There are many advantages to snowboarding from home. Here are some just to name a few:
Better Balance
More awareness
More Control of micro movements
If you live in an area that doesn’t get a lot of snow, or it might just be your off season then learning how to snowboard at home is be a good alternative to having no snow.
And it’s a great way to upgrade your confidence and challenge yourself!
This is also a great way to keep your skills sharp in the summer time.
Here are some tips that I have personally used in the past to help myself progress through the sport faster.
Let’s get into it:
1. How to practice snowboarding at home without snow
Get some online Video training, my first suggestion would be to start watching some snowboarding tutorials right from the comfort of your own home.
Online snowboard coach has a ton of great videos and at home snowboarding programs that can help you improve your skills, making it easier for you to get the information you need into your subconscious mind…so when it is time to get your shred on, you’ll have most of the information in your long term memory bank.
Go here to access the snowboarding tutorials: www.onlinesnowboardcoach.com/master the turn.
2. How to Snowboard from home with a real snowboard on your feet
Before you go ahead and strap your snowboard onto your feet in your living room, I highly recommend you get some insulation tape and run it down the entire length of both edges of your snowboard.
It is very easy to cut carpet and damage your hard floor without it. If your edges are sharp, this will help protect most things from getting damaged.
Start off in your basic stance and visualize yourself riding down the hill, Think about what your knees are doing!
Is your upper and lower body in alignment?
Are you flexing down and extending up through the lower body?
Visually check your stance and try to relax into your own style.
See yourself riding down the hill with great anticipation into each turn!
Keep practicing your basic stance and for added fun try to find your sweet spot?
Sweet spot?
This is the area where you feel most comfortable when leaning from one end of the snowboard to the other.
In other words, try and balance your snowboard on the ground with either your nose or tail in the air.
Familiarize yourself with this as it will come in handy as you become more confident on the snowboard.
3. Finding your full snowboarding Range of Movement on your heel edge
Standing in your basic stance, flex down on your heel edge to the point where you can still maintain balance and not fall over.
We call this flexion on a snowboard.
This is your downward range on your heel edge, Now stand up to the point where your legs are tall but you still have some flex in your knees, this is your extension (Never have straight legs when snowboarding)
This is your full range on movement on the heel edge.
Remember to maintain your basic stance, when you start losing control, this is where you need to stop!
Now, let’s find that range of movement on our toe edge
4. Finding your full snowboarding Range of Movement on your Toe edge at home.
Standing in your basic stance, flex down on your toe edge, this time, only flex down to the point where you can still maintain balance and not fall over. (DO NOT BREAK AT THE WAIST)
We call this flexion on our toe edge.
This is your downward range on your toe edge, Now stand up so your legs are tall again but you still have some flex in your knees, this is your extension (Never have straight legs when snowboarding) range of movement
Remember to maintain your basic stance, when you start losing control, this is where you need to stop!
What you’ll notice is that you have more range of movement on your heel edge, so you have to adjust your timing to suit when applying pressure on your snowboard edge.
For more information about timing go to: Master the turns EP
5. Practice rolling from one edge to the other to gain stronger edge control
Now we need to start feeling the movement of your lower body a bit more, start by slowly rocking from heel to toe edge…
You can lean a little but remember that we create a lot of our edge angle by what is happening in our lower body.
Think about (and feel) your ankles and toes!
What does the pressure feel like when you apply pressure on the two different edges?
Focus on pushing your toes down into the ground when trying to create edge angle, the same goes for your heels, think about lifting your toes up to the sky.
6. Practicing the hop Jump at home for beginners
This is when you’re not initiating the jump with one leg (Ollie) first but both feet at the same time.
The most important thing about this trick is that it doesn’t matter which foot goes first as long as they go together!
The trick is to keep your back straight, if you perform the jump and find yourself falling forward over your toes, you are broken at the waist and need to keep your back more upright.
Step 1: When jumping off both feet, generally you will favour your Toe side edge, you can jump off your heels but for the meantime, I recommend just jumping off your toes!
Step 2: Starting in a stationary position, have even weight on both feet and ever so slightly push down on your toes edge. Pop up with even weight on both feet, at the same time suck your legs up.
For Step 3, go here: https://www.onlinesnowboardcoach.com/snowboard-ollie-tutorial/
7. Practicing the Ollie for Beginner snowboarders
How to Ollie on a snowboard
To do this trick, you’ll need a bit more room but with the right practice, you can complete a successful Ollie at home.
Step 1: Standing in a stationary position I want you to imagine your Ollie like a loading a gun and then firing it.
Step 2: Start by shifting your weight forward over the front foot and loading up pressure through our snowboard. (This is what we call loading the gun)
For Step 3 and 4, go here: https://www.onlinesnowboardcoach.com/snowboard-ollie-tutorial/
8. Practicing tricks on the trampoline
Learning to find your balance on a trampoline can greatly improve your confidence on a snowboard and in the air.
In order to find your balance on the trampoline, you’ll need to:
Stand upright with your feet strapped into the snowboard and knees slightly bent, start off slow and start the bouncing movement.
Take it slow and feel the full weight of your snowboard, if you are tending to fall forward, it means you are broken at the waist and need to keep your back taller.
Keep your snowboard flat and if need be, apply very little edge pressure when needed!
Remember you can still get hurt so don’t force things too much!
RELATED: Learn to snowboard
Once you feel you have adequate height, suck your knees up and try to keep an even balance by having weight even on both feet.
Remember your basic stance and keep practicing until you feel the love. You can also try some grabs and if you are feeling comfortable, throw down a 180 spin.
Keep pushing yourself!
9. Take it next level with a Balance board at home
A great way to get more comfortable with balancing on your snowboard is by purchasing a balance board.
There are many kinds of balance boards, but we suggest staying away from the ones designed solely for fitness and using something similar to a skateboard.
If you don’t have a balance board set up, Fill up a 2ltr bottle of water and use that as your base.
Learning to use a balance board can be tricky and it might take some time before you’re able to do anything more than just stand on one comfortably.
Stay safe by taking your time and practicing in-between a door.
The idea here is that you can support yourself with the door jamb if you suddenly lose balance.
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