Keep from sitting down?

[CrazyDave]

How do I keep from sitting down when landing off jumps? I think I'm doing something(s) wrong on my take off because 3/4 of the time I feel very unstable in the air and when I land I ride it out about 5 feet and than fall back on my ass. Every 4th or 5th jump I hit feels pretty smooth though. I typically hit everything fast enough to clear the table. I want to start throwing in grabs but not knowing what to expect coming off every jump is really messing with my head.

Which direction should I be leaning coming off the jump? front, back, neutral?

Should I be standing upright, tucked way down or somewhere in between?

Maybe these sound like stupid questions, but this season is the first time I've tried to do tricks and I have no other background when it comes to this stuff and no one else to watch or ride with that knows what they're doing.

Maybe I should come to Mt. Creek for a lesson...

[J.D.]

You should bejust forward of neutral neutral, but it might FEEL like you're leaning way further forward. Remember you're landing on a downslope and you're trying to be parallel with it.

[Greco]

dave,

definitely come to mt. creek. you'll learn more in two days then you'll learn all season....some of the best park riders in the country will be there.

-g

[865rolla]

JD is right. this is a technically extended version of what he said, so you won't have any questions.

in this particular situation... you aren't leaning forward enough. if you are landing on a slope, you will probably want to lean forward as much as possible.

if you slide out backwards, its cuz youre not leaning forward enough. if you slide out sideways, its because either you pushed your feet sideways or your weight landed too much on one side (usually the outside of the boards, shoving them away). if you fall forward, you aren't sitting back enough.

as for landing and jumping positions... it should feel like a squat... similar to the position your body is in while getting out of a chair before you fully extend your knees. this will absorb the shock better & it looks & feels better.

it'd probably help if you held your feet up while in the air... this makes it feel a little more stable because your body is all together. also makes it easier to land right because you have less leveredge acting on your body.

overall, think of how your boards land on the slopes... they should be parallel to your landing at all times, your body weight should be perpendicular to the slope at all times.

good luck. just tuck up, and lean as necessary.

as for grabs, jump, pull your legs up and arms down until they meet a good resting middle point, grab, hold, let go, land.

the biggest thing that held me back when learning to spin is that I wanted to torque and twist as hard as i could, this often times causes the loss of control, and usually doesn't spin that much faster. i find it most easy to control to just jump high & spin slow. jump & rotate with your shoulders while watching with your head... just turn...

hope this helps.

[Gargantula]

Originally posted by 865rolla

the biggest thing that held me back when learning to spin is that I wanted to torque and twist as hard as i could, this often times causes the loss of control, and usually doesn't spin that much faster. i find it most easy to control to just jump high & spin slow. jump & rotate with your shoulders while watching with your head... just turn...

hope this helps.

Another thing I noticed to spin is to move your upper body first and don't forget to move you lower body (hips) with your abs to continue to spin and slightly tuck in your legs (depending on your style).

This idea might seem stupid and you might look stupid trying it but it helps; jump up and spin in place to practice spinning in the air. Remember that when you skiboard you have to lean forward while spinning unlike when you spin while jumping on a level floor. Start with your arms out and and then tuck as you complete the spinning with your upper body. This will allow you to spin like crazy. Timing is key for all movements and when you are about ready to land open up your arms to slow down. You can pull off 720s and even 1080s with this method. Please make sure that while you are doing this that you are level with the ground and not falling forward or backwards (unless you are trying to flip) because you can get hurt when your spinning so fast because it's hard to know which way you are facing. You just gotta get used to it. Start with 180s then work to 360s and so on. That's how I started.

Before you try a spin it is a good idea to go off the jump at the speed you are going to hit it at without spinning to check timing and height. This is to see if you can squeeze a 720 or not. Landing sideways is not pretty unless you go straight into a hockey stop (that's fun :p ).

Go here (http://www.sbol.ws/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1262) for a full guide.