What can cause back foot pressure?

[Bobski30]

Any ideas on reducing back foot pressure on long tacks?? Ride larger gear in flat water and enjoy traveling long distances but have to take breaks because of fatigue in rear leg. All help is appreciated.

[isobars]

Squats. Leg presses. Plyometrics. Lunges. Isometrics.

Plus all the sailing geometry tips others provide.

\m/

[coachg]

If you have back foot pressure, it is because you are pulling with your back arm. So if you alter your setup you can reduce or eliminate back foot pressure.

1. Move harness lines back.

2. Lower boom.

3. Move mast track forward.

All three of these adjustments will reduce back foot pressure. Just do them a little at a time.

Coachg

[PeconicPuffin]

These are good. I'd start with moving the mast track forward an inch. How high is your boom? The conditions you describe should not be causing you fatigue.

[KanahaKai]

Proper sailing stance is one technique that can have quite a dramatic effect on your sailing efficiency. A heavy backfoot really drains the planing power out of your board.

One thing I encourage students to do when we work on this subject is to lengthen their harness lines, raise their boom and swing their hips forward more as they sail. Try to have both front and back legs equally bent, but really pretty straight. Longer lines allow you to get further from the sail, exposing it to the wind better. A higher boom I've found tends to take more weight off my feet (try pressing down through the boom to put more weight on the board through the mast track)

When I'm sailing on a beam reach both legs are pretty much straight, hips in shoulders out. If I'm pinching upwind, I'm aggessively leaning toward the nose of the board, back leg straight, front leg bent. Shooting downwind is just the opposite, hunkering down over the back of the board, back leg bent, front leg pretty straight.

Hope this helps a bit, see you on the water.

-Ray
Maui Sports Unlimited Instructor

[christopher_cf]

I wholeheartedly concur with Ray/KanahaiKai. At ABK we teach precisely what Ray has described