Butt to high

[edge04 0]

My AFF instructor says I am sticking my butt ti high in the air when free falling. He's giving me some good tips on how to get me to arch better....push the bush, lift my knees as well as some floor excersies. Just wondering if anyone here also has some tips or tricks I can use to help with this. One thing we noticed was that my legs are pretty far apart and that it is easier to arch when cloer together. My guess is that I am so use to wide stances for wakeboarding, surfing and snowboarding that it is just habit and I need to work on breaking it. Thanks

[theonlyski 3]

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My AFF instructor says I am sticking my butt ti high in the air when free falling. He's giving me some good tips on how to get me to arch better....push the bush, lift my knees as well as some floor excersies. Just wondering if anyone here also has some tips or tricks I can use to help with this. One thing we noticed was that my legs are pretty far apart and that it is easier to arch when cloer together. My guess is that I am so use to wide stances for wakeboarding, surfing and snowboarding that it is just habit and I need to work on breaking it. Thanks

Yes, your legs being too wide will make your arch not as deep. Bad habits are hard to break... I'm working on it as well! (though, I can keep up with most groups I jump with without having to arch much)

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[rehmwa 2]

you can't arch effectively with a really wide stance - the hip joint isn't designed to do that

legs too wide will also really screw with your manuverability later on when you want to be faster and crisper. It's much more important when you're learning mantis later - not so much during AFF (unless it's screwing up your basic arch)

I have students do entire tunnel drills/sessions with their legs actually touching the whole time to learn to break that bad habit. The speed and smoothness of the airflow around your body provides stability, wider is NOT better. In fact wide makes the airflow choppy. On the ground, a wide stance keeps us from falling down. So it's understandable when students (and experienced people - a lot more than you might expect) react to discomfort by spreading way out. But in the air, actually just relaxing smoothly and letting the wind do its work (by giving it a clean path to follow around your body) is better.

shoulder width, or even slightly less seems to be ideal


but, honestly? you have an AFF instructor working with you - and for your initial learning, sometimes a slightly wider stance helps certain students 'feel' more comfy. you should just work with your instructor and get through initial education. Your hands on instructor knows best.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[outski 0]

not arch with whole your body [like keep legs/amrs up with theirs muscles - talking about in the air] but only press lower part of spine down till the pain of muscles in that part
practise maybe on the chair/bench not floor

for wide legs - maybe, similar what Bill wrote, thinking of keeping them together will result in keeping them close

but i'm not AFF instructor and don't know what for student works best; better talk any tip from here over with your instructor before you'll decide to use in the air both now and in x00 jumps

[chuckakers 370]

Don't arch with your back. Arch with your pelvis and relax your back.

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[riggerrob 561]

Arching is really about RELAXING.

Relax most of the muscle son the front of your body and apply light tension to a few muscles on the back of your spine.

When you are doing a good arch, you can feel your breath flowing in and out of your lungs, you can feel the wind stretching your chest muscles, you can feel the wind stretching your hip flexor muscles and your lower legs are blowing - relaxed - in the wind.

Arching only requires significant muscle during the first few seconds after exit. Once your belly is pointed into the wind, you can start to relax. Start relaxing with your nostrils, then wiggle your finger, then wiggle your toes, then wiggle the big muscles in your shoulders, etc.

In the long run, a good arch only requires a little tension in neck muscles (to point your eyes towards the horizon) and a little tension in your knee/thigh muscles to slightly extend your lower legs.

Why does that sound like a yoga work-out?
Hah!
Hah!

[sundevil777 94]

Even your avatar has everyone that I can see clearly in that pic with a rather wide stance. We've disagreed about this before, whenever I see pics of the best in the world at RW, they are definitely not doing anything close to a 'knee touching drills' stance. Perhaps you could post some examples, I've attached (again) a typical one that shows a wide stance.

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legs too wide will also really screw with your manuverability later on when you want to be faster and crisper.

I can't understand that at all.

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The speed and smoothness of the airflow around your body provides stability, wider is NOT better. In fact wide makes the airflow choppy.

I can't understand that at all. I haven't yet tried to intentionally change my old habits, I admit that I should give it a try, but I think advocating knee touching drills to be going too far, when you say about shoulder width is right.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[rehmwa 2]

avatar - I'm Green, both red and green had agreements to give each other legs together signals because our turns were crap unless we had a narrow stance - it was a standing joke. White had a very wide stance and wouldn't correct it - she swirled out on any center point turn. Blue did correct his stance is now one of the most rock solid divers at our DZ.

wide knees cups your pelvis and the air hits a dearch flat spot instead of flowing about cleanly - stand in your office and just do it and look at the curve or lack of curve between your hip bones

try a leg turn with really wide legs and then try it narrow

Take a student with super wide legs and give them an arch signal - then, get their legs closer and give an arch signal - see what works better to get their junk low

we're talking about a student likely exageratingly wide that their butt lifts naturally - teaching you see it even more on females than males - more on oldtimers than newbies

if you want to rehash it, let's take it to a new thread - hell, I'm just a stranger on the site. Ask a pro or a tunnel coach about it.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[rehmwa 2]

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I think advocating knee touching drills to be going too far, when you say about shoulder width is right.

as you wish - I do that to instill the thought, frankly, when many 'think' they are touching, they are usually still separated by over 3 inches (just under shoulder width). I don't want them leaving the tunnel and flying touching, just more aware of how much the wide stance is giving them grief. In tunnel camps, this has been very effective in every single student I've trained to date (10 years now).

the point is, this aids getting the junk low - which is critical. if you can achieve that via great flexibility, or whatever - more power to ya.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[jumpsalot-2 2]

"Fxck the Wall".....Place you toes a foot away from your favorite wall. Spread your feet about a foot apart. Get on your toes, bend your pelvis out and lean on the wall touching "ONLY" your sex tool. Bring your shoulders away from the wall about a foot. Only your sex tool should be touching............Do the same thing in the sky.

Life is short ... jump often.

[MorfiusX 0]

A (British) friend of mine told me when I first started "Pretend you are getting you d*ck sucked through the letter slot in a door".

[pyrotech 0]

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A (British) friend of mine told me when I first started "Pretend you are getting you d*ck sucked through the letter slot in a door".

LMAO! I was just told "put your dick in the dirt." I like your version better.

[deltron80 0]

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My AFF instructor says I am sticking my butt ti high in the air when free falling. He's giving me some good tips on how to get me to arch better....push the bush, lift my knees as well as some floor excersies. Just wondering if anyone here also has some tips or tricks I can use to help with this. One thing we noticed was that my legs are pretty far apart and that it is easier to arch when cloer together. My guess is that I am so use to wide stances for wakeboarding, surfing and snowboarding that it is just habit and I need to work on breaking it. Thanks

tip that stuck with me since AFF:

"FUCK THE WORLD"

[Plover 0]

Once again the moderators here have chosen to delete a bunch of perfectly innocent messages. So now it's time for some payback once again. Tsk tsk. It's too bad they continue this program of self-induced punishment. It would be so easy if they just left those innocent messages alone, and public. But, when they fucka wit me, I fucka wit them. So here we go again.