Snowboarding Mistakes that make you Fall
When you start to gain confidence as an intermediate snowboarder, your skill set and ability will also naturally improve….
Most snowboarders generally need about 20-30 days riding before they feel comfortable enough to start making small turns down steep blue or black trails on the mountain.
This is great, but there are also some big problems that go along with steeps and if they are not corrected or understood, you will start creating bad habits that will hinder your success/progression to becoming an advanced snowboarder.
and on that note…
…If you are just starting out on your snowboarding journey or have been away for a while, today I would like to comprise a list common intermediate bad habits that you should be consciously aware of when riding steep terrain on your snowboard.
5 Snowboarding mistakes that make you Fall
1) Knees
2) Hip
3) Back
4) Shoulders
5) Head
Riding steep terrain on your snowboard can be extremely challenging and if you’re not careful.
Always remember to control your speed by closing off the turns and Always Give way to traffic below.
With that being said, let’s start with our feet and knees:
Using your Feet Knees when Snowboarding:
A common mistake intermediate boarder’s make is transferring the weight on to the back foot when trying to steer the board down into the fall line. This will throw your steering right out the door, it is vital you keep weight forward and maintain the cowboy stance when riding steeps.
By steering your front knee through the turn, this should help in keeping the weight forward so you stay balanced and controlled.
See Master the turns exercises for help:
Using your Hip when snowboarding
Quick question?
Should your hip be aligned with your board or twisted?
ALIGNED!!!!!
Always realign your upper and lower body after making a turn, ideally through the traversing stage Is where this should happen.
What most snowboarders do is not realign and create the extremely bad habit of counter rotation…this is a dream killer and will take time to correct!
If your think you’re a victim of counter rotation, go here:
Using your Back when Snowboarding
Another major problem is breaking at the waist of arching the back to try and apply edge pressure, this is wrong and you will never see good results from these 2 bad habits.
Keep your waist strong and a straight back, this will help with pressure control and balance.
Watch our full ‘Master the turns’ execution plan to become and advanced snowboarder here:
Using your Shoulders when Snowboarding
This one comes back to counter rotation, if that’s your problem you need to start learning how to correct it.
The opposite of counter rotation is anticipation, start leading your shoulders into the turn, this will help create torsional twist and aid in guiding your lower body around and down into the new turn.
How to use your Head when Snowboarding
This one is pretty simple, where should your head be looking?
Most intermediate snowboarders get this wrong and look down at the snow!
You should be looking up and in the direction of travel… It’s alright to look down to spot the next turn but really try and focus in on looking across and in the direction of travel when snowboarding.
Conclusion: Learn these tips and become more aware of the body movements you are making, it takes time so try and relax when learning this stuff!
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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