The main thing is to keep your knees, ankles and hips actively moving. Early on they say bend your knees more so you can learn those movements.

Do yoga, go to a class or just youtube it and do it in your living room. Not all hard core shit but the beginner yoga stretches, hip opening stretches, joint flexibility stuff... I am a fat bastard but do a few sessions a week of yoga in the off season and if I am not riding for a couple days. Do some workouts like lunges, deep body weight squats just to get juices flowing in those joints.

Even with the flexibility you still want to get used to the knee bend, athletic posturing that you want to be riding in. Learn the motions and proper posturing now so when you start going faster and riding harder stuff it is just natural.

Take lessons.
Watch @wrathfuldeity basement psycho perv video
Snowboard more.

 

And do your stretches every day and for an appropriate amount of time. Don't hold stretches for just 5 seconds. Try for 30 seconds or even a minute. Yoga is good, but it may be difficult if you can't find a class that works for you (or don't want to spend the money). Squats are also super helpful for overall strength and mobility. When you squat, don't forget to go parallel or past parallel. Don't do the bro squat and only hit 140*. You might not be able to do the full ROM right away but keep pushing yourself. Hip mobility is important too.

 

Bending at the knees and hip. Not the waist.

 

Do some "Good morning" weight exercise.

 

Same issue over here. When people say, 'get low' i end up looking like a closing suit case rather than bending at the knees. When i try to bend at the knees more i'm way off balance. Have you discovered any specific stretches that helped? thanks to this thread I'll be adding Good mornings and squats.

 

Crank the back of your bindings to lean your boots toward toeside so your knees are vertically aligned with your board edge. Then, "getting low" really works, and it makes it way easier to set the heelside edge well withour sticking your butt way out to heelside..

 

Sounds more like a strength issue than flexibility.

 

Agree.

more squats? where is the strength needed?

Do the carpet test .

Squat down with upper body bent fwd. Easy, right? Cos your upper body balances out the butt which sticks out backwards. Easy on muscles, but not the position you want for riding.

So now bend those knees, but keep pelvis aligned over the imaginary board between feet and upper rather body straight. You immediately feel that the shin muscles, outer upper thigh and lowe back muscles have to WORK for that position. So there you go. Those are the muscles you need to strengthen, and remind to use them next time on slope

 

more squats? where is the strength needed?

 

Get an Indo board (or make one) & learn to do squats on it. It's great for your balance & core strength, & forces you to keep your weight central when squatting.

 

Forward lean will only help to straighten the back.
I would guess that your ankles flexibility is limiting your dorsiflex. As a result that you cannot bend a lot at knee without not letting the heels leaving the ground, then you feel off balance or standing on your toes when you squat down with a straight back.

 

Is ankle flex important? My boots are far too stiff to allow my ankles to flex more than a tiny amount.

 

I'm with you, but I don't really ride freestyle, I like my boots locked the fuck in

 

Some styles of riding require a lot of ankle flex and foot steering- like riding trees, park, or surfing powder. Stiff boots have their place too.

 

As you get low you should feel pressure of your shins against the front of your boots, esp. on toe side turn. If you don't feel the pressure, you're probably leaning forward and sticking the butt out, the shins could actually move backward in such case.

 

My boots are 32 Focus Boa, brand new so not broken in at all. And yes, push down witk the knees and the shin does all the work.

 

Not all the work, just certain type of the work.
Pushing down knee and shin with ankle fixed will put one on toe edge, that's correct.
Pushing down knee and shin with ankle relaxed or even tilted a bit will allow one to ride much lower with straight back without having to be on toe edge, benefits being better bump absorption, more room to pop/ollie, better posture for landing a jump and etc. This is why it's easier to land slightly on toe edge than on heel edge.

 

Bending over at the waist is the worst, and makes you look like a total noob. You're gonna fall so much more than you need to until you learn how to stack your weight over the edges properly. Once you've got that stacked stance, you're not a noob anymore.

Check out this stance video. Creepy Basement Video

 

Bending over at the waist is the worst, and makes you look like a total noob. You're gonna fall so much more than you need to until you learn how to stack your weight over the edges properly. Once you've got that stacked stance, you're not a noob anymore.

I agree with you wholeheartedly if we're talking about toeside carves--the more forward your hips are, the more weight you have directly over the edge. If we're talking heelside carves, I think bending forward has its place. It's not a substitute for bending at the knees, but if you're squatting low and bending forward at the waist, you're going to have more weight stacked vertically over your heel edge.

 

A good trick I was taught years ago when you feel like you are bending at the waist too much is to ride holding your belt buckle, or what would be your belt buckle, with both hands. This is near-on impossible to do if you are bending at the waist, and as you build up more speed or feel like you are losing control, forces you to bend your knees and lower your center of gravity to maintain edge control and in turn your balance and speed. I normally will do this drill for at least half of my first warm up run of the day to refocus where I want my riding stance to be for the rest of my day

 

Now I'm just picturing herds with giant belt buckles, Stetson and chaps in full falling leaf style.

 

saw a kid with ripped skinny jeans over thermals on the hill last week. he was so edgy, made me regret my choice to wear my bib.

 

Squatting your butt to the highbacks is where the power is, not with that butt in the air and your head down by your toes.

 

I don’t disagree. I’m saying that after your butt is down by your high backs, you can stack more weight vertically by bending forward at the hips. You don’t have to stick your butt up to do that.

 

Yeah, I think a lot of the "cereal box" advice is for new snowboarders. It's really good advice but there are a million exceptions as you get more advanced. Like, you might spend a lot of time teaching a beginner to stop counter rotating, but there are reasons they'd go back to doing it intentionally later on.

 

I used to rock forward lean, and I feel it taught me some good things. It shows you the proper attack stance, and it provides extra response and power when you aren't used to stacking your weight over the edge properly. I've come to see forward lean as a learning tool and a matter of personal choice. Personally, I match it to the lean of my boots and leave it at that.

I really don't like forward lean in trees. Highbacks can get in my way. I've gone to the surfy side these days. Freedom of movement is king. I've gone so far as to use highbacks that are so soft I can fold them back with one hand.

Shred your own shred. If you've never looked into forward lean, check it out and you may like it.

 

Leg blasters. Google it, do em till u puke u weakling. Then u will crush with bEastly fashion! Or buy a peloton

 

At a minimum its good to have the forward lean set so that there is no gap between the high back and the boot. This will give instant response otherwise you are waiting for that gap to fill to some degree when you initiate a turn.

Not saying you have to do this but just be aware of whats happening. On my park board I don't run any forward lean but I do on all my other boards.

 

I have lots of forward lean, and very stiff boots. This makes for very fast edge response. When I got those stiff boots, I was amazed how much better I could control the edge for carving. I need way less knee motion to get the same solid edge angle. As a 71 YO, I don't go near the boxes and rails, If I did, I might have made different choices.

 

I've been going back towards a softer set up for most things lately. Really, I'm into lateral flex and toe/heel response. I find forward lean restricts my lateral movement too much. I match the static lean on my boots with the highbacks.

I found forward lean and stiff boots to be helpful when I was struggling to control my board. As I progressed, it just seemed to get in my way and be uncomfortable. I still have stiff bindings on my aggressive freeride board, but I match the highback's lean to my boots.

 

Consistent feedback I'm getting from more experienced riders is that I'm 'bending at the waist' , 'hunched over'. I absolutely agree with them although when I try to 'straighten up', I feel much more off-balance, even a bit uncomfortable. No doubt if I can improve my posture I can dramatically improve my general riding, carving and balance. I do ride with quite a bit of forward lean in my bindings to help with heelside carving, in case that might affect things. I try to 'sit in chair' on heelside and 'tilt pelvis' for toeside (humping motion - pardon the expression, though that's the way other's have described to me), though it's difficult to do consistently.

I'm guessing I have some tight muscles/imbalances contributing. (Dayjob at computer, hunched forward - definitely doesn't help) Anyone else experience the same?

I'm going to talk to my physio but hoping to hear from other snowboarders what's been helpful. Any suggestions you can offer for stretches/exercises, both pre and post-snowboarding session?

Thanks

Dear snowboarder of the internet,

Check this out and listen to this guy. Specifically listen to what he says at 1:03:

And don't listen to that guy above.

Love,
F1EA
xoxo

 

I don't even think I need highbacks with how good boots and straps have gotten. No Highback Theory- Mike RanquetIf your body mechanics are on point and you're stacking weight over the edge properly, I don't see the need for forward lean. It's just uncomfortable. I've got respect for Ryan Kanpton, but I don't agree with him here. There's more than one way to get your carve on- shred your own shred. If you like that feeling, go for it! I don't feel forward lean is the only way to ride well.

To the OP, maybe try out some lean. It'll force you into a more proper attack position and you can learn what that feels like and what to shoot for. Experiments like this are good- they can teach you a lot.

 

I don't even think I need highbacks with how good boots and straps have gotten. No Highback Theory- Mike RanquetIf your body mechanics are on point and you're stacking weight over the edge properly, I don't see the need for forward lean. It's just uncomfortable. I've got respect for Ryan Kanpton, but I don't agree with him here. There's more than one way to get your carve on- shred your own shred. If you like that feeling, go for it! I don't feel forward lean is the only way to ride well.

To the OP, maybe try out some lean. It'll force you into a more proper attack position and you can learn what that feels like and what to shoot for. Experiments like this are good- they can teach you a lot.

Yep. Now bindings have been offering no highback for a while already. So have other binding brands. Burton offers true 0 lean, and Flux has an extremely soft highback on the DS. There's also noboards for pow, like the Burton Pile Driver, Skipjack which you can ride with no bindings. Etc etc.

So yea you don't NEED fwd lean. But it certianly does not prevent you from learning anything properly.

You can still bring your highbacks flush with some fwd lean and keep flexibility and range of motion by using soft or non aggressive bindings/highbacks.

I mostly ride medium bindings with flush fwd lean so that i always feel the flex of the binding and have no slack to the highback. On boards/days when I want power and response, i go w stiffer bindings. On days/boards when I don't, I go with softer. But mostly on the same general posture, so only the feel of the highback changes...

Somehow people like making arguments for extremes. No need to. Extreme fwd lean or no bindings/highback is an extreme situation that doesn't apply to the majority. It's a pointless talk.

The overwhelming majority of people will benefit from a normal medium flex binding with some fwd lean to help maintain proper body posture without needing to bend at the waist as a result of stiff knees.

Bending at the waist (with stiff legs and no fwd lean) are one of the 3 tell-tale signs of the struggling beginner desperate for balance. The other 2 are a super narrow stance and extreme shallow binding angles.

Look for it next time you go to the mtn... there's learning beginners and struggling beginners. The struggling beginners are usually doing 1 or all 3 of the above. The 4th would be all counter-rotated turns, but that's usually past the very beginning stage.

 

Without forward lean you can only bend the knees properly if you put the board on edge. Otherwise you'd have to bend at the waist as well. I think that a bit of forward lean helps out.

I suppose that if you ride with really soft boots and bindings you could do it without forward lean.

 

I don't agree with that. Without forward lean you can bend your knees into the forward lean position or choose not to and straighten your legs. This gives more balance and stance options, and brings the ankles back into the game.

Again, I propose you don't really need highbacks at all. It all comes down to feel and personal choice. I'd rather have no highbacks than have more forward lean than my boots do.

 

I also ride with more forward lean on the back foot.

Edit: and +/+ stance