less responsive and chatter a lot - so you will need to
move to a stiffer board where this method is less effective (and again
more energy consuming). Proper carving technique will do something
similar, without "twisting" your board.

So you are probably now all excited and like "ok so how do I carve?"
Well that's a long story and would make this long post even longer.

--Arvin
  #8  
Old January 30th 04, 12:51 AM
Mike T
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Posts: n/a
Default Grasshopper technique questions!

So you are probably now all excited and like "ok so how do I carve?"
Well that's a long story and would make this long post even longer.



Fortunately there's some great stuff on the web about that!

www.bomberonline.com is a site dedicated to carving. For the most
part, it's about carving with hard boots and an alpine board, but
there's a lot of content that applies equally to soft boots and a
freeride/freestyle board.

This article describes a drill that will teach you exactly what it feels
like to carve:

http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/feel_the_carve.cfm

That is an important first step. Many beginners think they are carving
when they aren't. This drill will teach you the difference. Once
you've got the "Norm" drill down and know what it feels like to carve
(and it is a very cool feeling!) follow up with:

http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/the_normii.cfm

which teaches you how to bring that feel into your everyday riding.

Hope that helps,

-Mike T








  #9  
Old January 30th 04, 08:47 AM
Arvin Chang
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Posts: n/a
Default Grasshopper technique questions!

"Mike T" wrote in message ...
So you are probably now all excited and like "ok so how do I carve?"
Well that's a long story and would make this long post even longer.



Fortunately there's some great stuff on the web about that!

www.bomberonline.com is a site dedicated to carving. For the most
part, it's about carving with hard boots and an alpine board, but
there's a lot of content that applies equally to soft boots and a
freeride/freestyle board.

This article describes a drill that will teach you exactly what it feels
like to carve:

http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/feel_the_carve.cfm

That is an important first step. Many beginners think they are carving
when they aren't. This drill will teach you the difference. Once
you've got the "Norm" drill down and know what it feels like to carve
(and it is a very cool feeling!) follow up with:

http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/the_normii.cfm

which teaches you how to bring that feel into your everyday riding.

Hope that helps,

-Mike T


Yea, I decided not to mentioned BomberOnline because it is so
hardbooter oriented. You are right that many of the things carry over,
but that is only after you know what your are doing. I didn't want to
overwhelm people with too much information, not all of which applies.

So if you are excited and bold, check out Bomber, otherwise try
comparing what you are doing to what more advanced riders and doing
and see what's different, that always is a good place to start on what
you need to practice.

--Arvin
  #10  
Old January 30th 04, 10:45 AM
Playdreamer
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Default Grasshopper technique questions!

"Tom" wrote in message
...

So, my question is, is the above something that most people do a lot, is

this
correct technique (at medium to high speed - clearly you sometimes have to

do
that, eg sharpo direction changes at low speed) or does my need to do this

mean
that there's still something not quite right in my technique?


You are right that although this is a useful skill for short slow speed
turns it is not really the ideal technique for faster riding.

It sounds to me as though you are probably not getting enough weight forward
on to your front foot. If you have too much weight on the back foot (and the
trailing heel edge) as the board crosses the fall line it is difficult to
quickly transition the front of the board on to the toe edge and the heel
edge will often catch before you can make it!

The solution is simple: lean forward on the board going into the turn with
most of your weight on the front foot, now as you cross the fall line it
will be much easier to transition on to the toe edge.

Luke

-------------------------
http://www.snowgo.com


 




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