How to Snowboard Faster
Learning How to snowboard faster can greatly improve your confidence and control when challenging yourself on different terrain and snow conditions around the mountain.
One of the key aspects when learning how to increase your speed when riding your snowboard is to have the ability to stop on a dime.
In other words…’Stop instantly!’
The reasons should be fairly obvious here, but as long as you understand the concepts and are willing to learn some new snowboarding exercises,
Control and Balance should come naturally with increased speed and you should progress fine. (And hopefully without unwanted injuries)
Now….
In order for me to teach you some new snowboarding tips on how to snowboard faster,
I am going to assume you can already link turns and ride down some blue intermediate trails on the mountain!
If you are not capable of achieving this task on your snowboard, then might I suggest, you take this lesson with the heaviest caution in mind!
The snowboarders who I am teaching this stuff too must have some sort of control, and at the very least be able to make linked snowboard turns with the ability to stop.
With that being said, let’s begin your lesson!
How to stop on a snowboard when you are Going Fast.
Welcome to the Hockey Stop!
This can be a tricky topic depending on the individual…
Getting over the fear of too much speed ultimately comes down to your skill set, this will set your confidence levels.
So let’s fix our skill set!
To start riding your snowboard faster with confidence, it is extremely important your basic stance on your snowboard is in check. (Good)
Do you know your basic stance?
Basic snowboarding stance to help you go faster:
- Feet and knees and flexed and relaxed
- Hips in alignment with your snowboard
- Straight back
- Arms relaxed and to the side
- Head looking up and in the direction of travel.
It is important you maintain this stance when you are learning how to increase your speed.
Imagine for a second we are on the hill and this is our Starting position…
we now need to make sure we can come to a stop quickly!
How do we do that?
Welcome to the Hockey Stop!
For this exercise, you are going to learn the hockey stop. We use this technique in situations where we need to stop quickly!
It is also a great technique for washing away excess speed.
Lets Try this on a beginners slope….
I want you to point your snowboard down the hill and gather a little speed.
After you feel you have gained good momentum, I now want you to bring your snowboard back across the fall line (to stop) and at the same time twist your upper body in the opposite direction to the nose of your snowboard.
It’s kinda like kicking your back foot, but you must only do it when you have initiated the snowboards nose to come back across the fall line.
This will instantly bring your snowboard across the fall line and help you lose any unwanted speed.
Practise this exercise on both edges until you feel very comfortable at performing this technique!
NOTE: Having some speed while performing this is key!
NOTE: Want to learn how to shortcut your frustrating beginner snowboarding progression? Simply download this beginner snowboarder roadmap to learn all aspects of learning how to turn. Learn what bad habits beginners tend to make so you can avoid them to progress faster and maintain balance and control easier…check it out now!
How to snowboard faster
So how do you go faster on a snowboard?
Well…we need to start pointing our snowboard down the fall line more for one.
It’s easier said than done right!
Let’s start with small increases of speed…
This time after you have made a turn and are in the traverse into the next turn,
I want you to steer your snowboard down the hill a little more, we will not make a closed turn shape and go for a more open turn shape
This will help increase you speed down the hill.
It is important you keep your snowboard stance in alignment when trying this.
It can be scary but thats why I talked to you about learning the hockey stop, if you get into trouble, you can wash away your speed very quickly!
The problem people face is that they want to increase their speed on the snowboard but have a lot of bad habits with their basic stance,
and this makes it very difficult to feel comfortable and confident when gaining more speed than what you are use to!
And that’s exactly why I wanted to let you know about the hockey stop technique before we went too far into the progression.
REMEMBER: worst case scenario you can perform a hockey stop on your snowboard and try the increased speed line again!
So…From now on when you are making turns, I want you to start pushing yourself a little more each time by keeping the turn shape more open.
IMPORTANT: Only try this on trails you know you can stop safely, do not try this on black diamond trails.
Riding straight and fast on your snowboard
So what are some of the problems that arise when you start learning how to ride straight and fast on your snowboard?
One is definitely speed!
Another could be quicker movements in the lower body.
Another big problem could be fear of catching an edge…
Once you have gained the confidence to increase your speed on your snowboard,
there are times when you just need to straight line it, and go fast to get to where you need to go.
It could be to make it to another chairlift, go up a hill etc…
Nevertheless, it is a skill you need to learn.
Some things you need to watch out for when trying this is catching an edge…
So how do you avoid catching an edge when you become scared at such high speeds on your snowboard?
PRO TIP: You have to become very assertive with your edge change, you cannot pussy foot around when it comes to releasing edge pressure or applying it at this stage if the game.
Know that you have to keep weight forward and ALWAYS maintain a strong basic stance!
There have only been a few times in my life where I have taken my speed to the next level, and you have to trust your basic stance…The key is Know you can do it!
(I use to point my snowboard straight down the hill from the top of chair 23 in mammoth mountain, my goal was to try and not turn until I reached the bottom of the mountain)
Alright, so that should address the edge change, now let’s talk about what’s happening with the front knee and the front foot!
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Better Leg Control When Going Fast on Your Snowboard
Keeping your board staring comes down to having a aligned upper and lower body,
this means your hips are in alignment with your snowboard, your shoulders are not twisted and your arms are sitting over the nose and tail of your snowboard.
If your basic stance is twisted, you will find it hard to keep your snowboard going straight,
the upper body will always want to follow the lower, and when you’re twisted, the lower body will be very awkward to control.
You must learn to make your body work as one unit!
That being said, if you think you stance is good, there are a few wee tips to help you control a straight fast snowboard line.
One is by shifting your weight from a centered stance to a more forward stance (weight over the front foot)
Ratio with weight from front to back foot might be 65(f): 35(b)
This will help make it easier for you to make small micro adjustments with the front foot and knee.
Try not to have too much edge angle as well, it’s alright to be in a taller position in order for you to hold a smaller edge angle.
Obviously you want to use an open turn shape when doing this and always try to remember to keep your head looking up!
Riding Cat Tracks with speed
How to ride cat tracks on the snowboard with speed.
This one kinda reflects on the same topic as above, cat tracks are a lot narrower than normal trails on the mountain and most of the time you won’t have a lot of room to move.
Once again, you have to become very assertive in the edge change, keep your turn shape open and if needed, perform one of those hockey stops like we talked about before to help you slow down in a hurry!
You must always give way to traffic below so always be courtesy to other snowboarders or skiers.
Sometimes you’ll need to use greater anticipation (exaggerated movement) to help with quicker upper body movements when you get into a tight space!
So don’t be afraid to do so…
The number one message for cat tracks is this: Always stay in control, give people plenty of room and if you have to ride up the bank to help control your speed…do so!
Start riding with better snowboarders to Help Increase your speed.
I guess one of the major ways to go faster on your snowboard is by riding with snowboarders that are better than yourself.
Often when I teach, I’ll get my clients to follow me….nothing else to focus on except to try and keep up with my speed and stay on my line.
By having something to focus on, you take away some of the risk (fear) that comes with pushing your snowboarding speed to the next level.
If you don’t have anyone to ride with who is better than you, you can always try and join some local Facebook groups.
I’m a member of about 15 snowboarding groups on FB and there are always plenty of people who would like to tag along for the day.
Hope you found this useful and remember to control your speed first and foremost when learning how to go faster on your snowboard!
NOTE: Want to learn how to shortcut your frustrating beginner snowboarding progression? Simply download this beginner snowboarder roadmap to learn all aspects of learning how to turn. Learn what bad habits beginners tend to make so you can avoid them to progress faster and maintain balance and control easier…check it out now!
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