Carving technique. Body Inclination
If you imagine a plan view of a snowboarder the board will look like a minus, shoulder position at which this association is still right is called "Minus". And if a snowboarder turns shoulders to 90 ° towards the leading leg then in a plan view the rider will look like a “Plus”. Shoulder position "half-plus" - is none other than the position of shoulders in the basic position.
"Minus" stance
The "minus" position is usually strange at first because you should turn your head and look the same direction as your leading shoulder but this strange feeling is the right one. Most carvers in pursuit of "closeness" to the snow in the frontside try to reach out snow with their back hand. This leads to turn in their shoulders into Plus and in raising their leading hand up from the slope – such body position breaks the turn too soon and carves turned out to be asymmetrical and all this result in wrong start of a backside.
You should reach for the slope with your leading hand, it will help you to turn fully your shoulder and to finish the turn in ‘Minus’.
‘Minus’ position is the necessary deflection of the basic position when using body rotation. To unweight the board you have to return to basic position from this one; that will give impulse for edge transfer.
"Plus" stance
The "plus" position is a little more complicated. You have to do turn in sequence starting from your knee, then your hip and after that your shoulder. Always try to think about your leading knee: it should be bent, directed forward and it should start the turn first. Try to turn your hips as well, the easiest way to do it is to control the position of your knees. For instance, your leading knee is always directed forward and if you try to turn forward your back knee too then you will not be able to stick out your bottom physically.
You should also control the weight distribution between both legs because turn to the leading leg leads to the fact that it is loaded more than another reflexively.
Experiment, compensate overload of the nose of the board with bending your back knee or with shifting your pelvis back along the board. It is also helps when you look up on the slope (reflex) or if it is too difficult then you can always shift both of your bindings back. :) In ‘Plus’ the leading hand is placed on the leading thigh inside the turn and the back hand rests on the front of the back leg’s thigh and ‘stretches’ forward actively for forearm.
‘Plus’ position is also the necessary deflection of the basic position. By twisting shoulders in the end of the turn you will be able to create extra motion and after quick return to the basic position you unweight the board and transfer the edge easily.
Remember about timing!
There is one small but very important moment – there is no need to start the turn with twisting to the Plus from the very beginning. This can lead to overload of the leading leg. At trainings ‘making plus’ means that on backside the shoulders of trainee don’t follow the path of the board in turn and slowly they form the ‘Minus’ position. Actually you need to have clear ‘Plus’ position only right before the change of the edge.
