Heelside Drills? Help!!

[mnovak]

Looking for drills to help with heelside turns. Problem I have is finding the right balance between pressure applied to front and rear of board as the turn progresses -- sometimes end up riding the front foot too much resulting in hooking the board around much too fast and making it difficult to transition onto the toe-side.

I was thinking about going to the bunny slope and practicing riding with just the rear foot in the binding (with a leash of course). Maybe this would help me get a better feel for the back of the board/rear foot? I've gone back to basics with heelside side slipping, norm turns, and heelside hockey stops, but I can't seem to come up with much else in terms of drills. Is the rear foot only riding idea too kooky? We all do it with the front (getting on and off the lift), but I've never seen anyone do it with the rear foot only.

Any drills/thoughts? Thanks! ;)

[Fleaman]

Is the rear foot only riding idea too kooky? We all do it with the front (getting on and off the lift), but I've never seen anyone do it with the rear foot only.

I would highly recomend NOT riding with your rear foot only. As would most other people here would back me up I hope.

If you ride with you back foot only, you are setting yourself up for a leg break. You have too much leverage on the board from the front to your leg and if anything gets wonky, that board will twist your leg like a rubber band.

[Gleb]

i defintly back up fleaman on that. You defintly cannot deliver enough torque with the rear leg at all.

Also, I have the same exact problem. It really sucks but i'm working on it.

[mnovak]

Thanks Fleaman -- I figured it was an insane idea. I used to practice skiing one-ski only quite often for racing, but of course the legs are equal in that case.

[snow|3oarder]

I had a similar problem, and then I started practicing using that over rotated technique seen in the EC videos and it helped alittle

[Jack M]

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

[kipstar]

try the extremes, to find your middle point sweet spot....

go really slow on a medium/beginner slope, and practise really sending your weight forward, so that you feel both legs loading up against the fronts and forward side of the shin. It also sets your body up to know what is too far forward.

The start going into the turn too far forward, and exagerating and coming out of the turn all the way in the back so the board does a wheely almost; that is defining the too far back position; you should be able to to do this at low speed, balanced, carving and in fact the exagerated motion can get you carving at very low speeds, much lower than what you might think.

On the same slope, practice dropping down on your knees into squats while riding up and down and up and down without weighting either edge of the board; trying to keep your upper body steady and not sticking your butt out awkwardly. This promotes

Go straight on a simple slope, and do lots of skid turns, not carves, but skids thinking about first over rotation, then counter rotation then over rotation again and so on.

All at low speed, trying to feel your lower body positions, with your boots not too cranked too tight.

Then go to a nice intermediate slope, and work on smooth turns... biggest problem for heel turns seem to be people getting the board on edge by straightening their legs OR people not finding that middle point sweet spot... since I only get a few days every few years to ride, I have to find that spot within the first day of riding (as my season is 1-4 days long mostly)... these drills definitely help me.

In terms of actual technique, the rotation technique is how I ride, and that tends to be more stable and set up your body well; rotation and the EC push pull seem pretty related to me, so I'd say that this also helps to compensate when your body isn't in the right place to still get the board coming around on edge.

[Guest Todd Stewart]

I wouldn't do anything to change your riding, that hooking feeling you get is the board doing what it was built to do. The hard part is getting used to the feeling of letting the board do most of the work; the harder part is getting the board actually do it when you want it to. Basically you've got the second part down, iI guess you can say you have found the sweet spot of the board. In the past I've heard people refer to it as canting (not like the binding angles thing) but I believe it has evolved into a term called drifting. It will take awile to get used to the feeling of linking them together but I think it is well worth it.

I agree with fleeman in that you do not want to use one leg only, this will result in your back leg doing all the work then the front leg just steering the board. It really limits the boards performance.

[philfell]

If you do try the rear foot only drill in about ten feet of riding you'll realize that it's a bad idea, really bad idea.

To help find your balance try to do jumping turns. Do a turn like you would normally ride, but when you transition from edge to edge jump. The goal is to jump evenly off of both feet and to land on the new edge with even pressure on both feet in a carve. When you can link carve down a steep slope going cleanly from edge to edge you know you've found your center.

Remember powering your snowboard is a lower body skill, so keep you upper body out of it.