Skiing Switch

RRaDD

Member
I need to learn how to ski switch! I've always done 360's and 180's regular and have avoided going switch off the next jump after a 180. Practiced a little on Saturday night and was going to do a 180 into a switch 3. First spin went fine but on my way to the next jump I caught an edge and ate shit and now I have a concussion. I'm pissed! If it helps my Revivals aren't center mounted and I can get them remounted. Can you guys give me some tips on skiing switch?!
 
i would make your way back to the bunny hill, or a run you're very comfortable on. And just start skiing switch. Get the fundamentals down. Don't assume just because you ski park you're going to be boss at skiing switch. You'll just have to teach yourself OR have somebody teach you how. But i would get skiing switch dialed in before even attempting switch spins.
 
I used to have that problem when I was learning switch 180 especially on bigger jumps.The 2 things to focus on will be stance and timing.

Most people get anxious when their skiing switch and start to spin to early, making you catch an edge.

Stance will also effect this. Make sure your always looking straigh oer your shoulder not arching your back at take off. Keep your weight on your heels. Get all your pop from your lower joints and keep your back straight.

Once you get the take off the spinning is nothing. Its far easier to generate rotation switch.

Good luck! switch 3's are fun!
 
I just learned how to ski switch for real and one of the hardest things for me was being able to stretch enough to be able to look behind me. I could always control myself but turning around enough was the problem so I just kept skiing switch on very gentle slopes until my body became flexible enough to turn around a considerable amount. Now I have no problem looking backwards while having a relative lot of control over my skis.
 
I'd say start skiing switch whenever you can, just practise and practise and get comfortable with sharp turns and how to recover if you do catch an edge.

Once you get good at switch without and jumps/rotations, I can give you these general step-by-steps that helped me to learn! Hopefully they help you too!

Look over your shoulder all the way through the air

Flex all your joints equally feeling your heel, arch and ball of of your foot on the bottom of your boot

Wait until heel pieces reach the lip before you take off, patience

Pop equally with both feet, keep hand away and to the side of your body for balance

Get arms to your side and spin shoulders. Unlock ankles and start rotation with a good pop

Once past 180, spot the landing and lean downhill to stay perpendicular to the landing

Hopefully that helps, and just don't stop trying, and don't get discouraged :)
 
so its not that big of a problem that my skiis aren't center mounted? I've also been told to put on ski infront of the other, which is what i was tring to do when my face met the snow.
 
take the dicks out of your mouth, look backward, bend over, and position yourself like you are about to take them in your ass.
 
Also realize that it's very similar to skiing forwards, as in using your edges to turn. Once I thought of it like that I got better quicker. Now I'm fine switch. And I just got crowbars, which are much wider than my previous goggles and that helped a ton, cause I can see now.
 
This. I live on the east coast which has terrible conditions and the parks take forever to open up. My first two days on the mountain this year the parks weren't open so I just spent all day skiing switch and learning how to stagger my stance, link turns, etc. I'm not a pro by any means now but I feel a lot more comfortable doing it now and have started throwing switch 180s before moving up to switch 3's.
 
No. It's not a big deal. Putting one ski infront of the other will just help you look over your shoulder. So looking over your right shoulder, you'll have your left nose in front of your right nose and right taiklinfront of your left tail. And vice versa. And definitely don't hit jumps switch until you can turn confidently switch. Another thing to avoid is to not do a backwards pizza wedge.
 
doood me too. I mean I can 9, all the basic flips, even switch 5 but I still suck one hundred assholes at backwards skiing, shit freaks me out.

I see all my cooler friends just cruising for fun backwards, I think that making a point of doing it often just down runs is what hones the skill
 
If you're decently tall like I am, it helps to do back stretches. I'd say I'm pretty good at skiing switch at this point, but unless I do a few back stretches I can't ski switch for my life. Just another rigor of being tall...
 
Think of when you ski normally you kinda lean in to your turns and move your feet...do it exactly like you ski normally lean into the turn and move your feet also turn left head looks over right should turn right, left shoulder...anyone has anything to add on or disagree quote this...
 
It's DEFINITELY a part of it. Look into some basic yoga back stretches, those helped me more than traditional pre-workout/sports stretching ever did. It's a lot of hip motion and the ability to keep your back straight really, it can't hurt to rotate your neck around a few times as well to get it nice and limber.
 
Yeah, I forgot it in the car for a while but luckily I went back and grabbed it an hour or so before I crashed.
 
I sucked at it too and i still kinda do! you just need to go switch, then go back to regular when you're going down the hill. Just keep doing that over and over when you're not hitting the park. Then you'll eventually figure out how to carve backwards, I'm still working on that!
 
Just start on a slow hill, go switch for as long as you feel comfortable, then just get out of it again. Keep doing this until you start feel better about it, start to practice to stagger your feet, and switch this back and forth each time you switch edges and turn. Just keep practicing
 
ski switch everywhere there is groomed snow. start in a wedge in the places that you need to, then work your way into parallel turns by staggering your stance. alternate which shoulder you are looking over on every turn at first, then play around with turning both ways looking over one shoulder. if your a good skier it probably won't take you too many days before you start to feel confident. when you do take it into a switch spin, remember to be really really patient off the lip before you start spinning.
 
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