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position for a female rider?

4K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  designfemme 
#1 ·
Hello, beginner snowboarder here!

I heard of a phenomenon where female riders have a tendency to drive the board with their hips forward — due to having wider hips and thus a different range of movement. I even catch myself swiveling and leading with my hips as I exit a toeside turn and enter a heelside turn. Is this the start of a bad habit? Should I be pushing my lead knee out even more instead? :dunno:

(Since I am a beginner, I cannot detect a difference in performance between the two — yet.)

Thanks in advance!
 
#2 · (Edited)
Hips should generally be centered front/back. (as you get better, all rules can be broken at times) Turns are initiated using flexion (bending) of the low body and shifting the knees and hips. Knees toward the front of the board a bit on heelside and toward the inside on toeside. Hips thrust forward (in relation to your body, a humping position) on toeside and backward (like you are taking a dump) on heelside. Hump and dump, hump and dump.

It is good to lead with your hips, but it sounds like you are rotating your upper body and leading with your shoulders. If you can have someone take a video of you, we can give you a lot more specific advice.

It is true that women often shift there hips forward on the board. This usually means you have your back leg straight. It works fine on the bunny hill, but as soon as you ride through the choppy steeper stuff you're going to get bounced all over the place. In order to really ride well, you have to bend your knees and ride dynamically, absorbing the terrain and actively engaging your edges.

If you get to the bottom and don't feel like your legs are getting a serious work out, you are doing it wrong.

Lessons with a good instructor are usually worthwhile. Snowolf has some great videos as well.
 
#4 ·
#8 ·
Yes, drive your hips front-back and/or fore-aft as needed, but not in rotation (for now... Like alot of things in life, you learn the "proper" basics, then at some point in your advancement you throw that out and relearn something completely different.) :p

Actually, women have the advantage of a lower center of gravity in snowboarding, which is more stable. You should all be kicking men's butts! :laugh:


 
#10 · (Edited)
You can steer with head shoulders, hips, leading knee and foot/ankle. However the further away from the board the more slow the response and more inefficient. The torsional twist/leading knee steering is where a beginner ought to start. However you also want the ankles, hips and shoulders aligned, stacked and working together. You really have 3 axis to coordinate for turns...fore/aft, toeside/heelside and lowering/raising your center of gravity (cog)....and women have a lower center of gravity than guys which results in a more flowing riding style with less articulated movements. Perhaps get a private lesson with a good female instructor. Good women riders can be hellishly fast and just seen to float along...I haven't been able to keep up with my daughter since she was 14.
 
#12 ·
Thank you, everyone!

I really appreciate that you guys are not only giving me advice but also explaining the reasoning behind the advice. Obviously the best way to learn is get out there with an instructor, but, between riding days, I like to think about the mechanics and do visualization. (Actually, I'm terrible at physics — BUT they way all of you have broken down the information into digestible, easy-to-understand details is tremendously helpful.)

Oh, the thing about rolling the lead knee back towards the tail on toeside turns…I discovered that by sheer experimenting last time! Last season, I kept driving my lead knee forward for both heelside AND toeside entry. As you guys could probably guess, my toeside turn felt more like a sideslip with a dramatic drop in speed, kicking up a lot of snow. This year, I tried pulling my lead knee instead, and volia! — suddenly my toeside turn finished more smoothly and felt more "rounded."

Small accomplishments. So much fun at this newbie stage :)

My goals for next time:
1. make sure I'm not initiating a turn with my shoulder
2. more emphasis on ankle/knee flexion as the primary force for driving
3. don't obsess over the hip thing, but make sure it's not the dominating force over other actions
3. consider fore-aft movements (something I have not tried before!)
4. hump and dump! (I always forget to do the hump part)
5. try to get a video up of my epic faceplants for the amusement of strangers — I mean, "my fantastic progression in snowboarding for movement analysis"

I will report back if anything interesting comes up. I promise to start it off with an even more suggestive thread title :D
 
#13 ·
One thing that helped me stay square with my board when I was learning-- not bending at the waist or swiveling around- was to imagine I had a penguin on each end of my board and had to keep my hands on their heads. It sounded silly but it helped. When I felt off-balance I'd just think penguins.
 
#14 ·
I love penguins :thumbsup:


But as a Monty Python fan, I'm afraid I'll keep visualizing them as exploding:

The Exploding Penguin - YouTube


So maybe whenever I feel off-balance, I'll imagine a penguin at each end of my board and tethered to a tripwire to each of my shoulders. Then I'll tell myself to keep aligned with the board — otherwise, If I twist my upper body too much, I'll detonate them. :D
 
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