The Ultimate Guide to
Counter Rotation
Brought to you by
www.onlinesnowboardcoach.com
About Online Snowboard coach
Online Snowboard Coach is a community where Snowboarders come
to get the very best coaching there is online.
We also provide Progressions for all Levels of Snowboarding:
Stop Catching Edges
Master the Turns
Destroy the Mountain
NOTE: If you’re new to OSC, you can click one of the links above for
Free, instant access to our most popular Snowboard progressions and
Articles on the subject that interests you most: Beginner,
Intermediate or Advanced.
If you like what you see you can subscribe to our Online Snowboard
Coach Newsletter and get New Progressions delivered straight to your
Inbox…
CONTENTS
1) COUNTER ROTATION
So what is counter rotation?
Counter Rotation is where your upper body works against your Lower
body when trying to make smooth fluent turns on your snowboard.
On green and most blue Trails, you will get away with it but more
than likely you will have a turn that feels easier to perform than the
other.
People start running into trouble when they try and take their riding
to the next level without addressing this problem first.
So…
What does it look like?
Click here to watch the video
As you can see from the image above counter rotation is where our
upper body is twisted from the lower body on the snowboard.
So, here is a quick example of what most people do when riding down
the hill…
I want you to imagine your body being like a rubber band! Take your
lower body (feet, knees and hips) and twist them one way, now take
the upper body (torso, arms and head) and twist it in the opposite
direction.
This is essentially what you’re doing when trying to turn your
snowboard, your upper and lower body parts are fighting each other.
The reason one way feels easier to turn is because it’s feels natural to
open up to the down side edge of the hill.
If you are using counter rotation in your snowboarding, more than
likely it will be harder to turn from the heel to the toe edge.
Most people who are doing this find they have to kick the back foot
around on one of their turns, especially true on steep terrain!
And unfortunately, you will never be a good snowboarder or ride
down black trails easy unless you address this problem.
So how do you fix counter rotation?
I want you to think of your body as that rubber band again…
This time the lower and upper body are just hanging there with no
twist or built up energy.
I want you to imagine twisting only the upper body and watching the
lower body automatically follow it around.
This is the same concept we want to apply to our snowboarding!
Although a lot of our turning technique is initiated from our lower
body (Feet, knees and Hips) we can use our upper body to generate
natural energy which will help sling shot the lower body around down
and through the turn!
We call this anticipation in to the turn.
PRO TIP: This is how you ride Steep Terrain…’Anticipation’
Click the play button
So here is an exercise you can do straight away which will help you fix
your BAD HABIT of counter rotation.
Start by standing in your basic stance, with your back hand, grab hold
of you snowboard pants and DON’T let go! (Hold onto them the
whole run)
Now. With your front arm, I want you to look and point to exactly
where you want to go. You will be pointing all throughout your whole
turn, try to really exaggerate the movements in the beginning.
Your old habits are going to want to come back but you must resist!
Do this exercise for at least 3 runs and then monitor your progress,
you must be consciously aware of your body movements when doing
this.
If you are doing this exercise correct, you will notice a huge difference
in bringing your snowboard down into the fall line straight away.
Good luck my friend…’destroy the mountain’
Your Coach,
Logan
www.onlinesnowboardcoach.com