Name: How to Ride Switch on a Snowboard WITHOUT Going Back to Basics
Uploaded: 2024-10-25T17:23:28.000Z
Duration: 8 min 6 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Sure you can go right back to the basics, get on that bunny slope and become a beginner again.

Is that how you want to spend your time on the mountain?

You can already snowboard which means you have the basic fundamentals of good posture and edge control.

So in this video I'm going to show you how to take that skill set and apply it to riding switch.

You've been coming down the mountain and this is a slope you're totally comfortable with.

Rather than just bombing it down, you're going to pull over and stop on the side.

If you're regular, stop on the left of the piste.

If you're goofy, stop on the right-hand side.

And what we're going to do, real simple, we're just going to start in a heel-side traverse across the mountain riding switch.

As I say, you already ride, your posture, your edge control, it's all good.

The only thing that's different is that your head is going to be turning and looking the other way.

First, let me show you the whole sequence.

Starting from that heel-side traverse, we're going to rev up the board around frontside 180, ending up on your toe edge.

Next, we want to cross the slope in the other direction and we're simply going to mimic those movements.

Rev up the board around frontside 180, back on the toe edge, and now we're going to complete a switch turn from toes to heels.

And voila, we're back at the beginning of the sequence ready to repeat.

Now, I don't want to give you too much technical input because this exercise has been designed to let you think about the movements you make in your regular toe-to-heel turn and then simply mirror them on the other side of the piste in your switch stance.

If you can figure this out on your own, then it's going to be a much more lasting and effective way of learning the movements.

However, if you are struggling, let me give you a few pointers.

Starting with this, the revert right here, because that might be something completely new to you.

From a crouched down position with your shoulders in line with the board, begin to extend your legs as you pull your front shoulder up the slope.

Push your back leg around, keeping your toes lifted, and as the board comes around 180, sink back down, there we go, shoulders in line with the board, and this time you're on the balls of your feet in your toe edge stance.

Again there, and notice as well how I always keep my head looking forward.

And for the switch turn, biomechanically there's absolutely nothing different from your regular turn, it's just your opposite leg is at the front of the board.

The common beginner mistakes are that people often struggle to shift enough weight over their front foot, and you need to do this in order to have your front knee work as an effective lever in pulling the board around.

If you need it, this video up here works as an invaluable refresher on that particular movement.

That is literally half of switch riding right there.

We've already done the toe to heel turn, now we just need to get the heel to toe turn.

This one is a little bit more tricky, but so as not to overload your brain, we're going to keep things real simple and do pretty much the same exercise.

This time we're going to be starting on the opposite side of the piste, going across the slope on your toe edge.

Here I am riding switch on my toe edge, and I'm going to start off with a little backside 180 revert by looking back at the camera and just rotating the shoulders up the hill.

I rock back onto the heel edge at the last minute, then perform my regular heel to toe side turn.

Same again, going in the other direction, left arm leads up the slope, push the right leg back around to create the revert, and I'm now in my switch stance ready for the switch heel to toe side turn.

There we go, that is one round of the sequence done, and now we're just going to repeat and practice those movements.

The key with this exercise is right here, when you're in your regular turn, to really think about everything that's going on.

What are your knees, your feet, your shoulders, your head, what is it all doing?

Then once you've reverted back round, we can remember that feeling and take it into your switch turn, because as with the previous exercise, biomechanically again there's nothing different going on, it's the same movements, it's just going to feel a bit alien with your other foot at the front.

Regular turn, again for the revert, just look back towards where you've come from, push the back leg round, and at the last second you just roll your feet back from toes onto heels.

For the heel to toe side turn, make sure you've got enough weight over the front foot that you can actively use your front knee as a lever to pull the board around and just have your back leg follow.

Now just repeat this exercise as much as you can to get those movements dialed in.

Awesome, so we've now done both of the switch turns, it's time to simply eliminate that revert in the middle and link the two together, and then you're going to be riding switch.

Just start off on something you're comfortable with, keep practicing, and as you get better then you can start to increase the difficulty, moving up from greens to blues to reds and so on.

When you're riding there are all sorts of movements that you can make to help turn the board, from standing up taller at the edge change for an up unweighted turn, to doing the opposite in a down unweighted turn, or perhaps you want to anticipate the turn with some extra shoulder movement going in, but we're riding switch so let's keep things simple and stick to the fundamentals.

Good posture is essential, keep your shoulders dead in line with the board, head looking where you're going.

When you're on your toe edge you want to have your hips pushed slightly forward, then as you come round onto your heel edge just pull them back slightly, this is going to help keep your spine aligned vertically over the edge and send your weight down over the edge and help create grip.

Now it really is that simple, so stick to the basics first and then as you get better you can start adding in all those extra fancy bits.

So you're now to keep building on that is to bring it into your everyday riding.

So think back to the first exercise, remember those 180 reverts that we were doing?

When you're riding down the slope now you can always chuck one of those in, make a few switch turns and then revert it back round again.

Don't forget as well we've done all four of these 180 reverts, two 180s makes a 360, so why not add a little bit of style in there as well, throw some 360s in and you're going to be cruising down the piste, switch, regular and throwing in some spins.

So there you have it, switch riding made easy and by building it up one turn at a time you're not going to overload your brain and like I said at the beginning you're already going to have most of the skills and the know-how so now it's just a case of putting it into practice.

 Thanks for watching guys, as always please hit that like and that subscribe button and I'll see you next time for another video.