Upper body direction when sliding rails/boxes

you are overthinking easy stuff. take off with the rail between your legs once the tips of your boots are almost over the kicker while looking at the end of the rail. dont get concerned with every muscle in your body.

I don't think the upper body position is as important as how you set your legs. This is the part I suck at and it's bc I keep my legs too close when I hit rails make sure to spread them wider than a box and bend your knees a little.

ezavi'm a beginner in the park, and i've been learning to slide boxes on a summer setup for the past month or so. i seem to have it down pretty well, so i wanna move on to sliding rails. for some mental prep, i watched a few videos for rails vs boxes and there seems to be some disagreement about whether or not to point your shoulders/upper body down the length of the feature. the way i learned it is to face down the feature with both my head and my shoulders with my arms out to the side, and now i'm starting to think that i learned it the wrong way. what do you guys recommend?

Turning your entire upper body down the rail will actually put your weight back and make it more difficult. Just turn your head, you need your down hill shoulder to stay over your down hill ski to keep your weight going in the right direction.

Don't overthink it too much. Just try it and you'll what feels right to you.

When I started out I used to have my whole body inline with my skis but it meant I over-rotated and always came off the rail in switch. Now I try to turn my shoulders halfway between parallel with my skis and parallel with the rail, this way I can rotated at the end to chose how I come off.

Lock your shoulders completely sideways but look at the end of the rail. I couldn't consistently slide rails til I started doing this. Obv once you get the hang of it you can start fucking around with it but to start I'd def say sideways but look at the end. Good luck!

jackcropper25I don't think the upper body position is as important as how you set your legs. This is the part I suck at and it's bc I keep my legs too close when I hit rails make sure to spread them wider than a box and bend your knees a little.

I 100% disagree. If anything upper body position is more important.

oxicleanI 100% disagree. If anything upper body position is more important.

Why's that

How I like to think of it is if you want to exit the rail forward then look forward too the end of the rail. If you want to land switch look at the space between your skis. So no you weren't learning it the wrong way, just one of two ways. These separate techniques come in handy when learning front and blind spins out of rails.
As for upper body position don't worry about it too much where ever you look your body will follow but yes if your trying to exit forward your shoulders will naturally twist in the direction your looking.

What you should be worrying more about is your foot pressure and stance. Boxes are much easier and slide differently compared to rails and you can get away with poor stance and balance on a box but not so much on a rail. When sliding a rail you want your body to be at a 90 degree angle your skis should be about shoulder length apart to create a lower center of gravity and you want to put more pressure on your front foot. It's natural to want to put most of your weight on your back foot but when sliding a rail you want to do the opposite. Think of it like dropping into a quarter on a skateboard. Putting weight on your front foot is the key to not eating shit every attempt.

GOOD LUCK!!!