Improve your riding Hi this is Nev Lapwood, SnowboardAddiction.com
We are riding at Whistler Blackcomb and this tutorial is on how to improve your riding.
We cover a few issues that happen to intermediate riders, how to spot them and what you can
do to fix it.
This tutorial is mostly related to body position.
If you can get your body position correct, you'll snowboard a hell of a lot better and
you're gonna feel more comfortable jumping, riding the park and hitting all types of features.
Film Your RidingNearly all riders encounter the same problems with snowboard technique.
The problem is that most people do not know that they have any of these issues going on
until you've seen it on video.I'd highly recommend for you to get out there and film your riding.
Everyone has access to a video camera these days whether it's a Gopro or just the camera
on your smart phone.
Go up with a buddy, take a lap out of each day, and film each other so you can go home
and see what you look like.
This is going to do wonders for your riding.
You will pick up so much stuff that you did not realize was happening and you can compare
your riding to mine or other pros that you want to ride like.
Ideal TurnsIdeal intermediate turns on a snowboard should look like this.
Each turn has a smooth consistent radius with your speed being controlled throughout the
turn.
You're knees should be bent with your hips pushed forward and a straight upright back.You're
whole body should be making each turn together in unison with your upper body and lower body
aligned through your turns and your hips located central between your feet.
It should look and feel effortless.
Straight LegsThe first problem that many people have, is riding with their legs too straight.
With snowboarding you need to bend your knees so you can ride smoothly through all the little
bumps and inconsistencies in the snow.
Riding with straight legs creates a bunch of other problems.
When you try to make a heel edge turn with straight legs this is what happens...You get
this really awkward position where your bums sticks out and your upper body bends over.
I often see people riding in this bent over position.
It's not stable and it's not going to help your riding.
In a straight legged turn you often have a lot of weight out towards your heel edge,
you may find yourself chattering through your turns.
Its like cha cha cha cha cha cha as your making that turn and you're probably going to fall
over like this.
What you want to do is be in this position, pushing your shins into the front of your
boots, while bending your knees and pushing your hips forward which allows you to keep
your back up straight.
Riding in this position is going to give you a lot of advantages, it puts the weight of
your body over top of your board increasing your stability and control.
The flexed position will help to absorb bumbs, you'll be able to pop better from jumps and
absorb your landings.
This posture keeps you upright and it'll help your riding a lot.
One of the strategies you can do to improve this is get strapped into your board and feel
this position of pushing your shins into the front of your boots and your hips forward.Hold
onto something for balance and feel what it's like use the toe and heel edge.
To pressure your toe edge push your shins into the front of your boots then push your
hips forward like.
For your heel edge, try to keep your shins pushed into the front of your boots then sink
your hips down towards you high back and lift your toes to create edge.While riding, traverse
across a quite run on your toe edge.
Push your shins into your boots and push your hips forward.
It's much easier to feel this on the toe edge.On your heel edge, see if you can still push
your shins forward into the front of your boots, then sink your hips down slightly lifting
your toes to create edge.Adding forward lean to your bindings is a simple way to help achieve
this body position.The high-backs of all good snowboard bindings can be set into a more
forward position like this.
I personally ride with a lot of forward lean as I like the extra response it gives your
riding and I recommend it to most riders.If you ever see a gap between the back of your
boot and your high-back while riding on the toe edge then I'd recommend adjusting your
bindings so they have more forward lean.
To avoid your turns chattering you need improve your ability to apply pressure to your edges.
Ride straight downhill gaining a little speed then come to a stop on your heel edge as quickly
as you can.
Once stopped take three hops uphill on your heel edge.
This is tricky but will help to develop your skills.
If your legs are too straight then you'll probably fall.
This exercise helps you to build and release pressure quickly over the edge of your board.
Ride downhill again, this time come to a stop as quickly as you can on your toe edge.
Jump 3 small hops downhill on your toe edge.
This exercise forces you into flexing with your knees and ankles which will translate
into your riding improving your ability to control pressure through turns.
Counter Rotation For smooth controlled riding, you want your
upper body and your lower body to be inline with each other because it gives you better
balance and stability in your riding.
One of the most common problems for intermediate riders is riding with a body position that
is not aligned.
You'll see riders cruising with their upper body turned this way facing forwards.
It's not very stable, if you hit a bump it's likely you'll get thrown off balance and may
crash.
Instead you want to be like this with your upper body and lower body inline with your
board.You'll see a lot of people going down the mountain doing something like this, with
awkward turns constantly out of alignment.
It's called counter-rotation where your upper and lower body become disjointed, not working
in harmony and twisting against each other to make a turn happen.
This especially happens when doing turns onto your toe edge.
On this freeze frame you can see how this guys upper body is completely out of alignment
with his lower body.
If you compare this with my riding, you'll see that every time I make a turn, my upper
body and my lower body are almost always heading in the same direction.
It looks smooth, balanced and effortless as I flow through each turn.
If you can get your riding like this, you'll be more comfortable with everything else you
learn on a board.On flat ground this what good alignment looks like.
When I do a toe edge turn you'll see my upper body helps to initiate the turn, my shoulders,
my hip, my knee and everything goes in the same direction.
On a heel edge turn my upper body turns, my hip turns and my knees turns all in the same
direction.
You probably won't know whether you counter rotate your turns or not until you get to
see your riding on video.
If you do, you're going to want to try and break this habit to increase the stability
in your riding.
One tactic you can try is to grab your pants while riding.
This will aid as a subtle reminder to keep your upper body and lower body moving together
in the same direction through each turn.Imagine you have a poll that goes through your body
and you're holding onto each end of the poll.
To turn your snowboard, you turn the pole through your hips.
Turn the pole this way and you'll initiate a toe edge turn.
Turn this way for a heelside turn.
After you've got the idea relax and try to make it look natural again riding with your
upper and lower body in alignment.
Un-centered HipsMany riders get into the habit of sliding their back foot around on each
turn going from side slip to side slip rather than having nice round turns.
This is usually the result of having your hips slightly too far forward and a little
too much weight over your front foot.
If your direction of snowboarding is more downhill rather than nice round turns, your
not using a lot of space on a run and you see a lot of snow being washed downhill after
each turn then you are probably sliding your back foot out.
If you look closely at my riding, you'll see that my hips are in the center of my board
as I go through each turn.
If your hips aren't in the center than your body position is not as stable as it could
be.
On a mellow slope try hopping while you traverse on your toes.
The point is to get a flexing motion going especially with your back knee.
Now during a turn, see if you can do 4 hops through your turn.
This tactic brings your weight back to be more central over both feet.
It also makes your turns a lot wider and rounder so you'll take up more terrain through each
turn, which helps to fix this issue.
After several turns with hops, continue to ride the slope doing big wide turns taking
up lots of terrain.Another tactic to get the weight off your front foot is to try to do
turns up the slope.To ride uphill you need to transfer some of your weight slightly more
to your back foot.
If you stay over your front foot you'll feel that it's much more difficult getting your
board to ride up hill at the end of your turns.
SummaryThis tutorial outlined a few of the common problems that occur with intermediate
riders as they are progressing.
You want to make sure you remove any of these issues that may be in your riding and try
to copy the technique and body position of experts.
Make sure you get out there and film a few laps with your buddies.
Analyze your own riding from the video and compare it with mine to see where you can
improve.
This is Nev Lapwood, SnowboardAddiction.com Our goal is to you improve your riding!