Spinning with your legs vs. spinning with your upperbody...

RufioSwashbuckle

Hello there. Earlier tonight I decided to strap my boots onto my old board and take that to the tampoline to try and give me a more realistic feeling while doing tricks. Obviously, given the large surface area of the board, I wasnt planning on getting much pop with it. But thats another story. Anyways, when I was going for 3's and 5's I couldn't do them at all, and I can do a fair amount of stuff on a trampoline. I felt as if I had to spin the board around with my legs, which I have noticed is not what our pro riders are doing. Given the fact that they keep their legs stationary for the most part, with a few exceptions (9's and such). Ive only done one 3 on the water, so thats not enough to have it engraved in my memory. So down to my question...am I right to be spinning the board around with my legs as well as my upper body, or should I work more on spinning my upper body and pretend that my legs dont even exist, assuming that they will follow me around? Sorry so long, Im just trying to be as specific as possible, so I know how to go about it when I take to the water. Peace.

Jim M · Wakeboarder.com Freak Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 2933

It sounds like tramp boarding has skewed your reality-- kind of like when you are sitting on your couch thinking about how confident you are going to be trying new tricks 'on the water' Laughing

No I wouldn't rely on your legs to get your through any rotation. They should follow. If you try to lead with your legs, you will be 'hucking' and will most definitely lose your balance/control. Your center of gravity is your hips. Thats why its common to pull the handle to your hips- so you can initiate the rotation and still maintain good balance and control. The only instance I could think where you would need to use your legs would be to compensate on a landing.

lostsparrow · Posted: Feb 17, 2006 2:54 pm Post subject:

Yeah, i used to spin my 3's on the water with my legs. Took me 2 years to finally land one. Then i practiced using my hips and pulling on the rope to spin on my tramp. Next time out, I stuck 4 3's in a row. I'm not exactly sure if that's how you're supposed to do it, but i noticed that it REALLY helped me keep balanced in the air. When using my legs, i always ended up landing on the heelside edge of my board and my butt always ended up in the water. So, i would suggest pulling the rope to your hip and using that to get your spin.

Iukekini · Newbie Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Posts: 36 City: Portland

I noticed the same thing when I took my board onto the tramp, you can really spin fast by whipping your legs around, but you don't want to use your legs to spin. You should initiate your spin by pulling the handle with both hands to your rear hip, assuming your doing fs 3s. If you really focus on pulling the handle it will really help you with your spins, well it helped me out anyways.

RufioSwashbuckle · Posted: Feb 17, 2006 3:35 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the input. When I first tried to spin I was just like "whoa, this is not going exactly how I planned it!!" Of course I didnt expect it to perfectly emulate the on the water experience, but I certainly didnt expect it to be that far off either!!

kmccabe9500 · Newbie Joined: 13 Feb 2006 Posts: 18 City: Bettendorf

doing 3's on a snowboard you use your upper body and throw yourself into the rotation....wakeboarding you want to use the rope to rotate your body,,,,,if you throw yourself only bad things will happen.....keep the rope tight when your in the air and dont start your rotation too early or you wont get the pop of the wake you are looking for....bring the handle around to the small of your back and get your handle pass down,,...from this point you will most likely get your rotation down and have a nice landing.

all2matt · Criminal Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 64 City: coralville

spinning on the tramp compared to water can be reall y different if you do it wrong. On the tramp I try to jump away from the handle to create the tension part then push the handle down and back to create the rotation part. Donot jump and spin off the tramp that is cheating and will get you no where. its greta for getting used to spotting landing and air awareness on 5s and 7s but thats it. once your able to get thta awareness eyes open slow motion effect on basic spinning then add the handle and start to work you way towards spiining w/ tension at the top of your jump and on the eway down. Good Luck bro

longlakerider16 · Newbie Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 City: Sudbury

enough about this tramp crap...you spin 360s 540s, 720s and all spins with your rope...if u keep the rope tite and pass to the small of your back you will allways get a perfect rotation as long as you get the rope to your opposit hand and you keep ur knees nice a tucked in the air

peace