Stance Problems....

[jengifur]

A friend of mine was riding behind my boat this weekend.. It was her first time riding this year, and she only got to go twice last summer. She has some serious posture issues on the board. She rides kinda hunched over and her rear sticking out. It's giving her crazy balance problems. Sometimes she can get outside the wake, but she'll always fall trying to get back in the wake. I had another friend along with me who's a pretty good rider, and we were trying to give her some tips to correct her stance and posture, but nothing was clicking with her. Any advice you can think of??

[Hanneyk55]

It sounds like your friend has the same problem i did when i started. Easy to fix really. To fix the problem you have to know what exactly she is doing wrong. Of what you said it sounds like she has her front leg locked and she is letting the rope pull her over too much. I know a lot of people say stand with a little more weight on your rear foot but i really ride with an even amount of weight distrubuted on both fett. So she will want to stand up straight even though at first she may feel unstable. This way she has no choise but to keep her rear close to her body. Comming inside the wake now will be much easier. You really want to have your legs looe and obsorb the wake.(unless your trying to jump) I hope this helps and if you want a more indeapth explination email me at Hanneyk55@sbcglobal.net
~Kyle

[MinnDizzyG]

jengifur,
If she's very new, it could be that she's not used to the fact that on a wakeboard, you are actually travelling sideways. I know it sounds stupid and it seems so obvious to us, but seriously - it's a fundamental a lot of newbies just don't get on a biokinetic level. A lot of the newbs in my boat keep unconsciously trying to face to boat. Of course, they don't actually (or they'd faceplant) but it's more like a "tendency"- they fight what the board wants to do naturally. If they're courageous enough, letting go with their back hand can really help this and drive home the "direction of travel" concept. If not, tell them to look out at the shore instead of down at the water. It's like dribbling a soccer ball - you have to trust that the wakeboard and the water aren't going to get up and run away on you when you're not looking at them.

Another thing people have trouble with early on is balance - the board feels so greasy compared to skis or (gasp!) a kneeboard. If you hammer home the idea that the board is most stable when on it's rails that may help. Words like banking, leaning, and edging can be good for describing this to new boarders.

Disclaimer: I'm not a coach and I'm not even a very good boarder. Take this stuff with a grain of salt.

Hey, good luck and let us know how it goes![/b]

[jengifur]

Thanks for the advice guys! I've tried to get her to let go of her back hand.. but it only works while she has her back hand off the handle. She should be used to "going sideways" because she can kick my butt on a snowboard. Oh well, practice makes perfect

[simland]

Definately more practice, I'm surprised that she snowboards and still has a problem with keeping sideways. It actually sounds like me when I am riding switch. My guess is a problem with weighting. Tell her to bend her front knee even more and to keep her head up.

[aceyx]

try and get her to pull the handle in towards her. when i first started out my arms got weak really quickly and i would just hold on with my arms all the way out.

not that you can't ride like that, but it sounds like she's trying to counteract the boat pulling her by hunching over. if she's got the rope closer to her and the water, it'll make her knees bend to get her balance again.


take pictures of you riding and her riding and show her the difference. visual aids help greatly.