Transitioning from duck to forward stance

[fumbimo]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice as a new alpine rider and someone still pretty fresh to forward stance all around. Specifically on my heelside carves i struggle to keep my hips aligned with my feet, straighten my legs too much and break at the waist to try and get more edge angle on my board as if I'm still riding duck and trying to sit into a heelside carve. Trying to figure out how to avoid doing this and i feel a bit stuck. Anybody have advice for this situation?

 

[Jarcode]

Turn with your knees, driving that front knee towards the snow for your heel side carve. It takes some time getting used to using more lateral pressure when first making the switch; you shouldn't really be relying on your upper body position to actually get the board on edge.

If you provide a recording of your riding, I'm sure those here with coaching experience can provide you with much better input.

[Xargo]

I would say at least for me the biggest difference was/is the hip orientation. I ride -21/+21 angles when I softboot to reduce bootout (still not enough even though I have mondo 27 boot) so that really limits how I can use my hips. Here's a vid from the first time I tried hardboots and you can see the "sit into a heelside carve" move going on there (the board is Salomon Burner, so not ideal):

The second vid is after a season of practicing with hardboots:

I now ride with a wider stance than in that vid and also I progressed quite a bit late last season but I just wanted to post here a vid with similar perspective and type of riding so you can see the difference in hip orientation between where I was still using what I had learned by softbooting and then another vid where my riding is progressed towards hardbooting. Turning your hip into the turn is really important and in my opinion one of the biggest differences between duck and forward stance. Just by looking at the thumbnails of these two vids, I'm sure you can spot a difference.

The interesting thing I found out late last season when I tried to ride duck again after riding just forward stance quite a bit, was that I could somewhat implement the hip orientation to help with duck riding as well. I still like to ride both ways.

[Corey]

Tip I got early on: Turn your hips so you could pee on the nose. 

I had my knees and shoulders turned, but hips were doing their own thing. I was all wound up and locked in place! 

For the nit-pickers - Yes, that's extreme. End goal is hips matching your boot angle, but sometimes exaggeration leads to revelation. 

[Keenan]

[fumbimo]

Thanks for the advice everyone, Unfortunately i won't be able to get back on a board for a few weeks but I'm excited to try some of this and maybe come back with video

[Odd Job]

FYI. Knee drive introduces over-rotation. Unless you are specifically looking for a carving style that requires that.

Knee drive for mild forward stance angles like on softboots is overkill. You will just be torquing your knees into a non-existent area (where the high back doesn't exist).

You should absolutely be bending over at the waist on heelsides like all the brobrah snowboard guides tell you not to. Straighter legs provide more edge angle on heelside.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Odd Job

[TVR]

@Jack M Got advise here?

Jack has taken many from the boardercross discipline and introduced them to Alpine...

[fumbimo]

Thanks again for all the advice. I think Corey and Xargo hit the nail on the head. thinking about trying to face forward and point my knees forward left me in a really bad position. I had a revelation when i threw all of that out of the window and focused on keeping my hips rotated as much as possible, letting the rest of my body do whatever it needed to do to maintain the hip rotation. 

Digging through many other forum posts i stumbled upon this playlist. re sharing in case maybe this is helpful for others struggling with the same issue. Another forum member here did a proper English translation that will show up if you enable subtitles. I found the first 5 video's to be incredibly helpful.
 

 

[NateW]

Probably the best tip I've ever gotten: reach forward with your trailing hand.

It just pulls the rest of my body into the right position.