Softboot technique help

[fumbimo]

I'm looking for some advice for my heel side turns. I tend to straighten my front leg to maintain edge angle on the snow, without doing this I always feel like I'm not going to be able to hold my edge well and either skid my turns or tip over. But this seems to be causing my hips to be sitting above my front foot and my back knee to cave in.

I'm not sure how to address this and I think this is the cause for some back knee pain I've been having so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

 

 

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Your rear knee is tucked in regardless of toeside or heelside. What’s your stance? Lowering your rear angle to have more splay might help. 

 

[fumbimo]

13 minutes ago, ShortcutToMoncton said:

Your rear knee is tucked in regardless of toeside or heelside. What’s your stance? Lowering your rear angle to have more splay might help. 

 

36/27 degrees, 56 cm width.  I've messed with my angles a lot and I think you're right in that more splay helps but it seems to do so only on my toeside. Even running really shallow angles like 9degrees on the back foot I end up doing similar on my heelside.

[Deuxdiesel]

The knee tuck and lock seems like a sign that you are struggling to gain leverage over your board- once you do that, most of the input comes from the hips on up.  What kind of lean do you have on your highbacks?  Are they rotated at all?  Your angles and stance width are very similar to what I am running currently, but it would take a ton of effort to get my knees that close.  Maybe a bit more information on your set-up?

[fumbimo]

1 hour ago, Deuxdiesel said:

The knee tuck and lock seems like a sign that you are struggling to gain leverage over your board- once you do that, most of the input comes from the hips on up.  What kind of lean do you have on your highbacks?  Are they rotated at all?  Your angles and stance width are very similar to what I am running currently, but it would take a ton of effort to get my knees that close.  Maybe a bit more information on your set-up?

high backs rotated to line up with the heel edge, about 3/6 forward lean on them. it's just enough that its lined up well with my boots

[Odd Job]

I ride 9/0; I think that splay is fine. My natural splay when I stand or even walk is like 40/-40?? I walk like a geriatric duck.

Ride on the heels, it's ok to not be aligned or rotated; whatever puts as much weight on your heels as possible.  This forum places way too much emphasis on neutral stance alignment and/or rotation. Do the "bad" thing and see what it looks like on video.

Let yourself counter-rotate a bit, straight legged, butt out, hunched over ready to take it. And then watch it on video. It probably won't look like what you think it does.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Odd Job

[staples156]

If I'm understanding right, you could add more forward lean to at least your front highback. I'd start there and just crank it to whatever the max setting is (it'll either work or then you'll know what too much forward lean is). The highback is what transfers pressure to the edge on a heelside carve, so gaps between your boot and highback will kill your heelside carve. The more forward lean you have, the more you can bend your knees and ankles and still maintain contact with the highback. Your boot may not immediately fit in the binding very easily, but I find that cranking the heel strap down, moving around a bit, then re-cranking the heel strap will seat the boot in the binding nicely.

[slopestar]

On 3/16/2023 at 5:07 PM, fumbimo said:

36/27 degrees, 56 cm width.  I've messed with my angles a lot and I think you're right in that more splay helps but it seems to do so only on my toeside. Even running really shallow angles like 9degrees on the back foot I end up doing similar on my heelside.

12* of splay

 

[Deuxdiesel]

14 hours ago, staples156 said:

If I'm understanding right, you could add more forward lean to at least your front highback. I'd start there and just crank it to whatever the max setting is (it'll either work or then you'll know what too much forward lean is). The highback is what transfers pressure to the edge on a heelside carve, so gaps between your boot and highback will kill your heelside carve. The more forward lean you have, the more you can bend your knees and ankles and still maintain contact with the highback. Your boot may not immediately fit in the binding very easily, but I find that cranking the heel strap down, moving around a bit, then re-cranking the heel strap will seat the boot in the binding nicely.

I tend to run more lean on the rear binding than the front.  If I have more in the front, once I hit that highback with my front boot I find I have to do an exaggerated sit/squat to get the rear to engage, which makes it hard to move my weight fore and aft as needed.  On my A-10's and A-9's, I use one notch on the front and 3 on the rear, highbacks rotated forward as much as possible.  The are lots of other variables here, such as where the bindings are placed in relation to the sidecut geometry and the sidecut itself.