The path of the lateral line: middle of the sole, outer ankle, outside of the leg and thigh, trunk, near the ear

# Hands flailing in snowboard short turns? Forget the hands; watch your side compress and extend Swinging hands in short turns easily lead to runaway speed. 西西: watch the lateral line down your side compress and extend. Then toeside, heelside and head. - URL: https://www.ykhokkaido.com/en/blog/carving-lab-08-short-turn-hands - Published: 2026-11-10 - Section: Technique - Series: Carving Lab (part 8) --- In short turns, many people's hands swing wildly back and forth. 西西's view is that the problem is not the hands. This is Part 8 of Carving Lab. First, a plain-language explanation of the "lateral line" that readers have asked about; then a round-up of what 西西 has said about short turns. This post is for you if you: - don't know where to put your hands in short turns, and start flailing as soon as you speed up - find your short turns running away with you, with speed you can't rein in - have come across the term "lateral line" and didn't understand it What follows is 西西's practice notes, not an official JSBA standard. 西西 has also noted that the part about the head is a feel from practice and may not be right. ## The lateral line: one line down the side of your body When 西西 posted on this topic on Threads, one reader replied that the explanation made it even harder to follow, and another asked whether 西西 had coined the term. 西西's answer: 側表鏈 (the Chinese term 西西 uses; literally "side surface chain") is what human anatomy and fascia theory call the lateral myofascial line, known in English as the lateral line. In plain terms: think of the side of your body as one connected line. According to the Anatomy Trains website, this line starts at the middle of the sole, wraps around the outer ankle, runs up the outside of the lower leg and thigh, crosses the trunk in a basket-weave pattern, and ends at the skull near the ear. The idea comes from Thomas Myers's book *Anatomy Trains*. So "compression" means this line along the side of your body shortens and curls up; "extension" means it lengthens and opens out. In short turns, this is what 西西 wants you to watch, not your hands. Two caveats. First, this is a body model proposed by Myers to describe how muscles and fascia work together; we have not found any experimental evidence for it in snowboarding. Second, applying it to short turns is 西西's use of it, not what Myers originally meant.

The path of the lateral line, based on the written description on the Anatomy Trains website. An editorial sketch, not an anatomical diagram.

**Key point**: the lateral line is one connected line along the side of your body, from foot to ear. In short turns, watch it, not your hands. ## Why it is the line that moves, not the hands As 西西 puts it, a short turn looks like the hands swinging, but what really changes is the lateral line.

Extending the lateral line releases the body's internal force, and that is what controls how much the board skids.
西西

西西 sets one precondition: during the edge change, the body is curled up. Only when it is curled up is there room left to extend. Then you extend into the toeside edge, and extend into the heelside edge. Look at it the other way round. Big hand swings without this compression and extension give you the situation described earlier: almost no pressure and no skidding to control speed the whole way down, so the board easily runs away with you. **Key point**: curl up first, so there is room to extend; the extension is what controls the skid. ## A short turn is, at heart, falling downhill 西西 stresses one basic point to get clear first: at heart, a short turn is falling down the hill. So the rhythm of short turns is naturally much faster than that of long turns, and they take much more internal effort. In 西西's account, when carving on steep slopes, medium turns are the most tiring, then short turns, then long turns. That is 西西's feel, not a measurement. For more on steep slopes, see [Part 6](/en/blog/carving-lab-06-steep-slope-carving/). ## 西西's other account: closing the armpits, and the head In a separate teaching note, 西西 described the same problem differently. We include both here, because they are the same person's notes from different times; we don't merge them into a single set of cues. **Closing the armpits.** Where you need to apply pressure, close the gap under your left armpit; switch sides, and close the gap under your right. It looks like the hands are swinging, but this is what the upper body actually feels. 西西 says the hands are not decoration; they are the switch for the rhythm of pressure. **No butt sticking out on the toeside.** The ankles need to fold to some degree: the shins press down and the boot tongues flex. Once the ankles bend, the butt tucks in by itself. 西西 says toeside pressure in JSBA Level 1 short turns follows the same logic: quickly fold, in order, the back ankle, the back knee and the front hip joint, and the pressure goes straight to the toeside edge, controlling your speed. This is 西西's understanding, not textbook wording. **The head.** 西西 marks this as a feel from practice that may not be right. Entering the turn, especially on the heelside, the head reaches slightly toward the direction of travel and the weight goes onto the front foot, so the board turns faster and more precisely. At the instant of the edge change, the head has a feeling of being drawn slightly upward, similar to what Chinese martial arts call *xū líng dǐng jìn* (roughly, the crown of the head held lightly lifted): the body's centre of mass rises slightly anyway, the head goes with that rise, the lower body uses the board's flex to finish the edge change, and the upper body ends up in a reverse-bow (angulated) position by itself. ## Who this post is not for - Riders who can't yet carve linked turns consistently: read [stalled edge changes and edge angle](/en/blog/carving-lab-05-edge-angle-and-transition/) first. - Anyone looking for a fixed hand position or a standard angle: 西西 didn't give one, and this post won't make one up. To have an instructor look at your short turns on snow, see the Snowboard Progression Lesson on the [courses page](/en/courses/). For 西西's qualifications, see [西西's profile](/en/instructors/xixi/). The previous part covered [the upper and lower arcs of a turn](/en/blog/carving-lab-07-turn-shape-upper-arc/); the next covers [the five elements of carving fundamentals](/en/blog/carving-lab-09-carving-fundamentals-five-elements/).

This post draws on 西西's Threads posts and teaching notes. The path of the lateral line is cited from the Anatomy Trains website (as described in Thomas Myers's Anatomy Trains); the application is 西西's. These are 西西's practice notes, not an official JSBA standard, and not a safety guarantee.

## FAQ ### What is the "lateral line" 西西 talks about? 西西's term for the lateral myofascial line (Lateral Line) in Thomas Myers's Anatomy Trains. The Anatomy Trains site says it runs from mid-sole around the outer ankle, up the outer leg and thigh, basket-weaves across the trunk and ends at the skull near the ear. A body model, not a snowboard term. ### What should you do with your hands in snowboard short turns? 西西 has two separate accounts. One: don't focus on the hands; watch the side of your body compress and extend. The other: when applying pressure, close the gap under each armpit in turn; the hands act as the switch for the pressure rhythm. Both are 西西's personal practice notes, not a general rule. ### Why are short turns faster and more tiring than long turns? In 西西's words, a short turn is at heart falling downhill, so its rhythm is much faster than a long turn's and it takes much more internal effort. Carving a steep slope, 西西 finds medium turns the most tiring, then short, then long. That is 西西's personal observation, not a measurement. ### What happens if your hands flail around in short turns? 西西 says anyone who has actually practised it knows: ride like that and the board easily runs away with you, because the whole way down there is almost no pressure and no skidding to control your speed. ## Sources - https://www.threads.com/@ryokan_ijuin/post/DcFCBKLko4v - https://watch.anatomytrains.com/the-lateral-line