How I Forced Myself To Practice My Switch Snowboarding
from snomie.com by jed
Switch riding is the most hated skill for most snowboarders. They know they need to do it, but they also know how awkward it feels and so they avoid practicing their switch skills.
Honestly speaking, I can write 1000 words on how switch riding works, but I’m not going to baby you and pretend you don’t know how to turn.
You guys know how to make turns riding regular, so you clearly know the technique for making turns switch as well since it’s the same technique. Let’s face it, most people don’t want to practice switch because it sucks, not because they don’t know how.
So instead, I’m going to try give you a simple habit I use to force myself to get into the habit of riding switch and hopefully it’ll help some of you get used to adding switch to your riding.
If you can ride it regular without effort, then ride it switch
What I do is simple, if I’m on any ski run that isn’t challenging anymore, I’ll ride it switch.
This means if you’re super comfortable on green runs (which most intermediate snowboarders are), you should ride switch anytime you’re on a green run. This way you get your regular riding ‘fix’ on every other run, but you force yourself to ride switch on terrain that isn’t challenging you.
At the very least, this should mean that most snowboarders following this rule will be finishing their day with some switch riding because the exit area for most resorts are made up of green runs.
That’s it. There’s no magic trick that will make switch instantly stop being awkward besides forcing yourself to ride more switch.
It’s more about having a conscious effort to say “Okay, this green run is easy for me regular, so I’m going to ride it switch” and making this a habit that you do every time you ride.
It’s going to suck at first, but when you get into the habit of riding switch on easy runs, it starts to become a more natural thing that you do automatically. |