Kitefoiling Tacks - Heel to Toe - It's All In The Hips

Part 2 in our series on Kitefoiling Tacks and it’s time for the Heel to Toe Tack. This is probably the easiest tack for most people to start with and one where you get push hard throughout even break your foil out of the water without crashing. We’ve already discussed the kite movement in other tacking videos, we’ve played around with the magic bar twist for the Toe to Heel tack so here, in this video, it's all about the body movement.
What can we learn when we combine John Travolta dance moves with secret tips hidden in an Adam Sandler movie! It’s no gimmick but a great way to remember this videos key element that will help you get your body into the correct position so you can stay balanced over the foil throughout the Heel to Toe tack.
As always I have some beach drills that can help you build up your muscle memory. Both to reduce your crashes but also help you to spot why you are crashing and make the right changes on your next attempt.
00:00 - Introduction
01:36 - Kite Movement Still Vital
01:56 - Overall Body Position
02:39 - It’s All In The Hips
03:25 - Hips Forwards
04:37 - Hips Towards The Nose
06:03 - Beach Drills
Links to videos and helpful resources mentioned in this video:
* Kitefoiling 360 Video: • Toe to Heel Tack - One...
* Surfboard/Foiling Tacks: progression.me/b/kitesurf-tack
* Kitefoil Tacks - Where to start: progression.me/b/kitefoiling-...
For those of you not quite ready to start tacking, check out our other kitefoiling instructional videos:
www.progression.me/kitefoiling

[@kiteboardingart2416]

Probably one of the best explanation of this complex move....

[@physmichaeltsui]

Practising the beach drills whenever i was queuing for restaurant, or in the metro 😜 finally did some proper tacks! thanks for the awesome tips Rob

[@genki007]

Mahalo! From Hawaii. lol never thought I would be learning kitefoiling tips from someone in the UK since I have surfed my whole life. But, kitefoiling is a different animal.

[@lomsi1]

Fantastic! The tip I have been waiting for! Can't wait to give it a try. Thanks Rob

[@vinifons]

Great! More to practice here during lockdowns in Brazil! Thank you!

[@user-pv1ti8un7h]

great.... see 20times again...and thanks for my toe2heel tac.

[@progressionsports]

Repetition works! Watch it twenty times and then try 20 tacks in a row!

[@user-pv1ti8un7h]

​@@progressionsportsI can do h2t tac& heel 360 😁"12oclock, carve, push hip, pull bar" U R teaching is amaging.👍

[@spaciouscircle]

thanks, very useful video!

[@danielschamann]

Thanks!!

[@progressionsports]

My pleasure, hope it helped

[@danielschamann]

The funny thing is manage to do the tack because you remember the John Travolta tip!! 😂😂😂

[@progressionsports]

It works!!!! Well done mate

[@filippoi.4138]

amazing viedo! and you really look alike Adam Sandler 😂

[@charlesthommen5386]

Great video. When are you going to launch the push tack video, would be super helpful too.

[@progressionsports]

I've started releasing some Push Tack tips on my personal Instagram channel - the last part will be out today. I will try and pull them all together and put them out here on KZbin too, but no ETA for that yet. Check out the IG Push tack tips here: instagram.com/robclaisse

[@charlesthommen5386]

@@progressionsports Hello Rob, thank you for your return. Of course I saw your Instagram posts regarding the Push Tack tips, thank you for that. Let's wait for the complete video. have a nice one

[@ArthurKite]

Awesome video, brow. Any tips to do it on both ways? I’m a goofy rider and I’m having trouble to get it on my unnatural base.

[@progressionsports]

So a year ago I was exactly the same. Had it sorted on my strong stance but so hit and miss on my weak side. It was actually learning it on my weak side that helped me come up with the technique in this video. I found that when I really exaggerated the hips in and forward movement, on my weak side, my hit rate went up massively (whereas on my strong side I seemed to be able to do everything wrong now and still get around, my muscle memory is so strong). I still have to think a bit more on my weak side but can do it consistently now but I really do just focus on this hip technique. Also, review your kite movement on your weak side, it maybe you are not quite bringing the kite up to 12 or not sheeting right out, things that you do intuitively on your strong side.

[@progressionsports]

Also practice it alot on your weak side. Every session I spend a short period where I work on my Heel to Toe and Toe to Heel tacks on my weak side - quite often the first couple are a bit shakey but they improve with time. I had to really force myself to do this initially as I knew I'd crash more and they'd feel awkward but do 50 in a row and they start to get better :-D (I'm not kidding on doing 50 in a row, I'll literally do them back to back, riding no more than 20m between attempts).

[@ArthurKite]

@@progressionsports thank you so much for answering this with that amount of detail. Have an amazing day

[@glidejunkie]

I notice that with this hip movement you manage to keep weight aligned with the axis of the foil and a little forward while leaning shoulders back. I learnt these tacks with this slightly different other technique kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZi2k36onMSgfac and looking under my front armpit (holding bar with both hands) to keep body vertically aligned with the mast. Now that I am making one-handed faster tacks I tend to use more your hip movement. But whenever I see I may not make it all the way around, I resource to look under the armpit and rotate torso, for a quick turn around and complete the tack. I see how the "hip tack" delivers a more stylish and continuous carve. Initially I only managed to make my first tacks when I started looking under my arm. I see that when people trying to learn tacks lean backwards they tend to make a kind of back roll where the board turns around them.

[@progressionsports]

The MacKiteboarding video is great and definitely shows a slightly different technique with both hands on the bar. Personally I've always found two hands on the bar difficult for tacking as I get confused with which hand is required to pull! But when coaching 1:1 we do use both techniques, depending on the student, I'm not sure if one way is typically more popular than the other, pretty even across our students. And looking at the MacKite video I say they are effectively doing the same thing regarding hip movement but it's just less obviously. You definitely don't need to go into the carve super aggressively, though your foil will have some impact on this, a big wing like they are probably using allows you to do this slower pivoty turn, as your foil gets smaller or you have a foil with less yaw you'll need a bit more speed, a bit more of a carve. Also kite size and how powered up you are will effect the turn. I do get a bit worried when I make these quicker KZbin videos because I can't cover all the situations and give a bigger picture view of the whole trick, I so do know people may think I am saying that this is the definite answer and all you need to know. Definitely not the case, and great to hear other options and techniques. When I do make a proper Progression tacking video it will be far more thorough in all the options :-D I hope the big take away from my video where you are going in slow or faster, is that pushing your hips in and forward will always help, because you always need to get your weight forward - no one ever gets too much weight forward during a tack ;-)

[@glidejunkie]

Thank you for your answer

[@robertrecco710]

Can you practice this move on a twin tip board and is there a video on a twin tip

[@progressionsports]

You can but its hard and not quite the same - as twintip will stop pretty quickly when you lose forward momentum so its more of a turn on the spot. With a foil we have that efficient that means we can glide upwind with little or no power from the kite, so that fundamentally changes the kite and body movements.

[@inthefuns]

True- I tried and doesn’t really prepare you for the foil tack

[@TheFabricOfReality]

This move just doesn’t compute I really got to figure this one out

[@lukeroman2445]

who mixed the ausio on this.. ims at 90% sound and cant hear the guy.. every other video i watch is blasting audio... please bost/normalize your audio

[@progressionsports]

I did ;-) Any specific point in the video? I've just listen to it back through and the levels seem pretty even through out at -12db - I do try and even it all out to that level for all my videos. For me its a good level at about 50% volume. Let me know any specific points where it changes and I'll take a look again. Cheers