How To Soften Your Landings On A Training Board

You know those snowboarders in the park that make jibbing look super easy and effortless? Become one of them today with this simple technique, Softening Your Landings. It's the easiest way to add style to your jibbing.

This is just one Balance Bar tutorial of many in our massive training series. For even more tutorials, check them out below:

(Narrating/Riding: Nev Lapwood & Saxon Farnworth)

Tips For Softening Your Landings

When you first start hitting boxes and rails, your brain will most likely tell your body to react in a way that the brain thinks is safest. However, this reaction in snowboarding is not always the smartest, or the safest! Why? When you first start hitting boxes and rails, your legs will most likely straighten up, you will stiffen, and you may also push the box or rail away from you as soon as you land on it. A response from your brain to say, "this is not safe, get it away from me!"

Your brain is being simple! It doesn't know any better and is doing it's best to protect you. Unfortunately, in snowboarding, we sometimes make decisions to ignore our brain... Some good, some bad. Hitting a 100 foot cliff with no parachute would be an example of a bad time to ignore your brain. Landing on a box or rail is one of those times where it's smart to ignore the desire to stiffen up, stand tall and push your snowboard away from you!

Notice the stiff legs? This means the board is pushing the Balance Bar away.

How Do You Soften Your Landings?

Whether you are landing on a box or rail, you want to keep reminding yourself about your snowboard technique. That is, stay low, keep your knees bent and soften your landing as much as possible.

You must ensure that you have soft and flexible ankles, knees and hips when landing on a box or rail. You must absorb the impact onto the box or rail as softly and smoothly as possible.

The rider is absorbing their weight into the Balance Bar, making as little impact as possible by having soft ankles, knees and hips.

By absorbing this impact through your ankles, knees and hips, you lower your centre of gravity. You also absorb all the extra impact through your body so that you keep controlled, balanced and stylish for the duration of your trick.

Trick Tip: It all comes down to repetition, which in turn will turn off the noise in your brain trying to oppose the correct snowboard technique. Acknowledging when you don't land with soft ankles, knees and hips. On the same hand, compliment yourself when you do land with the correct technique.

Ten thousand successful softer landings later, you will have your box and rail game dialled and be doing tricks you never thought possible!

Products Used

In this tutorial, we used our Training boards, Bindings and Balance Bar. Click the links below to learn more, or purchase your own so you can train your snowboarding all year round!

Free shipping in the USA and Canada. Cheap shipping in Europe and Australia:

Alex McCann
Snowboard Addiction
Our Goal Is To Improve Your Riding!

Currency