Speedchecks. How and Why?

K

kimpz

New member
Hello.

I am beginner in freestyle..

And i was thinking, why speedchecks are important?

And how to do it? Is there any advice you can describe?

Thank you for your answers.
 
to speed check you can either do a little pizza action or dig your edges in uphill. basically anything to slow yourself down a bit to control your speed.
 
Yeah i was wondering what a speedcheck is. Can someone explain how you do it and how you know if you have the correct speed?
 
It basically is when you are approaching a jump (ranging anywhere from just the lip of a rail, to some 80 footer) and you make a snowplow or a slight hockey stop to slow down your speed. Judging the correct speed can sometimes be pretty difficult. You have to take into consideration the wind, temperature (with changes the snow speed, and your distance and angle of the inrun. Knowing the correct speed can be judged by either watching someone, experience, or just sacking up and hitting it, if its your first time ever hitting a jump of that size. Just make sure to be careful, and not be a straight up dumb shit about it.
 
ok so what i do is ski over the rollers and not go actually off of the jumps for my first run, just to get distance. your first hit should take a bit of eyeballing but after a while you will get used to what a jump looks like ad how fast you might have to go. first hits always a bit scary
 
you never really know. u just have to guess... that comes with more and more experience i guess. and when i speedcheck i usually do either a quick pizza or a little swivel to the side real quick.... oh and try not to speed check to close to the jump. thats how ppl hit the knuckle half the time
 
Speedchecking is just to make you feel more comfortable with the speed you've chosen coming in at the jump. Its for when the only thought going through your head is, "holy fuck, too fast." Just give maybe one or two little slides and your mind will be thinking, "oh baby, here we go."
 
try not to snow plow, because you can end up dumping way more speed than u meant to and knoll it pretty hard. Carving is way better
 
speed checking is the pussy's way of avoiding to hit a jump without looking like a total pussy to his friends.
 
pretty much. whats a speed check gonna tell you? you wanna know if you're going fast enough or not, huck it or watch someone else huck and take their speed.
 
That's what I did on my first park hit of the season and threw a 180 over a 15 foot step down and overshot it by about 10 feet
 
It's easiest to ride along with someone that's hit the jump before. He knows how much speed you need. Just ask him if you can ride with him up to the jump, but just go to the side and make a hockey-stop before the knuckle. See where the guy lands and try to remember how fast you were going. Repeat if you're not sure.

Over- or undershooting is really shitty. On a 20ft jump it doesn't really matter, but when you go bigger it sucks really badly
 
A good trick that I find helps to size the jump when going toward it is to take the inrun not strait to the kick but carving outside to see the jump from an angle.
 
Advice from an old guy who can't afford to land really deep anymore. Stand and watch some others go off. See if they are straight running from a certain spot or if they are carving. Try to look at guys who are about your size. It's best if you can find a place on the hill where you are sure that you can straight run and have the right speed. Once you get a feel for that speed, you can try different approaches.

A speed check is for when you KNOW that you are going in too hot. If you speed check on your first attempt, you will probably have the wrong speed. Most of the really bad over shoots I have seen are in jump lines. The person gets the speed right on the first jump, then over shoots the 2nd or third. I try to get my guys to always hit each one separately before they try to combo the whole line. Once you have figured out the speed you need on each individual hit, you will know if you have to throw in a speed check between two jumps.
 
Jumps where i ski are normal, like 30 - 40 so i just ask for the speed and do a straight air like 2 time toomske sure i have the right speed.
 
could that jump that derek spong crashed on be built any more poorly? having a straight wall be your only greeting if you come up short is not a good idea. they may be more work to build, but I am a huge advocate for stepups
 
I usually do a fair amount of speed checking for rails, for example if i'm going to be doing a switch up, i tend to hit the rail a little slower than normal so when i switch up i actually land back on the rail, as opposed to going too fast and having the end of the rail come up on me before my swap.
 
Yeah I was gonna say throw in some sweeping turns in the inrun. It doesn't scrub nearly as much speed so you can have more control
 
Speedchecks have two definitons: (1) skiing up to a jump at full speed but stopping and not hitting it and (2) making small turns or snowplowing before going off a jump to shave off speed

(1) to check if you will have enough speed, to overcome the fear of rolling in to a big jump for the first time

(2) You can slow down a lot easier than speeding up. You should roll into a jump with a little extra speed and use a speed check to drop down to the right level.

 
this is the best way to do it in my opinion, the key is finding that one point where you can go straight down to the jump without carving and land exactly at the right spot, you'll never fuck up once you know what that spot is
 
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