What is advanced snowboarding?
We use Advanced Snowboarding exercises to improve our confidence and help us navigate through Double black diamond trails.
We also use these Advanced techniques for off piste bumpy terrain, steep terrain and unforeseen situation in the snow conditions.
It is vital you have your intermediate snowboarding technique dialled in, and ideally have very few bad habits!
You will struggle to progress through this training effectively if you’re trying to skip the skill set required to transition correctly.
Before trying to implement some of these techniques, visually check your basic stance and make sure you don’t have any counter rotation going on.
If you don’t know what this is, then you might not be ready for fine tuning points of this progression.
Advanced Snowboarding Exercises for the Front knee.
When learning advanced snowboarding, it will take some time to learn new turning techniques like down unweighted turns…
But in most cases, the average intermediate snowboarder can transform themselves into an advanced snowboarder with a few small tweaks in their snowboarding technique.
What I am referring to is breaking each snowboard movement down into small micro steps, and then refocusing on those movements to get a greater response from your body and your snowboard.
Let’s start at the front knee?
Most riders don’t focus on using there front to help them generate the turn… don’t get me wrong, they use it, but they don’t focus on it!
Next time you go snowboarding, instead of just making a few turns down the hill. I want you to start thinking about where your front knee is pointing when making these turns?
Really start to focus on having your front knee lead you into the turn and not just there doing whatever it does.
Make it your focus point for an entire run.
Here’s an Advanced snowboarding exercise: I want you to pretend that you are snowboarding in the dark!
The only way you can see is by way of a flashlight…The problem is, this flash light is completely attached to your front knee.
I want you to ride down the hill with this analogy in mind…You must steer yourself through each and every turn using only the light from the torch.
Obviously still be aware of all other movements but this time, try and exaggerate the knee movement into, through and out of the turn.
Really steer that front knee through the turn!
What you will find is that your snowboard becomes 30% more responsive and your steering feels easier with a stronger control position!
Keep practicing this until it becomes second nature!
Advanced Snowboarding for Increased Foot and Ankle Edge Pressure
So what do I mean when I start talking about foot and ankle pressure?
After you have completed your Knee movement’s technique, I then want you to apply the same focus, but now I want you to start to thinking about what your toes are doing when you are making these turns.
As before, instead of just making a turn…
This time, when you go onto your heel edge, I want you to think about lifting your toes up and pointing them up high into the sky, as far as you can take them!
This Advanced snowboard technique will instantly help you create extra pressure through your snowboard edge.
RELATED: Carving on a snowboard technique
The same concept applies for when you change over onto your toe edge, Lift your heels high or push down on those little toes a bit harder.
Focus on those micro movements to help increase edge control and edge pressure!
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Better Lower body Absorption when Riding Bumpy Terrain.
Now we need to learn about absorption in our snowboarding….
This advanced snowboard exercise will help keep you safe and controlled when you need it the most, so make sure you keep reading but also put it into practice when you are snowboarding.
From now on, I want you start riding your snowboard with a more refined attitude!
I want you to start believing you are an advanced snowboarder!
With this in mind, let’s begin.
If you can imagine a car suspension for a second, think about how the springs move up and down, depending on what type of surface the vehicle is travelling over.
Think about how each wheel has its own suspension spring working independently from each other…
But when each wheel is acting independently, it is also creating a stable platform for the vehicle to travel in.
In a sense they are working together as one, but independently at the micro level to create a Balanced, controlled environment for the vehicle to operate safely.
RELATED: Snowboarding techniques to get Better
We can apply the same concept into our snowboarding as well!
We have two legs acting as suspension and need them to start acting independently to help create a stronger sense of balance.
This time when you start riding over bumpy terrain, see yourself with your front knee absorbing the bump, followed by the back knee.
Slow the movement s down in your head and your absorption technique will improve 10 fold!
See one knee absorbing the bump, then the other! By doing this you are creating an awareness that is very hard to match from other riders.
Not only will it help you on bumpy terrain but will improve your overall riding technique and style!
Stronger Rotational movements through the Upper body:
As we become more of an advanced snowboarder, we naturally start challenging our skillset with harder terrain, the old trails we used to love dont seem like that much fun anymore, and it kinda feels like we are not pushing our progression forward.
As you start to venture into this steeper terrain, you soon realise that speed becomes a major factor in your ability to ride the conditions with control.
And that’s not even mentioning the fact that most of the time, there will be bumpy terrain in this equation as well.
So what are some advanced snowboarding exercises that can help control our speed when riding this steeper terrain?
Better anticipation into the turn is one!
What’s Anticipation you ask?
This is where we start opening up our front shoulder into each and every turn with more exaggeration and awareness.
The idea behind this technique is to start using your natural bodys tension to help create a slingshot effect into the new turn, thus helping keep speed down when changing edges down the fall line!
The less time you spend with your snowboard facing down the fall line, the less speed you will pick up.
You can actually change your edge across the fall line before we get into the turn, but that is high end training and is reserved for online snowboard coach member’s lab.
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If you imagine your body as a rubber band, you have the upper half and the lower half.
When you twist the rubber band in opposite direction to each other, you create a torsional twist, in other words…
Stored energy!
When you release the lower half of the rubber band it naturally wants to unwind and catch up with the upper half….
…same goes for our body. (Lower and upper body)
If we can start anticipating into each turn more effectively, we are creating a torsional twist that will help slingshot our lower body around, down and through the fall line.
This is extremely important on steep terrain as it will help you stay controlled and confident within your snowboarding technique.
Exercise: Nest time you are riding a black trail, I want you to start pointing to where you want to go instead of just kinda steering yourself there.
Really start focusing in on our front should and how it leads us into each and every turn.
IMPORTANT: Once you have made the turn it is important for you to realign your upper and lower body before going into the next turn.
This will help stop counter rotation and will greatly increase the control you have over your snowboard on very steep terrain.
Remember: Exaggerate the front shoulder movement to help create the torsional twist for your lower body!
Where is your head looking when you are Riding?
This is a huge problem with intermediate snowboarders and their ability to implement this technique.
If you’ve ever struggled to hold a smooth turn shape on steep terrain, there is a good chance that the direction of your head is letting you down.
I know it sounds simple and you could even question whether or not it qualifies for an advanced snowboarding technique, but it plays such a massive role in our steering that it must be mentioned.
Most snowboarders look down the hill….
The problem is, this is the only place they look…Down the hill!
You need to be looking back across the fall line after making each turn on steep terrain, literally looking back up if necessary.
“Control that speed!”
Intermediate riders tend to drift down the fall line after making turns on steep terrain and this is partly due to where they are looking.
You MUST also implement this fine tuning technique into your everyday riding as well.
Create the habit of really looking up in the direction of travel, it will complement your overall skill set and create a great platform for you to keep advancing through the higher levels of snowboarding training.
What to Expect from an Advanced snowboard lesson from the mountain (1hr lesson)
You’ll meet your instructor on the ski resort, he/she will then find out your background info etc…how long you been riding blah blah blah
You’ll then proceed up the hill and depending on your ability, you have one, maybe two runs before your time is up.
Expect to work on only one issue within your riding and get ready for the ‘we need more lessons speech’
Advanced snowboarding takes time to perfect the various techniques so time on your snowboard is a must!
INTERMEDIATE Snowboarders:
NOTE: Want to learn how to stay balanced and controlled when Riding steeps on a snowboard? Simply download this bad habits cheat sheet to gain an unfair advantage on the hill. Learn what bad habits snowboarders make so you can AVOID them to progress faster and maintain balance and control easier…check it out now!
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