Snowboard Instructor Says Never Open Your Shoulders: Is That Right? Opening the Shoulders and Counter-Rotation

KAKU says many students run into this as they progress. A previous instructor told them again and again never to open the shoulders or hips: open them and it’s wrong. Then a new instructor wants them open. So they start to wonder whether they learned it wrong.

This is Part 6 of Snowboarding: Your First Week, and it covers one thing only: why different instructors give opposite instructions for the same movement.

This post is for you if:

• an instructor has told you “don’t open your shoulders”, or that counter-rotation is wrong
• after changing instructors, you’re being asked for the opposite of what you were taught
• you keep running into arguments that “riding like that is wrong” and have started checking yourself constantly

What follows is principal KAKU’s personal view, compiled from KAKU’s Threads posts. It is not an official JSBA position.

You didn’t learn it wrong; the system is different

KAKU has passed on the reasons those instructors give: opening the shoulders and hips drives rotation and makes you unstable. In a November 2025 post, KAKU’s answer was: you didn’t learn it wrong. For many techniques, different systems have different requirements.

So KAKU would like instructors who ban opening the shoulders and hips to tell students plainly: this is what our system requires. It doesn’t mean this is the only way to ride, and it doesn’t mean other systems require the same.

Riding is free by nature. Only technique systems put limits on movement.

KAKU

In December of the same year, many students asked KAKU, “Coach, am I riding this right?” KAKU’s answer was always the same sentence:

There is no "right or wrong" in riding, only "what fits".

KAKU

KAKU gave two reasons.

First, technique simply differs between systems, and between terrain and snow conditions. KAKU’s examples: judging powder riding by carving standards and holding beginners to racing technique are both unfair. Each system has its own style and logic. None ranks above another; the only question is which one suits the situation at hand.

Second, the most important thing in riding is enjoying it. Not everyone has to chase perfect technique; if you just want to cruise easily, you don’t need to be bound by “standard movements”. KAKU ended that post this way: bring riding back to fun. Ride on eggshells, auditing yourself all the time, and there’s no fun left in it.

By KAKU’s account, it isn’t necessarily the case that either your previous instructor or your current one is wrong. They may simply be asking within different systems, for different purposes.

Key point: being told not to open your shoulders is that system’s requirement, not the only rule of riding.

Opening the shoulders and counter-rotation: two movements often called “wrong”

KAKU singles out two of the movements most often called wrong.

Opening the shoulders. KAKU’s view is that in an open stance, opening the shoulders is a natural starting point. If you want to move into carving or freestyle later, opening the shoulders is in fact a necessary step.

西西’s notes on the JSBA B-level instructor exam also include an example where opening the shoulders is a deliberate step. In the Fall Slide, when changing from the toe edge to the heel edge, you first turn the open basic stance into a closed one, then slowly open the shoulders, and your weight comes back naturally from the toe side to the board’s centre line. These are 西西’s personal notes, not JSBA’s official scoring sheet; the full notes are in B-level instructor exam notes (in Chinese). For how the hips open in carving, see Carving Lab, Part 10.

Counter-rotation. KAKU thinks that for beginners, counter-rotation is an effective way to brake: it helps control speed and keeps you from turning too far. It is an important transitional technique.

The Chinese term for counter-rotation, 反擰, corresponds to the Japanese カウンターローテーション (kauntā rōtēshon, “counter-rotation”); that pairing is the one 西西 uses in teaching notes. The JSBA glossary describes it as twisting the upper body in the direction opposite to the board’s rotation, as a way to control how the board turns.

Behind both examples is the same line:

Technique is, in the end, a tool.

KAKU

What KAKU means: choose the tool that fits the stage you’re at, the terrain you’re on and the experience you’re after.

Key point: if you want to head towards carving or freestyle, opening the shoulders is a necessary step; counter-rotation is a transitional technique beginners use to control speed. Both depend on your stage and your goal.

When you’re asked for a movement, what to ask

In another post about teaching, from October 2026, KAKU suggested students ask one more question: “What is this cue training? When does it not apply?” KAKU would also like instructors to add one more explanation: what the movement’s conditions, costs and limits are.

Putting the two posts together, the editors distilled three questions. The first is our own inference from “different systems”; the other two are KAKU’s words.

The point of asking is to know the scope of the requirement. Then, when you change instructor or system, you don’t have to treat the previous approach as wrong, or the new one as the only standard in riding. Why cues are worth asking about was covered in the previous part: a cue is a prompt, not the technique itself.

Key point: asking “which system, what does it train, when doesn’t it apply” is more useful than asking “is it right?”

Who this post is not for

• If you want a single answer to whether opening the shoulders is right: KAKU’s view is that there isn’t one, and this post doesn’t give one.
• If you’re preparing for a particular test: a test follows that system’s standards, so go by the organiser’s official announcements.

What each system emphasises is in Snowboard instructor systems compared; the trade-offs between a duck stance and a forward stance are in Carving Lab, Part 11.

SnowWind’s snowboard Beginner Lesson suits complete beginners and riders who can’t yet make consistent linked turns; the Snowboard Progression Lesson requires that you can already make stable linked turns. Content and prices are on the courses page. KAKU’s qualifications are on the principal’s profile. The previous part was what to learn after linking turns.

This post is compiled from KAKU's Threads posts of 3 November 2025, 15 December 2025 and 13 October 2026; the example of opening the shoulders in the exam comes from 西西's Threads post of 17 January 2026. The original post says "our xxx system" without naming the system, and this post does not fill in a name for it; the emoji and rhetorical questions in the original posts have been removed. The Japanese equivalent of 反擰 comes from 西西's teaching notes, and the explanation of カウンターローテーション follows the JSBA glossary. KAKU's and 西西's views are personal positions, not official JSBA positions.