Potato chipping

[SpeedRacer 1]

On the "gear & rigging" forum someone mentioned "potato chipping", which I assumed to mean pitching up & down while in freefall. But the poster said that their instructor sez that chipping is not due to an insufficient arch, but front-back assymmetry, meaning, that either the legs and arms are pushed too far out.
If that is true, then how do you do forward movement? When you move forward (Not tracking, just a controlled forward movement) you are supposed to bring your arms in and straighten your legs. But sometimes when I do that, I start potato chipping. So how do you move forward without chipping??
-Speed Racer

[Craig 0]

Relax! Potato chipping happens because when you are tense and fighting the air it does not spill around you evenly. Thus, when the air is spilling around the tense body, if spills at different places at different times. That is why there is the rocking motion. At least this is always what I was told. I had a chipping problem for about 3 jumps off of student status. When I quit thinking about it, and let the air "mold" myself into a relaxed arch, it stopped.
Craig

[diver123 0]

Me too! On my level 5 jump the first time the JM let me go, I geeked out a little and tensed up. Chipped like a mofo! Allz ya gots ta do is chill out brotha...
"pull high! It's lower than you think..."

[Cacophony 0]

Hey speedracer, maybe when you are trying to move forward and backwards you are de-arching© This does cause potato-chipping as well as being tense© I know for a fact that not having your hips pushed forward will cause this© That could be the problem© Remember, arch with your hips, not your chest©
Safe landings,
Alex C-30872

[Iflyme 0]

Quote

Hey speedracer, maybe when you are trying to move forward and backwards you are de-arching© This does cause potato-chipping as well as being tense© I know for a fact that not having your hips pushed forward will cause this© That could be the problem© Remember, arch with your hips, not your chest©

Alex - I'm curious - what's the deal with the little "copyright" sign at the end of each of your sentences?
Frank

[OmriMon 0]

i thought about it too, my guess is that's his trademark, like this dude andy i think that uses ,,,, instead of.....
Free Skies,
Omri

[Craig 0]

I am not sure, but I think it has something to do with the character set he is using. He would probibally see them as periods. Just a guess.
Craig

[Cacophony 0]

What are you guys talking about? I do see periods© Am I missing out on something here? Or are you talking about Safe landings, Alex C-30872?
Safe landings,
Alex C-30872

[flyboy62000 0]

Alex,
The characters you see as periods show up to me and some others as a copyright symbol. I don't know why this is, though. Probably the character set you are using, as Craig said, is different from ours. Maybe someone else could shed more light on why this is.
Blue Skies,
Adam

[Cacophony 0]

I am using the standard browser fonts© Nothing different here© Thats weird© Oh well© Godspeed guys!
Safe landings,
Alex C-30872

[MC208B 0]

I was a chipper for quite some time. Found that looking at the horizon stopped it.

[blazingcannon 0]

Quote

Relax! Potato chipping happens because when you are tense and fighting the air it does not spill around you evenly. Thus, when the air is spilling around the tense body, if spills at different places at different times. That is why there is the rocking motion. At least this is always what I was told. I had a chipping problem for about 3 jumps off of student status. When I quit thinking about it, and let the air "mold" myself into a relaxed arch, it stopped.
Craig

A similar potato-chip type thing happens when your legs are tense when learning headdown too.
I was trying ot keep my legs really wide, so I tensed them up. Well gosh darnit, didn't I just take off in a real funny unpredictable way all over the sky, back and forth and stuff.
As soon as I learned to relax, I started going straighter down. : )

"Spread your legs and fly"

[freeflyanvil 0]

>A similar potato-chip type thing happens when your legs are tense when learning >headdown too.
>I was trying ot keep my legs really wide, so I tensed them up. Well gosh darnit, didn't I >just take off in a real funny unpredictable way all over the sky, back and forth and >stuff.
>As soon as I learned to relax, I started going straighter down. : )
This is very true. I have that problem sometimes because I jump with a bunch of floaty biiaaatch's-so I'm trying to fly with my legs REALLY wide-this makes me tense up some and do some funny shit. When I jump with other fat ass's, I'm just chillin' and I fly waayyy better. I'm not extremely flexible (I was when I was younger from martial arts) so I went out and bought a leg stretching machine (Hurley). Way better than the flex master.

Vid
"stons fal, evrysing fals, but doesnt on purpos change its flite pas an positioning..."

[riddler 0]

Relaxing solves 90% of my problems too.

But I also had a Pringles Problem while tracking, and got the best advice from a tandem guy in California City. He said most of the time it's a problem with legs not being extended enough. He said to push both legs down three times - think, one, two, three, as you are extending your legs further each time. I did this and it worked. No more tracking problems.

This might work for you. I had problems with legs during AFF (honestly, I still do), so I think it was related. If you've had leg problems, it might be the answer for you.

Cheers to Soko in Cal City for the good advice.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD