When you’re trying to improve your snowboarding, there’s probably a HUGE gap between where you are and where you want to be. Whether you’re a beginner who just wants to be able to zoom down intermediate and advanced runs or a pretty good rider who wants to be one of those guys doing crazy spins in the park, there’s a large skill gap standing in your way.
So how do you accomplish such a huge task? Start small and take baby steps.
Breaking things down
Look at any big challenge you’ve overcome. When you started learning to write, did you start off practising writing essays? No! You started by learning how to hold a pencil, followed by years of drawing and coloring, followed by writing letters and learning about forming words etc. etc.
The point I’m making here is that bigger tasks are much easier to overcome when we break them down into smaller steps. Not only does it make it easier to track progress, it also gives us a path to follow and a way to measure our improvement.
For example:
Going from okay rider with no rail skills to spinning 270 on and 270 off a rail might be written like this:
- Ride across box – learn 50/50s
- Learn boardslides and backside boardslides
- Learn to land off box riding away switch
- Perfect 360s to help with rotation
- Master 270 onto a rail
- Master 270 off a rail
- Land trick
- Land trick with style
Now this is obviously a very basic step by step breakdown and I skipped some steps, but you get the idea. In addition, you can separate sections and break them down even further. For example, ‘Perfect 360s to help with rotation’ might be it’s own section dealing with things like mastering carving, aerial awareness, take off, landing, etc. etc.
Focus on one section at a time
In the example above, there’s a lot of sections. Each section is it’s own task and has it’s own problems, issues and possibly lots of other little things you have to master if you break it down even more. This is why you should just try to focus on one thing at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed.
Break it down, then focus on just one step at a time. Go up to the hill and say ‘I’m going to work on ‘x’ today’. Keep doing that until you’ve completed whatever it is you’re aiming for. Then go on to the next step. Keep ticking things off your list and progressing step by step. You’ll look back one day and be amazed at how much you’ve accomplished.
The important thing about this step is that it also makes things seem more realistic. If you’re a complete beginner and you set your current goal as “Become a pro spinning double corks”, that seems like a huge leap. If you just think about the next step, which might be “Learn to ride down green runs without falling”, that seems doable. Keep your next step within reach and keep taking baby steps.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and great snowboarders and skiers didn’t get there overnight. EVERYONE had to take these baby steps. Before Shaun White dominated the half pipe, he had to learn to ride switch. Not to mention everything in between.
Baby steps.
– Jed