Snowboarding by Yourself

Tips and Exercises to Practice when Snowboarding by Yourself

Snowboarding by yourself is a great way to take some time out and really start to improve your snowboarding without judgment or fear of failure from other people.

Today I would like to talk about a MASSIVE PROBLEM with Beginner and Intermediate Snowboarders!

Breaking at the waist

If you’ve ever found yourself losing edge pressure or falling over when you are on your toe edge, then chances are that you are a victim of breaking the waist!

This generally starts to happen in a snowboarder’s journey when they try to improve their riding from the beginner stages of learning how to ride.

They venture onto steeper terrain (blue & black trails) and this is when most riders find themselves breaking at the waist (without even knowing it)…especially on tracked out steep terrain.

Fortunately for this type of snowboarder it is not a big problem to fix.

Breaking at the waist when you’re a intermediate (or advanced) snowboarder can be very discreet and can cause a lot of frustration and confusion if left for too long without correction.

Not only will it cause you to fall a lot but it will also greatly limit the amount of pressure you can apply to carve efficiently, it will also stop you from riding steeps with a strong confidence and a smooth rhythm.

Let’s look at what problems breaking at the waist can cause:

1) Loss of balance (beginner habit)

2) Loss of edge control (edge chatter)

3) Loss of edge pressure (Advanced snowboarders bad habit)

4) Poor foot pleading pressure (carving pressure)

In fact, I can honestly say that 90%of snowboarders out there today have some sort of form of breaking at the waist when snowboarding.

What does Breaking at the waist Look Like?

Basically, Breaking at the waist is when you ‘Break at the waist’ or bend over (lean forward) through the pelvis…This essentially transfers weight off the snowboard edge and onto the the snow!

You must learn to use the full range of your legs and NOT your back to apply and release edge pressure on and off the snowboard edge!

How do you fix a bad habit like breaking at the waist when snowboarding by yourself?

Here’s a tip:  physically start to feel your back shoulder blades pinch behind you standing in a stationary position and this is the starting point of how to correct your breaking at the waist bad habit.

Start learning how to ride in this, it will help you keep your weight centred and balanced over the snowboard where it should be!

There is obviously a lot more to it than that but this should definitely be a starting point for all you bad habit snowboarders out there who haven’t had a lesson on the board in a while…

…and if you never had a lesson from when you first started learning how to ride then you truly are in for a slow progression into the advanced stages of snowboarding!

Breaking at the waist will not only slow your progression down but keep you stuck at a certain stage of your snowboarding journey…You MUST fix this bad habit to move forward.

I highly recommend you send some footage of yourself snowboarding so we can give you some video analysis to help your fix the problem.

This will no doubt help you improve your riding and set you up for a easy progression into advanced snowboarding

Breaking at the waist is a major bad habit for intermediate snowboarders and if you ever want to become a good advanced snowboarder, You must address this issue!

NOTE: Want to learn how to stay balanced and controlled when Riding steeps on a snowboard? Simply download this bad habits cheat sheet to gain an unfair advantage on the hill. Learn what bad habits snowboarders make so you can AVOID them to progress faster and maintain balance and control easier…check it out now!

Have a question about going snowboarding by yourself?

Stay tuned for part 2…

one more thing, Join our other members and ask our OSC snowboard Coaches anything you want about how to snowboard!

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