Tutor - Big Air Rotations

Six Basic Steps

Kelly Alonzo (fflak@acad3.alaska.edu) writes:

1. You can't start a spin off a flat board very well. You need an edge or your board must be held straight in some sort of groove. This is because if you try to twist off the flat board, your upper body will go one way and the board will go the other, giving you a net angular momentum of 0. You simply cannot generate spin without pushing against something. Your angular velocity can change if you pull your arms towards your body. But, once you are in the air, there are no external forces acting on you except gravity, and gravity exerts no torque about your center of mass, so your angular momentum will not change, so you've got to generate it while you are on the ground.
2. Start learning spins from a toe-side traverse accross the hill without sideslipping. You can be fakie or not, depending on the direction you are traversing, but you want to be on your toes. This will establish the edge you need, and your natural jumping tendency to push with your toes as you take off will help. If you try to learn from your heel side, you will tend to release your edge when you push off and you'll need a bigger kicker.
3. Twist so the front of the board goes uphill. A regular footed rider on her toeside would rotate clockwise. This means you will rotate one direction when you start normally, and the other direction when you are going fakie. There are at least two reasons for this. You can wind up easier without starting a skidding turn, and you can slide out of an under- rotated trick more easily.
4. Before you leap, crouch, spread your arms straight out to the side, and wind up in the direction opposite your spin prior to your takeoff. As you take off, rotate your upper body in the direction of your spin as hard as you can without breaking your edge loose, and pull your arms close to your chest as you leave the ground. This rotation, while your are still on the ground gives you all the spin you're going to get. If you take off late, your rotation will stop, and you won't be spinning when you get your edge clear of the ground. If you take off early, you won't have built up as much angular momemtum as you could have. By starting with your arms out, and pulling them in, you will increase your rate of spin even though your momentum remains the same. Don't start with your arms in front of you, since this will move your axis forward and you'll tend to tip over. Timing the twist and the leap is the key, and the only way to learn is repetition.
5. Bend your knees deeply as you land. You will probably under-rotate, but if you were able to leap straight up so you were spinning around a vertical axis, you should be able to slide out of it without falling.
6. It is easiest to learn this with a small bump for a kicker, going pretty slow.

You can turn your board about a quarter turn in either direction with no change in angular momentum by counter- rotating your legs and upper body. This is how you do "late" tricks, and appear to stop and start spinning during grabs, etc.. This is also an easy way to get into habits that will keep you from getting past 270 or so. Keeping your head turned helps avoid masking a lack of angular momentum because it makes it hard to do the counter-rotation.

Putting it to the test...

The above advice is supported by a posting to rec.skiing.snowboard by Aaron Couts (aaronc@cyds.com), who writes: Well, after many attempts, most of which resulted in the unpopular 270 (ouch), I finally landed a 360 a couple weekends ago. The hit was perfect -- it was a spine going down the hill maybe 30-40 feet, with soft snow on either side. It was much easier being able to approach it from the side rather than the front. Anyway, I approached the spine from the right side with the intention of doing a frontside 360 (I am regular footed). I hear that frontside 360s are harder than backside, but I didn't know this at the time. I took the jump, and as I was right at the lip, I started what would be a sliding frontside turn if I were on the ground. Then it was all momentum, and by the time I hit the ground I had turned completely around. I was so surprised that 2 seconds later I dug my frontside edge.

I'm not sure if this was the right way to do it, and I stuck the landing only 3 out of 20 or 30 tries, but hey. I got a lot of tips from some other guys in the park, and here's the ones that helped me out:

• Start out with a hit that you can approach from one side or the other. Straight-on approaches are scary and hard to learn.
• If you approach the jump from the right (as you're looking down the hill), do a counter-clockwise 360. If you approach from the left, do a clockwise one. This is true whether you are regular- or goofy-footed (counter-clockwise equals frontside if you're regular)
• Keep your knees good and bent.
• Try to keep your body oriented up-and-down as you leave the jump. If you lean back when you start a frontside 360, you will land, surprise surprise, on your back.

Now that I've gone through all that, here's what I _heard_ (but did not try) about doing the supposed-to-be-easier backside 360. The key to the backside 360 is that before you even leave the jump, your upper body should be completely rotated around. This way, when you're in the air, your board just has to catch up with the rest of you. Although I haven't tried it, it seems to make sense. If you stand up in the room that you are in right now, designate one wall as being in the direction of the jump, and adjust your stance to what it would be if you were on a board heading toward that wall. Keeping your feet in the same place, t-w-i-s-t around in the backside direction and turn your head as far as it will go. You should be able to see the wall that represents the jump. This should be your body position right before you leave the jump. Now if you jump up in the air, your office mates will stare at you and you will wrench your back like I just did. But that's the way it's supposed to work. Good luck.