Get started in snowboarding

After completing the first part of warm-up and training exercises, the time has come to start getting used to the snow.

Self-taught learning is not advisable, despite the undeniable economic advantages, because it entails a series of planning errors that will inevitably weigh on us in the more advanced stages.

You must follow the instructions for each exercise precisely and pay attention to the most frequent errors. The ideal is practice snowboarding accompanied by someone who can notice your defects, in order to correct them in time .

The didactic progression

The simplicity of learning to snowboard has undoubtedly contributed to its great success. The instinctive nature of the movements significantly facilitates the approach to this activity. The objective of our exercises is to make the future surfer drive the board safely, with natural and elegant movements, avoiding useless tension. Therefore, special attention will have to be paid to the position and gestures of the body.

An important recommendation is prudence: you must always maintain a wide margin of safety, especially during the first phases of learning, trying to limit speed. This must always be based on your ability to control, so as not to endanger your physical integrity and that of others.

The phases of progression

This proposal is a sequence of exercises that will allow you to gradually acquire the snowboard technique, from the first curves to the first diagonal descents, to reach the fastest corners and, finally, freestyle.

1. Awareness

The first approach to snowboarding should be as traumatic as possible. It begins with a series of exercises in which you have one foot fixed to the board and the other free, a technique with which we learn the first movements.

2. Weight on the edge

The first exercise allows us to learn to shift the weight from one edge to the other. Place yourself on an almost flat slope. Once the front foot is locked, take a step forward; This movement will transfer the weight to the toe of the boot and the edge of the toes. tips. On the other hand, taking a step back, the weight will tend to shift to the heels and, therefore, to the edge of the heels.

In this same position we can make infinite movements with the leg that we have loose, to have greater sensitivity: foot forward, backward, forward crossed, backward crossed, foot in the center of the board. After the first and slow changes, you can try to slide the board forward and backward in small steps,keeping it on an edgeand trying to perform the movement with maximum ease.

3. Simple impulse step

The simple impulse step allows us to make the first movements on the board and will also be very useful once our level of preparation is better. Since we do not have poles or racket weights, we will have to resort to the impulse step to overcome the flat stretches. This is a movement very similar to the one used for skating propulsion and in this first phase it will serve to sensitize the lower limb, which here has the function of guiding the board on the snow.

Find a spacious, flat area, place your front foot on the board and rest your back foot just behind the heel edge. Now you will have to give yourself a little push with your free foot, being careful to keep the board very flat and trying to make the edges slide on the snow. This exercise is repeated walking with a rhythm in a circle, making figure eights and diagonals in a plane.

Uphill step

It is used to climb small sections of track. We will lean on the tips, thus providing us with the necessary momentum to ascend. We will look for a slope with a slight inclination, we will fix the front boot and we will place the board perpendicular to the line of maximum slope. This position must remain constant, in order to prevent the board from starting to slide downwards.

The climb is done by moving the free foot upwards and then lifting the board and carrying it upwards as well, placing it next to the free foot. The objective of the exercise is to advance with maximum composure, thus achieving balance.

Change of direction with feet locked

You have to be able to get up on your toes and heels, that's why we are going to explain how to turn around.

• From heels to toes. It is the typical beginner's movement; With our back resting on the snow, we rotate the board 180º with respect to the axis of the body, and then perform the necessary torso movement to align ourselves with the new position of the board. The difficulty lies in the obstruction of the table that limits the rotation capacity.

• From toes to heels. We do the same movement as the previous one, but reversed from toes to heels. We will notice the difficulty due to the dimension of the table.

How to get up

Falling into snowboarding is the first phase of learning. As happens in many other sliding sports, frequent falls occur, so it is necessary to know how to get up with great ease in any situation and with the minimum expenditure of energy.

• Get up on pointe. From the position on all fours we pick up the body until we have our knees close to our hands and, pushing ourselves with them, we try to straighten our legs until we reach the correct position. We will try to make the effort only with the legs to avoid tiring the arms, which is why the difficulty in getting up decreases when the slope increases.

• Get up on your heels. This exercise is more difficult than the previous one, so we will always try to stand up on our toes. From the sitting position we will collect our legs until we bring the heel edge close to the buttocks. After a first push, propelling ourselves with our arms, we will raise the pelvis from the snow and bring the vertical projection of the body with the heel plate raised over the legs, reaching the upright position. Keep the edge securely fastened in the snow. In this case, increasing the slope decreases the difficulty of the exercise.
  

Fundamental position

This is the basic position in snowboarding: ankle and knee flexion, trunk straight, looking forward and shoulders dropped above the hips. The position is the same with both bindings tied. We should always practice this exercise with the board perpendicular to the line of maximum slope, both on the toes and heels.

• Direct descent with one foot. With the board perpendicular to the line of maximum slope and the fundamental position, we take a small jump to balance.
  

  Change of direction with feet locked

  You have to be able to get up on your toes and heels, that's why we are going to explain how to turn around.

  • From heels to toes. It is the typical beginner's movement; With our back resting on the snow, we rotate the board 180º with respect to the axis of the body, and then perform the necessary torso movement to align ourselves with the new position of the board. The difficulty lies in the obstruction of the table that limits the rotation capacity.
  • From toes to heels. We do the same movement as the previous one, but reversed from toes to heels. We will notice the difficulty due to the dimension of the table.

  How to get up

  Falling into snowboarding is the first phase of learning. As happens in many other sliding sports, frequent falls occur, so it is necessary to know how to get up with great ease in any situation and with the minimum expenditure of energy.

  • Get up on pointe. From the position on all fours we pick up the body until we have our knees close to our hands and, pushing ourselves with them, we try to straighten our legs until we reach the correct position. We will try to make the effort only with the legs to avoid tiring the arms, which is why the difficulty in getting up decreases when the slope increases.
  • Get up on your heels. This exercise is more difficult than the previous one, so we will always try to stand up on our toes. From the sitting position we will collect our legs until we bring the heel edge close to the buttocks. After a first push, propelling ourselves with our arms, we will raise the pelvis from the snow and bring the vertical projection of the body with the heel plate raised over the legs, reaching the upright position. Keep the edge securely fastened in the snow. In this case, increasing the slope decreases the difficulty of the exercise.
    

  Fundamental position

  This is the basic position in snowboarding: ankle and knee flexion, trunk straight, looking forward and shoulders dropped above the hips. The position is the same with both bindings tied. We should always practice this exercise with the board perpendicular to the line of maximum slope, both on the toes and heels.

  • Direct descent with one foot. With the board perpendicular to the line of maximum slope and the fundamental position, we take a small jump to