This week we’re looking at buttering and frontside 180s / 360s, in particular we’ll be looking at what makes a a good snowboarder able to execute smooth snowboard tricks:
The important tips to remember:
1) Less is more
Style and smoothness isn’t always about what you need to add, it’s about what you need to remove. All those extra hand movements and extra upper body movements are the difference between someone who looks like they’re ‘hucking’ tricks and someone who looks ‘natural’ and smooth when they snowboard.
Focus on quiet upper body movements and good technique first instead of trying to power through tricks.
2) Watch your carve line
I probably say this every single blog in some way or another, but your carve line has a huge effect on your spin and landing. Planning your carve line ahead of time to get the correct entry line is one of the most important things to learn in snowboarding.
3) Master the 4 180s first (backside, frontside, switch fs, switch bs)
People get amped on landing big spins like 540s, 720s etc. etc., but it’s often how good you are at 180s that determines how good you are at everything else.
180s teach you how to use and control your upper body correctly, and 99% of people I see don’t master them properly before trying to learn 360s and 540s. Master 180s first – the rest will follow.
Basically if you can’t do a smooth 180 all 4 directions 9 times out of 10, than you aren’t ready to be trying big spins anyway.
The next step…
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You’ll get details for our VIP program after you finish our free lessons 🙂
– Jed