Tips for Improving Your Snowboarding

For beginners, this story might be all too familiar to you: you’re racing down the hill, the snow is reflecting the sun on a clear day. You can feel the cold wind rush by your face, flashing a steady hum sound in your ears. You hit a couple of turns – nothing to slow you down really fast, but enough to feel like you’ve got some control. Then, you try to do a wide turn and –

Oops. Wipeout.

Time to get up again. When learning any new skill, bumps and bruises are inevitable, especially in a sport like snowboarding in which if you make a mistake, you’re going to feel it. So how do you practice, and how do you not only practice well but keep the attitude you need to keep going up that hill, day in and day out? Here are some quick tips for improving your snowboarding.

Fall down twice, get up thrice – This simple rule is a bit of a cliche, but it’s hit the popular lexicon for a reason – it works. The most essential thing here is that you don’t give up: not giving up is responsible for the development of any skill known to man. There will be frsutrating times, aches and pains, and there will be times when it’s really cold outside and you don’t want to hit that hill. But if you have visions of yourself streaming down hills effortlessly, you’re going to, well, have to put in the effort. Up front. And constantly. Don’t give up
Practice smart – Scientific studies have shown that practicing isn’t enough – you have to practice in a way that’s difficult for you. People get complacent with skills once they survive the initial bumps and bruises and feel that they can coast on the amount of skill they’ve developed – but they don’t challenge themselves anymore. Newsflash: challenge is what creates skill. You have to continually challenge yourself, search for your weak spots, and improve your game. Otherwise, you’re just resting on that plateau while the world’s best snowboarders are blasting right by.
Practice frequently – The more you practice, the better you’ll get, plain and simple. Along with the two steps above, if you keep going and keep going, your skills will be forced to develop out of necessity – otherwise, you’ll just keep falling down! Don’t get frustrated about your results and quit; instead, concentrate on the amount of time you’ve spent on the hill and how much more you can spend. It’s not about results, it’s about the effort you’re willing to put in.

Originally posted 2008-12-03 10:00:11.

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