To help keep your back straighter while snowboarding, particularly when aiming for a straight glide, focus on aligning your shoulders with your direction of travel.
Based on the provided reference regarding making your snowboard go straight:
Posture for Straight Gliding
When you want your snowboard to go straight, aligning your body helps direct the board's movement.
- Toeside: The reference states, "Help your board go straight. And then shoulders facing the top to commit to your toes." By facing your shoulders towards the top of the slope (the direction of travel), your torso naturally squares up over the board. This aligned posture encourages your upper back to be straighter compared to being twisted sideways.
- Heelside: The reference notes, "Again when you want to go onto your heels now I gotta turn my shoulders to the side again." Turning your shoulders sideways is necessary for initiating and controlling turns on your heelside, which involves rotating your torso rather than maintaining a strictly "straight back" in the same way as when gliding straight toeside.
Practical Application
Focusing on shoulder alignment is a key technique:
- Gliding Straight Toeside: Square your shoulders to face downhill (or slightly towards the top of the slope, as mentioned in the reference) to align your body with the board's direction. This helps promote a straighter, more balanced posture.
- Turning: Allow your shoulders and upper body to rotate as needed for carving and changing direction. While this involves twisting, maintaining a generally upright core helps with balance and control throughout all movements.
By consciously aligning your shoulders with your intended direction, especially when aiming for a straight line on your toeside, you naturally encourage a more upright and straighter back posture, contributing to stability and control.
