Keeping your Eye on the Ball
May 27, 2010 No Comments
There are a group of muscles that separate good surfers from great surfers, so what are they?
The core muscles of your abdomen? Your hip flexors/extensors? The posterior muscles of your shoulder girdle? ….Well, yes, strength in these muscle groups will be very useful to those surfers amongst our readers, but we need to think much smaller when considering a strong surfing technique. The answer is right next to (not under) your nose! It’s your eyes and the grouping of muscles that control them!
“Ok, Dr Chris has officially lost the plot” you say?… Never!… Your eyes, or more specifically what you are looking at will help to project where you are headed on a wave. A great surfing technique will incorporate “sighting” in order to initiate, carry out and recover from turns. In fact, many of the worlds greatest athletes will use “sighting” to help them reach the pinnacle of their chosen sport. If you have ever watched slow motion footage of the classy tennis great Roger Federer, you will notice as he watches the ball directly onto his racquet and then continues to keep is eye on the ball as it sails over the net for a winner. Cricket coaches will drill into their batsmen “Keep your eye on the ball!”. The premise is to use your eyes to lead your movements.
In a surfing situation, by looking where you want to be heading, your body and board will follow. So let’s give you an example and a step-by-step thought process, because we all know it is easier that way. 
Let’s consider a basic surfing maneuver, the backside bottom turn into an off-the-lip top turn. This move is fundamental to stringing combinations together and ensuring you can continue to position yourself in the critical part of the wave. There are three basic parts to it, and you’re going to use your eyes in each:
- As you paddle for the wave and make the drop, immediately look down the line to see how the wave is breaking. Once this quick assessment is made, look five to six feet ahead and look for a good section for a bottom turn. HINT: watch how the waves are breaking prior to paddling into the line-up, this way before you even start paddling for the wave you know which way it’s going and where you are about to be directing your attention.
- As you go into your bottom turn you should already be looking towards the next section (ie the top of the wave, or even the mid-section if you’re charging at larger breaks)(figure 1). This is the critical part of the turn and looking where you want your body and your board to go, will help you get there. HINT: because you will basically be looking over your shoulder at this point, allow that left shoulder (regular footers) to drop in towards the face, this will draw your hips, knees, ankles and ultimately your board to turn that way.
- As you approach the top of your turn start to think and look towards the bottom of the wave, the next place you are headed! (figure 2). HINT: much like a game of pool/billiards, the key to stringing together turns is to constantly be thinking a step or two ahead, ie “when i get to the top, how am I going to position myself to get to my next destination?”
Now, start the process over again if you like!
So next time you’re in the water try using your eyes to get where you wanna be. 
Happy Living/Surfing!
Dr Christopher Hodgetts is a chiropractor at Hillarys Chiropractic, Perth Western Australia. Read more…
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