grrr toes down

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hamish1

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for some strange reason sometimes when i jump (on a horse lol) I point my toes down-i dont even realize Im doing it-its not all the time but quite alot. I practice jumping position alot when im cantering around and its all good then-just sometimes goes out the window when i actually jump-any tips?? :D
 
Hmmm... Some rhetorical questions for you to think about... especially as you obviously know how you should be as you can manage while cantering!

What is your body awareness level when jumping? As you go over a 1ft cross pole, are you aware of absolutely everything your body is doing, as you would be while say trotting? How about a 3ft spread? At what fence height does your brain start to lose awareness? Where abouts before or over the jump, or 6 or 1 stride before it, or when you land?
I'm not questioning your bravery here, its just that for some reason people often just go blank while jumping, and its the autopilot responses which are the hardest to change because they are muscle memory, rather than conscious decision about how to move and place one's body.. and it will take 10,000 repetitions to ingrain a new pattern as your default!!
It was a great breakthrough for me when I realised I felt like Dumbo going over jumps - ergo, THIGH ON!!

Do you know you are doing it, or is it because someone has told you? Have you seen yourself being filmed?
Is the problem, as I suspect, that your lower leg is sliding back too? If it stayed forward, its pretty hard to get your toes down, so maybe the problem is higher up in your body, if you see what I mean! Can you keep the angle behind your knee closed, as though if you had a tennis ball there, you could squash it. Can you close the angle of your hip down?
Think of toes UP rather than heels down, to not have feet scrunched up within our boots... - do you do this by any chance? Can you think about spreading your toes? Can you think about rotating your toes in, (and knees in) so that the back and side of your calf isn't gripping and pulling up your heels?
Do you have awareness about the point on your legs where you start to have less control over them - ie your thighs are good, knees good, but halfway down your calf, and therefore ankles and feet, they may as well belong to someone else?
The idea of "fold down like an ironing board" - so bum comes back and lower leg remains stable and forward sometimes helps.. (think that might be Pat Burgess).
I would say that building up from the point at which you have good awareness and body control is the key... so practice over the 1ft cross pole until you have awareness of how each toe feels inside your boots, where your bum stays, if you fold at the moment of take off and not before, if you sit up on landing. Grade yourself on awareness - ie if you are 10/10 while cantering around, but 6/10 jumping 1st time (0r 2/10 in my case!!), wait until you are a 9/10 before putting the fence up. Sorry if this is long -winded but I don't think there are quick fixes to the patterns our bodies get into - if it were as simple as someone shouting "HEELS DOWN!" at you, then you wouldn't be asking? Best tip would be to get someone to film you - then see if you can 'feel' the things you are clearly doing, or if they are a complete surprise to you. And then work on changing them!
Good luck and have fun.
 
wow thanks for the reply-i only realised i was doing it from some photos and i thought :eek: my lower leg position is awful. It's at the point where the horse is taking off and in the air when my toes are down-in pics when i land heels are down again. Pics were taken of me riding a horse that is getting to grips with jumping and does refuse alot so I was (sshh secretly) quite scared. Ive got a pic off me jumping another horse and my position is fine-so maybe its the fear taking over! like you say I think i need get a video of me jumping-to be honest it really made me think when you said "What is your body awareness level when jumping?" This is something Im definatly going to work on. thanks a million :)
 
hamish1 said:
wow thanks for the reply-i only realised i was doing it from some photos and i thought :eek: my lower leg position is awful. It's at the point where the horse is taking off and in the air when my toes are down-in pics when i land heels are down again. Pics were taken of me riding a horse that is getting to grips with jumping and does refuse alot so I was (sshh secretly) quite scared. Ive got a pic off me jumping another horse and my position is fine-so maybe its the fear taking over! like you say I think i need get a video of me jumping-to be honest it really made me think when you said "What is your body awareness level when jumping?" This is something Im definatly going to work on. thanks a million :)
Click to expand...

Glad you didn't think I was a crazed loony taking about body awareness... Just wanted to say that the majority of the advice I gave you was (in my rambling words though) Mary Wanless' approach to coaching - so if it makes sense to you, and you think you like the idea of having more awareness of your own biomechanics.... or if you want more info or tips, her books are great if a little scientific, but the way she teaches and coaches is amazing. I have regular lessons with one of her coaches (if you want a fabulous instructor... http://www.mary-wanless.com/Coachesuk.html ;)) and I have just done a 4 day course at Mary's yard in Gloucestershire - she's just as good coaching jumping as she is with flatwork. Yee haa! No, its not a cult or a different way of riding, just a different way of teaching it through analysis of the biomechanics involved. ie if a skill can be 'modelled', it can be learnt. Wait, I'm waffling on again.:o

However... (I have a point...) the influence of improving my flatwork, making my whole position and approach more stable, had a HUGE impact on the confidence I felt jumping. And I really felt like I was holding my horse into the fence with my thighs not my hands, giving him no escape! I'm going to be doing her basic teacher training course later on this year, as I feel so strongly about how her approach can really enable people to change their own riding, and there is so much I wish I had known as a child/teenager rather than discovering it now and trying to change all the bad habits I have.:rolleyes:

But yeah, definitely get videos or a mate to film you on their mobile. It works really well if you watch the clip of the jump immediately after going over it, so you can process the 2 - image plus feeling. Then go over again, and review the next clip... The other thing I wanted to say was about comfort zone, stretch zone, and panic zone, relating to your awareness and brain space. Don't try and improve in your panic zone - it doesn't work and you won't have brain space to know what your body is doing. Aim for somewhere between comfort and stretch! :eek: I also think your toes are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak - not that you are doing anything terrible, but that they are a little symptom of things going wrong higher up your body than your toes... If you want to be really brave, post a picture on here, maybe one of you feeling like your position is good, and one where your toes are misbehaving (or you can PM me if you like and I'll give you an honest opinion!! :) ) and then you could get lots more advice, and knowing how lovely people her can be, lots of compliments too! It's probably alot better than you think it is, its just that our eyes get drawn to the thing we think is awful and we don't see the good stuff! Sorry, I have waffled again. Curse of living alone with alot of cats and horses for company:o
 
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