How to snowboard switch?
Riding switch is not that hard if you know how to break down the individual movements that make a turn happen!
Most articles or videos I see online are crap and don’t really explain exactly how to snowboard switch at all?
I guess they don’t know how to break the turn down into easy bite size chunks that you can absorb and implement!
First of all:
Riding stance for snowboarding Switch
I generally ride duck stance, but for the intermediate snowboarder who’s not quite that committed yet, I recommend your front foot stance at 18 degrees and your back foot at 12 degrees. (normal stance)
At this stage of your snowboarding you can obviously link turns on the snowboard so you should be comfortable at holding edges.
To learn how to ride switch easily and fast, there is really only a couple of things I need you to understand.
1) How to initiate the turn.
2) Relax and look to where you need to go.
In order to initiate the turn we need to learn how to do garlands again (In the opposite direction)
So, keeping the weight on your new leading foot, I now want you to start bringing the nose of the snowboard around and down into the fall line.
To do this, simply initiate the garland by using foot pedaling and flexion and extension to help lead you into the turn
NOTE: Full Switch video progressions is only available for Online Snowboard Coach members…Click here to Join OSC lab
By releasing the pressure off our snowboard before we turn, it makes it easy for our snowboard to come around down into the fall line without catching edges or falling over.
Look and point in the direction you want to go and make sure your basic stance is correct.
Let the snowboard come around into the fall line and change edges slowly.
It will pay to make sure you are doing this back on a green runs to make sure you don’t pick up any bad habits.
NOTE: How to snowboard for beginners
The thing with riding switch Is that you have to force yourself to learn it. Without learning this skill set, you won’t have any chance of spinning off jumps or rails.
When I first started out, I would dedicate complete runs to riding switch, eventually it got to the stage where I was riding switch for an entire day.
These days, depending on if I’m teaching, I will just ride switch for weeks, sometimes I forget which way feels natural for me now.
Just keep practicing and become more conscious and aware of your lower and upper body movements when snowboarding.
Things to remember when riding switch:
- Weight on the front foot
- Practice on green runs
- Look and point to where you want to go
- Initiate the turn, don’t force it, and let your board come down into the fall line by doing the right movements…Flexion and Extension and foot peddling.
Once you feel comfortable riding switch, try mixing up your turn size and shapes to help increase your ability and awareness.
Please feel free to comment with any problems you are experiencing.
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