Upper Body Counter rotation on steep terrain.
Upper body Counter rotation on a snowboard can be an evil trait for some Riders, especially when it comes to riding steep terrain…In fact, most snowboarders I see on the hill Always have some kind of counter rotation issue that slows there snowboarding progression down…
Quick note: Counter Rotation is not a good thing if you want to become a technically sound snowboarder, it will not improve your Steering on a snowboard when riding black diamond trails!
In general 8 out of ten people I see from the chair lift have either an extreme case of counter rotation going on…
Do you?
Stay tuned to find out if you fit into that category?
For those of you who don’t know what counter rotation on the snowboard is then this just might be one of the best blog posts about improving your snowboarding you’ve ever read!
Upper Body Counter Rotation on a Snowboard
Here’s your tip of the day:
I want you to imagine a rubber band…
Now, twist the upper half and lower half of the rubber band in opposite directions, what you are essentially doing is creating a twisting energy that is consistently fighting each other…
This is exactly what counter rotation looks like on the snowboard, your upper body and lower body are twisting in opposite direction from each other and creating conflicting forces that don’t help your riding in any way possible.
You can have a very slight counter rotation issue going on and the repercussions from it are massive, especially when learning how to snowboard on steep terrain.
The worst thing about all of this is that a lot of snowboarders will carry this HUGH BAD HABIT with them for their entire life of snowboarding and not even realise it…
And unfortunately will always wonder why they can’t ride steeps with style and balance or spin off jumps easily?
SO what are some of the consequence’s from riding with counter rotation on steep terrain (or mellow terrain for that matter)?
Lack of steering into or out of the Snowboard Turn?
If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are drifting down the hill instead of traversing across it, then my friend, it sounds like you might be a victim of counter rotation.
There is a chance that you are not applying enough pressure on the front foot into and through the turn but if that’s not the case, your lower and upper body are fighting each other and your snowboard is telling the real story.
Intermediate Snowboarding bad habits
This one is huge a problem!!!
What tends to happen is that people don’t understand that they have a counter rotation problem going on, and try to counteract the forces that they are creating in the first place, this normally results in:
Breaking at the waist and transferring weight off the snowboard or…Transferring weight onto the back foot.
This also might cause the rider to dump too much pressure on an edge at once. ( To try and slow down ,When going onto the new edge of the snowboard)
And this is exactly why you will get edge chatter when riding on steep or bumpy terrain.
Intermediate snowboarding Control then Extreme self-doubt on Steep Terrain.
Unfortunately,snowboarders with counter rotation will still be able to turn and change edges on blue/green trails.
This ultimately improves the riders confidence and they think they are ready to venture onto stepper terrain… and this is exactly where this bad habit smacks you.
the steeper terrain will cause the rider to lose steering control, and all of the confidence they gained to make linked turns down the easier slopes on the hill.
This is a direct result of counter rotation…’and it MUST BE FIXED!’
For the exact exercises to fix Counter rotation on the snowboard, please follow the Video demonstrations in our ‘Master the turns’ execution plan.
‘ATTENTION INTERMEDIATE SNOWBOARDERS’
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 upper body counter rotation on a snowboard?
Join our other members and ask our OSC snowboard Coaches anything you want about how to snowboard!
Not a member of the OSC Engage Facebook Group. Learn more here….
