The body mechancs for a side slide are pretty simple. To slide to the left, for instance, drop your left elbow and your left knee. To slide to the right, of course, do the oposite. It's worth spending time practicing on the ground to develop muscle memory before you get in the air. It takes a little practice to learn how much of each input (lower body and upper body) to use and you'll probably see your side slide attempts superimposed with a bit of a turn at the beginning, but in no time you'll be side sliding all over the air.
This can pretty much go for whatever direction you want to go..
- Forward is making the front small and the back big "tracking for example" - Backward is making the front big "hands out in front" and the back small "legs on your butt" - Sidesliding left make your left side small and your right side big - Sidesliding right make your right side small and your left side big "sticking a little left side out will tilt you or slide you to the right" Just make sure what you expose to the wind is even on the top and bottom half of your body or you will turn instead of slide.
I hope I explained it in a way that you understand..
Rhino
Blue Skies and Smooth Rides!!
PhreeZone (D License)
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Feb 18, 2002, 10:28 AM
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For good clean side slides you don't want to move from the neutral Boxman position. You want to Drop only one side of your body while maintaining the same bode position. Forward motion works by droping your front and inducing an angle of attack to the body postion. Same with back slideing. The body is at an angle to the relitave wind and is moved due to that angle. A side slide is just tilting the body to the side while remaining in a neutral position to allow an ease of picking up or maintaining grips on block or piece moves.
If you strech out to move to the side, you have to realter your body position to take or maintain grips and that presents problems on fast moves.
Cause I don't wanna come back down from this cloud... ~ Bush
How do you drop one side of your body without changing body position? Any explanation consistent with Newton's 3rd law would suffice.
<<For good clean side slides you don't want to move from the neutral Boxman position. You want to Drop only one side of your body while maintaining the same bode position.>>
PhreeZone (D License)
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Feb 18, 2002, 3:15 PM
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John, What I was refering to is you don't want to pll everything in on one side to dip that side down. You need to stay in a nice stable box position with your knee, hip and Sholder droped. I've done side slides and with some practice its just like starting a roll and holding it.
Basic Body Flight has some great CG animations of how to do it.
Cause I don't wanna come back down from this cloud... ~ Bush
So...when I initiate a turn, I dip a shoulder. (I'm a pretty good turner ) Does that mean side slides would need a similar movement, but with the whole side of the body, not just the shoulder?
PhreeZone (D License)
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Feb 18, 2002, 8:02 PM
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Just becasue most of us are used to making most movements with our hands and upper body the upper body tends to lead. For this reason I suggest that you try to lead with the knee or hip. If you lead with the shoulder you will likely start a turn and not just side slide but rather slide and turn. Have someone lay base for you.
The simplest and most efficient side sliding technique I have seen and use is simply to turn your chest. Stand in front of a mirror and arch. Now, while keeping your hips and shoulders stationary, turn just your chest/torso section to one side. By turning your chest, you are bringing one side of your chest lower than the other, and the air coming up at you will spill off to the higher side, causing a side slide. Turn jsut your chest the other directiont to counter it. All the above suggestions work, but they can also reduce your stability a bit and also affect your fall rate control. Just practice turning your torso/chest (even if just a small degree, it;ll make a difference) while keeping your shoulders square and your hips level, do it enough on the ground infront of a mirror and you'll see and feel how it should be, and then it will be second nature in the air. Hope that helps.
When I want to do a serious side slide I will throw my entire body in it. I'll literally drop the entire one side of my body, elbow, shoulder, torso, hip, knee. I don't know if this is good form, but I use this technique on combat RW dives that're going bad. When I need to move sideways NOW, I'll do this. The danger with this technique is that it's not that different from the start of a barrel-roll. If you over-do it, you're on your back. I imagine there are other critisisms of this technique...
A slower side slide that I use while turning points is just to rotate my torso Try and keep your hips and elbows stable, rotating your chest a few degrees off center. This is fine for all but the most extreme side slides.
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If you are doing RW, Mantis is alot more better position to be in, in that case you want to side slide with the l(assumeing a leftward side slide) you lead with the left arm like you were doing a counter clock wise turn, then at the same time with a left leg turn, result a quick side slide that keeps you very stable and there is no dipping of you body or any other thing that throws you out of balance.
I've been trying to work on side slides too ... so read all this with interest ... I tried this one tho ... "while keeping your hips and shoulders stationary, turn just your chest/torso section to one side" ... can't do it at all!! ... don't know if I'm just to old and stiff or what, but I tested myself against a wall just to see ... if I turn my torso even just a little ... the hips rotate too ... can keep the shoulders in place tho
It's a very slight movement, not a huge turn, just enough to create an unsymmetrical plane to cause the air to bleed off on either side. Another suggestion, try doing it while sitting on a chair. Sit upright, with your back off the chair back, and try it that way. By sitting down, the weight of yoru body will keep your hips from moving and you only have to focus on your shoulders staying still. Good luck.
I'll weigh in on this cause there is some interesting responses on this. in 4way, you need to stay balanced, hips and shoulders always in the same plane, dipping a shoulder, tipping your torso will result in a turn/side slide, BUT, you will also increase your fall rate, and give yourself an unbalanced position, you shoud maintaing a hips down, shoulders up and square position., press with an arm and the same leg to slide (of course counter that movemement to stop). torso remains square, all movment is in the shoulder and hip joints.
) Does that mean side slides would need a similar movement, but with the whole side of the body, not just the shoulder? 
