Had first lesson + video, any tips for flexibility?

[Blackvans1234]

Took my first surf lesson, surf was small. Surf coach let me try his 6'6 epoxy which is what you see me riding.
Instead of burning the awful and embarrassing film I decided to upload it for the internet to judge

Goals after this session/seeing myself on film
Posture:
1) Don't bend at waist, bend at knees and keep chest up
2) Bend back knee inward/towards nose of board and not outward --- contributing to poo stance
3) Use front arm to guide cutback towards foam (made progress in this department already immediately, see picture
4) Keep on the wave as long as possible (duration and flow)
5) get low for cutbacks

To be honest I think my issue is leg/hip flexibility. I don't understand how people can bend their knees inwards to such an extreme degree, especially the rear knee. Ive been watching videos and trying to increase flexibility at home. I feel quite a large pressure on difference parts of my knee when I do this, and to be honest it seems like a perfect way to tear a ligament in my knee, wtf?

Anyways, hoping someone can chime in with some advice!

[dtc]

First thoughts

- your analysis is pretty spot on!

- a lot of the issues are from bending at the hips and facing sideways. If you bend at the hips then try to force your knees in, it hurts! If you bend at the knees and look forward (ie turn your hips forward), your back knee comes in automatically. Dont think your back foot needs to be flat on the board - look at top surfers, their back foot is often just touching through the side of the foot or the ball of the foot, or jammed up against the footpad at an angle. Your front foot perhaps could come straighter a bit, more towards 1 oclock. Its not terrible at the moment but its more at 2 o'clock

(actually this video auto played after yours - see the guy around 2.35 - 2.50 and look at his back foot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMmtNewLjUM

- sticking your bum out means you have to stick your head out to balance, and then the board is just wiggling underneath you as you try to maintain balance, rather than everything being stacked on top of each other. It also means its really hard to look forward, you have to also look sideways otherwise you are screwing your neck around. Second wave was much better in this regard

- have a look at this article https://medium.com/@boostyoursurf/easy- ... 5c507ae307

- you are pretty jerky in movements - your upper and lower body dont seem to be totally in sync - its almost like you are focusing on moving your upper body, but then go 'oh, yeah, lower body as well' . this is probably just because you were focusing on your upper body! So it will fix itself with more practice.

Knees dont really have flexibility, its the ankles and hips. Improving ankles can be hard, they have very strong thick tendons (eg achilles) more than muscle. Hips stretches you can find easily on the internet or through yoga and can be worth doing. What has really helped me is doing 2 x 20 sets of Cossack squats every morning, it loosens up the hips wonderfully (random vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpczTeSkHz0
)

[Blackvans1234]

First thoughts

- your analysis is pretty spot on!

- a lot of the issues are from bending at the hips and facing sideways. If you bend at the hips then try to force your knees in, it hurts! If you bend at the knees and look forward (ie turn your hips forward), your back knee comes in automatically. Dont think your back foot needs to be flat on the board - look at top surfers, their back foot is often just touching through the side of the foot or the ball of the foot, or jammed up against the footpad at an angle. Your front foot perhaps could come straighter a bit, more towards 1 oclock. Its not terrible at the moment but its more at 2 o'clock

(actually this video auto played after yours - see the guy around 2.35 - 2.50 and look at his back foot

)

- sticking your bum out means you have to stick your head out to balance, and then the board is just wiggling underneath you as you try to maintain balance, rather than everything being stacked on top of each other. It also means its really hard to look forward, you have to also look sideways otherwise you are screwing your neck around. Second wave was much better in this regard

- have a look at this article https://medium.com/@boostyoursurf/easy- ... 5c507ae307

- you are pretty jerky in movements - your upper and lower body dont seem to be totally in sync - its almost like you are focusing on moving your upper body, but then go 'oh, yeah, lower body as well' . this is probably just because you were focusing on your upper body! So it will fix itself with more practice.

Knees dont really have flexibility, its the ankles and hips. Improving ankles can be hard, they have very strong thick tendons (eg achilles) more than muscle. Hips stretches you can find easily on the internet or through yoga and can be worth doing. What has really helped me is doing 2 x 20 sets of Cossack squats every morning, it loosens up the hips wonderfully (random vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpczTeSkHz0 )

Thanks for the info, definitely going to have to work on hip flexibility. I cant do a flat footed squat without having to hold onto something.



Short clip from second lesson, upper body seemed a little more smooth during cutback (admittedly on 7'2 instead of 6'6)
Knee still major problem (to be honest wasn't the main focus during this second session, upper body and looking down the line was main focus).

Ive seen videos where the rear foot (toes) are pointing slightly forward (towards nose), perpendicular, and even slightly backward (towards tail), the angles were extremely slight however. I'm fairly certain my foot is pointing backward (towards tail) and forces the knee outwards.

I guess what I need to re-learn is how to apply my weight to the back foot when my knee is pointed inwards. Bending makes my heel want to lift up. Alas, I'm out of the water until saturday evening/sunday.

This thread is going to be the chronicle of my back knee progress.

[waikikikichan]

First, I think it is not right that you ask "others" for their opinions WHILE you have a personal surf coach. Like they say "too many cooks spoil the pot". You should be reviewing the video with him and let him make it possible for you to gain better technique in which way he feels is right for you.

Please by all means don't tell him " well I heard on the forum that if I do this " or someone told me "I need to that more".

That said, I don't want to give you any tips, but do want to correct your train of thought about "flexibility and your back knee". THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR FLEXIBILITY OR YOUR BACK KNEE. Your bottom turn up the face in the first video proves you already have the flexibility and power to set the rail hard and drive the board up the face. You just don't have the dexterity, technique, patience and open mind to perform your turns competently.

Go back to the first video and look at one thing the whole time. Just one thing ........ your front right hand. It's stiff, it's bracing off an invisible wall, it's not leading, and worst it's paddling when you're already standing.

You are not using the front hand to steer and drive. It being used more to balance and not fall down. You are reaching out with your hand while having a hinged back, which then creates a broken power body line, not due
to flexibility. Try grasping a hammer with your full might trying to smash the grip and swing the hammer. No wrist movement. So does that mean you should do flexibility exercises for you wrist ? No, you need to relax your grip and the let the hammer weight swing thru. Same with your surfboard. You are plenty powerful and flexible, you just don't know how to swing it.

[oldmansurfer]

Balance is about moving your weight around and the main control of that is your hips. Your head arms and shoulders also help out but by themselves not too useful. I always work at hip exercises (leg raises and squats) but I also do exercises to help my balance and stretch out . Standing up I do large circular hip movements like I am doing a hula hoop. I also do circular knee movements so standing I move my knees around in circles if I were to look down my knees would circle around my feet. This helps knee flexibility and ankle strength and flexibility. Then I also do something like dtc cossack squats. I take a wide stance and then drop my weight down and move my weight over one foot and then the other without going back up. I allow my feet to move slightly as needed but concentrate on bringing the knee on the opposite side I am carrying weight on toward the ground while keeping my foot on the floor. I also twist my upper body toward the side I am putting my weight on. What you want is to be able to quickly move your weight around so that is moving your hips around while keeping your feet planted unless you are longboarding then a lot of it involves moving around on the board but still it's quicker to move your weight without moving your feet so if it can be accomplished without moving your feet there is less wasted time.