Best Methods to Master Riding Switch?

[STEEZUS_CHRI5T]

My aggressive park days are coming to a close and I plan to work on smaller things. I'm comfortable switch but would love to take it to higher speeds and hold better form outside the terrain park.

My problem is that I'm unable to look over my left shoulder and drop my left ski back without turning downhill left. Could this be an issue with flexibility, weight distribution, or boot stiffness? (All is well when my boots are dangerously loose)

Was hoping to hear from some riders who really have it nailed down. Again, it's difficult to get my knee bent as shown below and I usually immediately turn when I take this stance.

 

[Weekendwarrior69]

Id say practice going onto your left edges from this position

 

[bennwithtwons]

i struggled with this same issue for a long time. i could ski mach 5 in a carve over either shoulder but had a hard time skiing straight when looking over my right (so opposite of you). the way i got over this was to practice on low angle stuff (such as when approaching the lift) and really focus on pushing on my uphill foot. this would cause a slight drift in the direction of my downhill shoulder. then i'd keep looking over that shoulder and pulsing on that uphill foot to push wide and then slowly carve back in. if you keep doing this, you'll start to find that balance point where you have the proper weighting on each ski to go straight or to jink left or right as needed. it is just technique (combo of weight dist. and edge control), not flexibility (although that never hurts) or boots. hopefully that is coherent!

 

[Non_State_Actor]

Threads.

 

[Lemuel]

I have this problem but with looking over my right shoulder. So I just don’t look over / rarely look over my right shoulder. You can still bomb hills and carve both ways only looking one way.

best way to practice getting over this would likely be on low angle stuff. Do some yoga too, my girl Adrienne on YouTube will loosen you up.

 

[mikem]

get two cups of water, one in both hands and try to ski something low angle without spilling them switch turning both ways. This will keep you upright and off your edges. Then you will be able to feel how your edges are pushing turns. then do it again and again

 

[BradFiAusNzCoCa]

I look inside and kinda under my right shoulder to lock the turn. I don’t look over outside shoulder unless I’m ready to open up. It can get super squirrely

 

[ajbski]

The stagger in your feet really goes a long way to help create upper and lower body separation. it lets your shoulders be at full 90, your hips at 45 and your feet at 0. also make sure you are bending in the hip enough.

Do you have any pics or videos of you skiing sw?

If youre bent at the hip and you got good separation, maybe you are trying to keep your head up-right to literally see "over" your shoulder. Try leaning your head down forward and sideways as if youre shooting a gun and look down the line. If you still cant see directly behind you, stagger and bend more. there is still obviously a blind spot no matter what.

 

[STEEZUS_CHRI5T]

The stagger in your feet really goes a long way to help create upper and lower body separation. it lets your shoulders be at full 90, your hips at 45 and your feet at 0. also make sure you are bending in the hip enough.

Do you have any pics or videos of you skiing sw?

If youre bent at the hip and you got good separation, maybe you are trying to keep your head up-right to literally see "over" your shoulder. Try leaning your head down forward and sideways as if youre shooting a gun and look down the line. If you still cant see directly behind you, stagger and bend more. there is still obviously a blind spot no matter what.

I am standing more upright now that I think about it. I'll try what you mentioned when I get a chance later this season, hopefully can get a video/pic

 

[TOAST.]

I have the opposite problem, have trouble looking over my right shoulder. it's so bad that even when I am backing up a car I want to look over my left shoulder.

 

[Frenchibre]

Every small problem (poor ability to turn the head on one side, etc) often comes from a main one : the lack of clear weight distribution on the outside foot. Practice long switch turns on gentle slops with a long driving phase in-between the turns where you exaggerate the change of weight distribution on one leg to another

 

[midwestcoast]

I had a type 1 skier visit for a couple days. I wanted to hang, and knew it would be brutal. I consciously made the decision to learn skiing switch over both shoulders. It definitely takes flexibility, but the more I did it, the easier it got. Just takes reps. Back to back 5+ hour days ended up being the best thing for me. I literally never thought I'd look back fondly skiing with a total rookie, but here we are...

 

[nmwninjart]

Lots of repetition.

I couldn't look over my right shoulder and keep straight for several years. I still forget sometimes and end up turning. Last Season I work on switch a lot and had the epiphany. For some silly reason I wasn't replicating the same body position as I have when looking over my left shoulder. What it was , was Bending my knee more and feeling the shin in the front of my boot. This opened my hips a little more , letting me turn shoulders and head more. Now I just have to get used to speed while switch.

**This post was edited on Nov 14th 2023 at 7:05:41pm

 

[STEEZUS_CHRI5T]

I have this problem but with looking over my right shoulder. So I just don’t look over / rarely look over my right shoulder. You can still bomb hills and carve both ways only looking one way.

best way to practice getting over this would likely be on low angle stuff. Do some yoga too, my girl Adrienne on YouTube will loosen you up.

any episodes in particular that you recommend?

 

[Rock_Inhabitant]

get two cups of water, one in both hands and try to ski something low angle without spilling them switch turning both ways. This will keep you upright and off your edges. Then you will be able to feel how your edges are pushing turns. then do it again and again

Replace the water cups with pints of beer. Then finish what you don’t spill at the end of the run. Continue until you can’t even make it down the hill.

 

[Lemuel]

any episodes in particular that you recommend?

There’s one labeled for rock climbers that I remember really hitting all the right spots. She has so many, start with some short / beginner ones then try to do one of the 30 day playlists. You’ll get a bit of everything

 

[BearsOnKetamine]

go down runs switch?

 

[STEEZUS_CHRI5T]

go down runs switch?

Switch means backwards

 

[freestyler540]

Skiing switch get easier the more you do it. The ya realise that is exactly like learning to ski all over again!

Heres a checklist. Tell me which one you are missing.

-Stance: center. Are you leaning too much on your skis? Are your knees slightly bent?

-Head: only look on one side. (I know the backlash, but Its so much easier)

-Lead change: is your lower ski slightly ahead of the upper ski while you turn? Do you feel the lead change occuring? Put a lot of emphasis on that.

-Dosing pressure: can you lift the inner ski during a turn? Can you tranfer weight smoothly from one leg to another? Can you control your speed.

-Terrain: is it groomed or pretty bumpy. Sometimes in switch skiing, the terrain can just be too gnarly to ski backward.

 

[Brother_trucker]

My aggressive park days are coming to a close and I plan to work on smaller things. I'm comfortable switch but would love to take it to higher speeds and hold better form outside the terrain park.

My problem is that I'm unable to look over my left shoulder and drop my left ski back without turning downhill left. Could this be an issue with flexibility, weight distribution, or boot stiffness? (All is well when my boots are dangerously loose)

Was hoping to hear from some riders who really have it nailed down. Again, it's difficult to get my knee bent as shown below and I usually immediately turn when I take this stance.

View attachment 1080042

For me skiing switch is about working out which shoulder you like looking over the best, then sticking with that one. You don't need to change the position of the feet really, just let the radius of the ski do the carving work for you. Stick to easy, uncrowded slopes that are well groomed and do lap after lap for days on end till it becomes totally natural. Its also a good idea to switch to and fro between switch and normal stance The reality is repetition is what you need. Most folks don't like that idea, but this is actually how you get it dialled for skiing generally. I had a mate that is an OK skier, but doesn't do more than a week a season and he's simply never getting any better because he won't go ski blue runs with me all day while I train him to carve and have a better stance, and to work out how to vary turn length better. He just doesn't want to do the repetition and hard yards of practice, result, he doesn't get any better.