The video above is Kyle Mack at 12 years old back in 2010.
I’ve been reading the survey responses as they come in and some of the answers are very interesting. I’ll close off the survey in the next week sometime and do the prize draw, but for now I thought I’d answer some things that have been coming up repeatedly.
One thing that’s come up repeatedly is people that are put off or worried by 12 year old kids who are way better at snowboarding then they are.
Don’t worry about them. I say that, because too many people look at the skills something has acquired in snowboarding and think “Why can’t I be like that?” They don’t look at the amount of time and training it’s taken to get to that stage.
Time spent is the key ingredient
I give all these tips and tricks on the blog, but even if you follow every single trick to speed up your progression and learn snowboarding and advanced freestyle tricks, you still have to put in the time to get there. How much time do you think these little 12 year old kids have put into snowboarding and how much private training do you think they’ve had?
Most often, these kids have been going to snowboard camps and getting private training on and off the hill since they started snowboarding. It’s not uncommon for many to have started as soon as they could walk properly.
If you take the average 12 year old ripper sending themselves off huge jumps and doing huge tricks, you’ll see the insane amount of time they’ve spent on hill.
A quick breakdown
Lets look at how much time they’ve spent since they started, assuming they started at 7 years of age:
1 snowboard camp per year at 2-4 weeks each year = up to 20 weeks of snowboard instruction
Private coaching 2-4 weeks each year = up to 20 weeks of snowboard instruction
Off hill trampoline training 1 day per week = 260 days of trampoline training
2 days on the hill each week 7 months per year = 280 days on the hill, outside of snowboard camps
If you think this is uncommon, think again. Ask any snowboard instructor the amount of young kids they see coming from well off families that can afford to send their kids through this much snowboard training each year and you’ll be surprised when you find out it’s not that uncommon.
Not to mention, the better a kid gets at a younger age, the more attention they’ll get from sponsors who give the kids even more opportunities for top end training.
What I’m trying to get at is that you have to remember that EVERY great snowboarder, young or old, started off as a beginner and they were the guys falling on 10 foot jumps doing 180s once upon a time. Every insanely good snowboarder on the hill is there because they’ve spent A LOT of time on the mountain falling.
Never feel bad because you can’t do what they do (yet!). As long as you’re enjoying snowboarding, you’re doing it right.