Research finds ankles key to learning to hoverboard

Engineering researchers have some simple advice for people learning to ride hoverboards: it’s all in the ankles.

An experiment using sophisticated cameras and sensors attached to first-time riders revealed that ankle movements, not knee or hip movements, are the key to catching on to the increasingly popular devices.

“Those who learned faster and performed better had strongly adopted an ankle strategy, meaning that they controlled their ankle motion by activating or co-activating the muscles around them,” said Arash Arami, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at Waterloo and senior author of the new study.

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