078 705 23 97
6.1.2 Use your knees to steer
You can control your turns more directly using your knees. We use the torsion of the snowboard for this. This is nothing new and is also done in a more passive way in the basic turns. So there's a good chance that you're already using your knees. The only new thing is that we are now actively forcing the torsion in order to be able to make more aggressive turns.
What is the torsional flex of a snowboard?
The torsional flex of a snowboard indicates how well it can be twisted along its longitudinal axis. If you stand on the snowboard and slightly turn your upper body, then your hips can force this torsion. Stand slightly with bent knees. The force is transferred to the snowboard via the highback or straps. This movement twists your snowboard, which helps to initiate turns and force faster edge changes.
How do I use my knees to steer?
Start off relaxed and try to activate the pressure via the front foot. For frontside turns, push your knee down over your toes and for backside turns, push your highback back via your calves. With a slight twist of the hips, you have the optimum leverage to transfer the power to the snowboard. If you were to do the same thing directly via the ankle, this could lead to overloading your muscles.
How can I change the edge even faster?
You can turn even faster by taking the weight off the snowboard during the edge change. When you let slide the snowboard underneath your body, you can also turn it in more aggressively. This takes some practice and sometimes it helps to consciously concentrate on the feedback from the snowboard.
Should the weight always be on the front foot?
Once you get a feel for initiating over the front foot, there is a risk that you will start to ride the whole turn over the front foot. This can be fun, but it is better to feel the weight during the turn along the side-cut of the snowboard. At the end of the turn, the weight is therefore slightly on the back foot.
More dynamics with unweighted turns.
To make more dynamic turns let's take a look in high and low unweighted turns 6.1.3 Release pressure
Next steps
Check your skill
Following skills are required to be ready for the next module.
Most popular courses
Browse through our most popular courses now to learn to snowboard even more easily.
Private lessons for
The following slots can be booked spontaneously for the selected date!
