Arcs
R otation for Slides pg 2
Slide Arc- itecture
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Torque or early rotation
Torquing rotation is what I call a windup and sudden hard twist into the direction of the slide. This produces an early rotation, since the board leads or goes at the same time as the shoulder rotation, unlike the twist. It is a strong and fast rotation that also produces an over rotation at least half the time. I could have mentioned torquing rotation first, as I think it's the technique that a skater would naturally think of to pull off a slide. It's also the most common rotation I see longboard skateboarders using in slides, even pros on videotape. I wish to downplay and de-emphasize the technique, because I believe skaters use it because they don't know what else can be done to get rotation. My whole way of thinking about these sports, as you know if you've read my other articles, is that what is natural or intuitive is often very sloppy technique, or is the hardest way to get it done. You could say the easiest way is really the hardest way. It takes some thought to work out the best way to do a maneuver, then it takes lots of practice to perfect a hard and non-intuitive technique. Even harder, it may be terrifying or just psychologically very difficult to do the exact opposite of what you instinctively want to do, to perfect the technique that is ultimately going to be the best. Some skaters can never get over this wall of wanting to do what their instinct tells them to do, despite knowing that it's wrong. Nothing seems easier than slamming your shoulders into it to get that board around 180 or 360 degrees. But the fact is the control you give up isn't worth the "easiness" of torquing.
Having said some words against torquing, I have to say that I use it all the time. It's really fun, for one thing, to give that big board a firm backhand torque and send it around. I use it when I need a lot of force, like sliding up a bank, or in a slide to lipslide when I'm trying to force the wheels over a curb or coping. A good cranking torque isn't that hard to control once some rotation is already established such as in the middle of a 360.
There's a time and place to torque, but it's less often than you think. A downhill or any critical slide where you need to be in control is where you want to minimize the hard torquing, and that's where most skaters go ahead and throw it anyway. A good short term goal for Slide Arc- itecture is to downplay the torquing and learn the harder twist techniques for basic 180 and 90 slides. When I connect slides in the Chains sequel to this feature, I use twist into 360 slides for consistency and torque out of them for power and fun.
One point I might make is that it's ok to torque, but at least know that you are torquing and don't waffle it. What I mean is, sometimes I see a slide and it's torqued, but the skater didn't wind up much, he just threw it out of nowhere. So it's not really a torque and not really a twist. It's lazy, is what it is. If you're going to torque, wind up first. Draw your arm and shoulder firmly back, and build up some tension. It'll make a lot of difference, and you can ease up on your torquing and still make it. The wind up is key, and it makes an obvious, clear separation from the twist setup. When you know these two types of rotation, you'll have a clear choice and can fit it to the situation, and avoid waffling.
Using range of motion for leverage
I have to make up for lack of youth and strength, so I try to do technical things that give me an edge. I look for leverage if I can get it. I stretch out so I can get more out of the beginning and end of every motion. I look to increase the range of motion: if another skater winds up a little to torque a slide, I'll wind up a lot. I twist way into my twist slide so I'll have plenty of room to untwist out of it. My theory is to see how a trick is done, then see if there's any way I can wind up more or follow through more to give me a little edge. Then I can hold energy in reserve, and when I have a trick working, I let loose right at the critical moment and see what happens. Usually the results are good. Control allows me the option of adding explosive effort. Usually I don't, because I go for consistency. But for 10% of my practice, I go for power. A torque slide is a good place to go for power. I use it going up a bank or ramp or over an object or rough spot.
Backside torque slide
In this section I only show the backside torque slide, which is the most useful. I seldom use the frontside torque, but I may add it if I think of it on a shoot.
I skate on a slight arc to toeside to set up the slide. The curve I skate on comes across the hill, so actually the slide is not going to go straight down the fall line, or straight downhill line. I'm going to have to push the board slightly uphill to get it to slide. In comparison to the twist slides, it makes sense. With the twist, I use the gravity pull of the hill to help get me into the slide. I let gravity do its work and use the twist to gently control the slide. With the torque, I'm going to use force, so I'd rather push the slide uphill. That way there's less chance of over rotating. I suggest you try to skate my same path across the hill when torquing, and head more downhill when twisting.
My right arm cues the wind up. I place my arm across my body, and press my shoulder slightly but firmly to the left. I'm going to make an explosive motion to the right in just a second.
In this frame I go into my backhand twist, only unlike the twist backhand, this is a sudden, hard twist. I lead with my right thumb and send my shoulders around hard enough to snap the board into a slide.
The board goes against gravity and comes around fast, but in control, since it's travelling uphill in an arc, scraping off speed. Slides are all about speed control, and making a round shape that goes uphill across the fall line and not downhill with the fall line is the best speed control. Once I've broken into the torque slide, I will always hold my twist longer than I would in a twist slide. Once a twist slide has broken the untwist starts. Once a torque slide has broken, I hold it while I'm following through and riding the slide.
The check or untwist is shown clearly here. I'm pressing my right shoulder leftwards, back into the rotation to check the slide.
The last move is another twist to the right. The feeling is kind of a recoil out of the check. In other words, I was pressing so hard to slow the slide, that my shoulders snapped back the other way. This whip action must be controlled or you can be thrown off balance. The whip is where most problems will happen in torque slides. You will come out of the slide out of control. It may not matter if you're planning on whipping a kickturn or another slide.
The snap recoil out of the check of the torque slide flows right into the kickturn. This is a good preparation exercise for connecting slides. Try to string a slide and kickturn right together, with no additional preparation in between. The ending check of the slide is the windup for the kickturn. The two turns are linked and knitted together.
Counter twisting rotation
Counter twisting is the most advanced technique in concept, but it's not really that hard technically once you get the hang of it. It will seem very bizarre when you first try working on it. Counter twisting means the shoulders rotate in the opposite direction of the rotation of the board. You could think of it as your legs push the board around one way and your shoulders push the other way. It's the technique that is the least intuitive, and I think the least likely that a skater would just think of naturally and practice. But skateboarders use it all the time, they just don't do it with the range of motion they could. Most skaters wouldn't wind up a full twist and then pull the shoulders back to break into a slide with a counter rotation, but they would shoulder rotate against a slide that they had broken into, or they would "square off" their shoulders into a slide to stop their board. It's a subtle distinction, or maybe it's just everyday skating technique that I exaggerate to get leverage.
Counter rotating is a very, very controlled way to begin a slide, and is almost too in control, or perhaps too slow to set up, for many situations, where a little roughness is ok and what you need is to react quickly to the situation. It is great for certain finesse connected slides, like fishtails. It's used all the time in the second half of slides which connect two 180s, like the 360s and pendulums. I have one basic 90 slide that I almost always counter rotate into. In my opinion it is the way to break into a four wheel slide. That has more to do with weight transfer which will be explained later. All the slides mentioned in this paragraph will be shown later in this feature.
Counter rotation seems like a weird concept, since you start a turn by rotating your shoulders in the opposite way you're trying to get the board to go. In actuality, skateboarders use it all the time, since when you snap your shoulders back from a turn or check and the board goes the other way, you are counter rotating. Where it gets bizarre and difficult is trying to start a turn or slide dead out of a counter rotation. You probably will feel very uncomfortable trying this at first. If you can get the hang of it, it's really, really useful, because you can put counter rotations in the middle of slide sequences for a lot of power and control. Counter rotation is also a good way to slide if you're trying to get a lot of weight on the back of the board instead of on the front. You'd do this if you were going to ollie out of it, or for a four wheel.
Remember that counter rotation refers to the action of shoulder rotating against the slide direction, and is not to be confused with counter clockwise direction.
Managing effort
Difficult technique often has the effect of making moves look really effortless. Effort management is one technique that separates experts from intermediates. Intermediates always look like they're working too hard, because they throw their weight and muscle into every move, at the wrong time.
Preparation and windup
Do the work first, then relax into the maneuver
To make it look effortless, I do something hard but real subtle at the beginning, or preparation, so you don't see it, you only see the meat of the trick in the middle. In a way, I am trying to fool the viewer. I don't want them to see me work. The viewer wont look too hard at the windup, but they stare at the big move. It's a funny result of advanced technique that intermediates copying it get totally screwed up, because they looked too late. If you were to copy my counter rotation slide without understanding the preparation part, you might rotate the board the wrong way, or you might go the right way but under incredible strain.
When you do more work in the preparation you save big efforts for what I think is more important, fixing mistakes, or just going bigger in the maneuver. Effort management means minimum physical effort at the most critical time. Usually that means some hard, non-intuitive technique, done in preparation right before the juicy part of the maneuver. Then the juicy part is executed by relaxing that intense windup. It's a safer way to do a move, because that juicy part, the critical part, is also where something can go wrong. I don't want to be straining in the critical part. I want to be able to react if something goes wrong, and if I'm not straining, maybe I can fix a mistake in mid-movement. A good example of this is in the four wheel slide in the weighting section of this feature, where I relax before having to strain to extend the slide a bit longer. Better than fixing mistakes, if I'm skating well, I'll build up tension on the windup and absolutely uncork with major effort into a big power execution. If you can start doing this strategy, working first and relaxing when the going gets heavy, you'll make a big improvement. Maybe you'll get out of intermediatesville.
Preparation twist
Counter rotation has to happen out of a good windup preparation twist. There is absolutely no shoulder rotation force into the turn to help you. What does it is having your shoulders at least firmly set in place or preferably coming backwards, as a wall for your legs to press against and send the board around. This is an example of range of motion. I start the maneuver way twisted, so it's easier once I get the slide going.
Frontside counter rotation slide
The initiation of this slide happens in the first two frames so don't be fooled. In this frame I am just cruising straight, but I'm really twisted, with my right hand pressed way forward and my left hand pressing back. I try to wind up as much as I can stand it, and hold it while I skate on an arc. Then I just release into the counter rotation. That's what I mean about range of motion. I see other skaters do this slide, but they throw it out of a square stance. They strain more in the juicy part of the slide and I strain right before it. I think my way is more consistent, more accurate, and it's more versatile.
Here it looks like I'm twisting, but I've started to untwist and that gives me something to push against with my legs. With a bit of effort I can break the board into a slide. The board isn't going to fly around like in a torque slide, it's really in control. In fact, it may hang up if you're not careful. Later on in the weighting section there will be some tips on how to make it easier to free up the board to slide, while minimizing hangups.
Check
These frames show a check sequence pretty well. Checking means to slow the rotation, but it also is a way of pushing the board around a little bit further. Basically what you're doing is pushing your shoulders one way, which slows rotation, and pushing your hips the other, which gains a few more degrees around with the board. Counter rotation uses a lot of check, and in a way, the counter 180 is all check. Your hips push against the resistance set up by your shoulders.
Here I've untwisted and the stripe on my shirt is straight. The board is travelling sideways down the hill in a 90, and my body is squared off. The board is really in my control. I could snap it back the other way if I wanted to. That will be shown in a Slide Chains routine, in the fishtail slide. I could also four wheel slide it, since my body weight is off the front wheels. This time I just continue to push the board around, finishing up the 180.
I continue to press my shoulders right cw while the board goes left ccw. I bring my left arm in front of my body. I've now "switched arms," putting my left arm in the position my right arm was in at the beginning of the slide. Now my twist is going the other way, meaning my left shoulder is twisting toward my right leg. The shirt stripe points in the direction of the twist.
Now I've completed the check. I've gotten the board all the way around 180, plus a bit beyond to ride across the road. I've squared my shoulders off out of the right twist into a crusing stance, fakey.
As if counter slides weren't hard enough frontside, now here's one done backside. If that's not hard enough, I start it switch stance.
It's not that I'm trying to drive you nuts, it's part of a plan. Practicing this slide switch is laying the groundwork for Slide Chains or connected slides that are the next level up in Slide Arc- itecture, which is the way of putting Arcs together. When you do a 180, you're going to come out fakey. A twist frontside 180 slide leads right into a counter switch backside slide to come out of it. The body position is the same, so the two flow together. Starting the counter slide switch backside is no picnic, but it sets up that move down the road. So give it a shot.
Switch stance backside counter rotation slide
I start in the same semi crouch I always use for slides, only switch stance. For this slide, I have set my front foot a little farther forward, on the front truck. It makes it easier. In fact, you can try this first as a kickturn, then shift your weight back as you get it.
I go into my twist. I turn backwards, or to the left, winding up strongly. By now you should be getting the hang of the twist. The twist goes slowly, until there's almost enough pressure to make it a twist slide. But I don't break into it. I get to that point, then hold it. Note how I get the board going in a slight left arc, across the road. Now the work has been done and the stage is set to untwist into that counter slide.
This slide, like the twist backside, is done blind. It's possible to look over your shoulder to see. But I don't, I look backwards while setting up.
Here I've broken the board into a slide. I'm still twisted, but not nearly as strongly. The board has swung around and brought my shoulders around with it. To me, it feels strongly like I've rotated against the direction of the board. It may not look so much that way, because some of that rotation is absorbed by the board coming around.
At this point, I look over my left shoulder to see forward.
Now I let my upper body come out of the twist into a squared off position, with my shoulders parallel with the board. You might notice that my right arm never really moved. When you do a move that's only a half turn (180) and you use a lot of twist, it's possible to leave one arm or both in place. This helps the feeling of keeping the upper body quiet while the legs move the board.
I am now in my regular stance, only the tail is forward.
To end the move, I bring my arms forward and angle my shoulders across the board, and let go of the twist completely.
Contracting rotation
The fifth means of rotation is contraction, which I mention last because it really doesn't apply much to slides, it's more of a spinning or jumping technique. Contracting rotation means you get going in an arc, get some shoulder rotation and pull in your arms or even your legs to accelerate the arc rotation. Contraction is a difficult technique that is frustrating to learn because it is a very violent and rapid movement, yet must somehow be done without disturbing your balance or previous rotation. Contraction is a "clean" rotation because it usually is fast and even. You can see examples of contraction if you watch gymnastics, diving, or figure skating.
Contracting in skateboard rotation isn't done much, but it could be. In an air with a grab, you can pull in the other arm and get quite a bit of acceleration. Or you can hold the board close to the body. Or you can pull in slightly, and tuck your legs to get more contraction. Adapting contraction to skateboarding is probably going to be dirty, but it ought to work.
Contraction would work in a slide on a very smooth surface for rotation of at least 360, as a specialized trick, but is impractical for basic slides. Contraction as a rotation technique is outside the scope of this article, but I mention it because it's a technique that could be used in jumps once you learn the basic arc and shoulder rotation techniques.
