Competition! Mental issue.

Posted: 07 January 2011 08:05 PM

Hello!

How do you tackle different kind of pressure on the hill?

I have a really trouble with the kind of mentality that excisist on big mountain / freeride comp´s. Everybody say´s there in to it for fun. And are friends. And al that kind of stuff. Well. I don´t know. Still there are judges and if competing wasn´t the big part: why border to sign up at al?
I really feel that this kind of talk are a bigger challange to me than the slope it self.

Head to head with 100 of mountain bikers at an Avalance race, or with 4 other snowboarders in the starting gates of a boarder X race: cool I just go in to my self and relax and focus on my line. But in this freeride comps - at least the smaller ones that I take part in I can´t really get in to the “zone”. Too manny people that are friends and want to talk. Still there are a competition and…well I don´t know. Does any one else recognize this?

Posted: 11 January 2011 01:49 AM

I don’t compete in snowboarding, however I do find I have to “psych” myself up to try a new trick or box in the park.

What I use is a visualization technique and music…  snowboard-addiction.com’s Nev explains that you should see in your mind the trick/obstacle in your mind and see yourself performing it perfectly.  Now I am not very good at this, the images are fuzzy and I have a hard time seeing myself completing the trick…  hence why I probably don’t have boardslides down yet.  With practice though it should get better I’d imagine.

Music is a large part of my freestyle riding…  I have a ride playlist with a lot of high energy stuff (Prodigy, Swollen Members, Deadmau5, Calvin Harris, Robyn, Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, etc) that puts me in a zone.  First it helps drown out all the other riders and some of the stupid comments I hear when the music is off and second it helps me get amped to try something new.

My two cents, hopefully that can help you focus a bit more.

Posted: 11 January 2011 10:11 AM

Thank´s a lot Steve!

Music is a good advice! I try that when freeride comps start in April. For sure.

As for competing in snowboard. Well I really don´t do that with any big ambitions. It´s just for fun and it also motivates me a bit to push myself on my homeslope.

I really like your “mental image” technique. That´s really progressive. I will try that too.

As for now I only go on feeling. When it feels right I try something new. When I get my as ready for something new thats probably due to the fact that I have done my (few) tricks so many times that I have them in my legs rather than in my brain. A safe and slow way to progression….... quite Swedish when I think about it =)

What´s your favorite direction of rotation? BS or FS? I like the BS best by far.

/ MP

Posted: 11 January 2011 12:37 PM

Slow and steady wins the race I say, Swedish or not that is a good way to look at progression.

If you haven’t you most definitely should check out the freestyle material at snowboard-addiction.com.  They have a whole lot of material that is less then a private lesson and covers pretty much from learning to ride all the way to spinning 10’s.  I’ve had the series since the beginning of the year and constantly find myself reviewing on and off the slopes.

I’m not at the point of spinning off jumps…  trying to work on getting better at switch riding which has been progressing in leaps and bounds so far.  On flatland it seems I can jump better BS…  probably because it’s off my toes and I walk a lot off my toes (looks uber retarded).

Posted: 11 January 2011 10:46 PM

Cool Steve!

We are at the same level. I got sick of just carving in slalom gates and strait jumping at the boarder cross track so I started flat tricks a year ago. Butter BS 180 was my first trick. Now I do BS 180 of jumps steady and start to try 360 (I gues it´s more of a 290 and a slide in the landing so far….) and hopefully 540 at the end of season.

I also try to go big on grabs. That´s beacuse there are not a lot of bigger dropps around my homehill so I need some feeling of aircontroll for the freeride comps. In generall I think drops are a lot easier than jumps.

The freestyle thing that comes most natural for me is the half pipe. Unfortunately my homehill take the shaping of their halfpipe quarterseriously.

How do you do FS 180 from the flat? I can´t get them right.

Best of luck on the boxes!

/ MP

Posted: 12 January 2011 12:25 AM

MP, pop off your toes instead of off your heels. It’s much easier to pop off your toes. Past 180 it’s easier off your heels, but fs 1s are much easier off the toes.