Visualisation

I’ve come to the opinion that visualization is pretty much the key to really progressing.

For example even something relatively simple like a good toe side stop can be improved a lot by really thinking about imagining it with control of every single part of your body. Not just a hazy picture of what someone looks like doing that stop but imagining how you roll your front hip in to keep your lower body aligned, imagining the tightness in your core to achieve this, the sound of the snow as your board edges in, the feel under your feet of the pressure building up, how it will look as you either look over your front shoulder or under your front arm.

When you start moving in to something a bit more complicated like a corked five then the visualization gets exponentially way more complicated. Then you have to imagine the timing of your setup carve, when you want to start dropping in to the carve to build up pop for the takeoff, as you leave the lip where you want you center of mass to be heading and which way you want it to be turning.

For me personally I have found tricks I wanted to do I could visualize somewhat but I had to go out and huck them to start to really get an understanding of what was going on and often times the trick would feel very different to how I expected it to feel from watching it in the videos. Rarely would I get it the first day but then I could go home process it, think about what was going on and then go back to try it another time and that would experience would normally work a lot better.

Now when I am spinning I like to imagine where I want to be when I grab the board so for a corked back 5 mute I concentrate on the position just after 180, leaning almost flat back in the air, with my left hand grabbing my board on the toe edge and right shoulder dropped down and looking down in the space under my right shoulder for the landing (I’m regular by the way). Oh and ideally boning the hell out of my board my pushing back with full force with my right leg but that doesn’t always work out haha. If I can get into this position the rest of the jump takes care of itself.

So from this idea can a really talented rider visualize a trick with much more depth, quicker and right from the beginning? I think it was the skier Jon Olson who said before he had ever tried the trick he had already visualized it thousands of times in his head so he knew exactly what was going on.

Be really interesting to hear others opinions on this topic. Perhaps other ideas on how to visualize succesfully, or how to visualize certain maneuvers, haha.

yeah i agree that visualisation can help alot…something about seeing yourself successfully do a trick in your mind helps with confidence as well

I think the really helps.
and to get into more difficult tricks, I would think that yes more difficult tricks become easier to visualize as you progress toward them. It takes the knowledge of a 360 to help visualize how a 540 will feel… progression.

Visualization helps at the beginner level too.
Also in the park with getting above the lip in a pipe. or landing off the end of a box.

That’s excellent advice Will. I always visualise what I am trying to do. For me it’s really important to also understand how the trick works i.e. the actual physics of it (I believe this is really important even for beginners). Once I understand what is happening and what my body needs to do, visualising it becomes easier. I really like how you describe the small details of visualisation, all the way to the sound of the snow. I am going to keep this in mind when I get back on the board.

I know exactly what you mean when you say sometimes you have to huck first to get the feeling of it - that’s definately happened to me before. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel how you imagined. Once you try it, you can adjust and re-visualise based on what you just felt/experienced.

I feel all good riders visualise - they must. I can’t understand how someone could throw a corked 10 without going over it their heads a million times. You are probably right though, more talented riders can just do it a lot quicker. Confidence is also a factor for sure.

Thanks, good to hear you guys are of a similar mindset. I find it a really interesting subject and it can be made beneficial for everything, whether it may be going for a job interview or running faster. I know Jordan used to meditate everyday and use visualization to help win games.

In regards to focusing on details another thing which can really help people, especially if the trick is becoming a struggle for them is visualizing the ride away. So if it is a beginner turn,, then visualizing riding out of the turn confidently, in control and also the pyshcological result they want. So imagine how it made the trip feel even more worthwhile, imagine how they can tell their friends, feel impowered or impress some cutie on the chairlift. Whatever it takes to motivate them will help drive them to keep trying and help them believe they can already do it. Again same theory applies for getting motivation for working hard for an exam or whatever.

For those that really benefit visualization, does it help equally to see someone else do the task or trick?
Or is closing your eyes and imagining it a stronger teaching tool for you?

I think both are included within receiving information in a visual manner, but I could call it internally visual or externally visual.
Internally visual would be imagining yourself doing it.
Externally visual would be watching someone else do it.

Which is a stronger more effective way of learning for you?

I would think everyone would benefit from visualization. I think the external viewpoint is the first step and the internal viewpoint the second step. I picked this up from a kungfu book when I was young and then just applied it to snowboarding. Have a trick you want to do and everyday imagine it from a different angle and try imagining it playing slowly to begin with and faster as time goes on. Once you feel confident that you can see it from most angles then try seeing it from an internal perspective. It is necessary to see it externally first so you are sure of what you are trying to picture in your head when you want to see it internally. Ultimately you want to be able to play the trick through in your head at different speeds, pause it, rotate, switch from internal to external.

It has been shown that basketball players who visual shooting hoops for an hour get about 94% of the benefit that they would get from shooting hoops for reall. It depends how good your concentration, positivity and focus is as how to beneficial it will be too you. If you can relax deeply by meditating that would also make it more effective.

I guess it depends on how much one cares about snowboarding as to what degree they would follow through with it, or whether it is even worth applying.

External visualisation for me is what I was talking about before in understanding how the trick works, the physics of it. Seeing someone else do it (sucessfully or unsucessfully) helps me understand what my body needs to do, or not do. It also helps with knowing how much speed you need on the approach and how the kicker is going to throw you, which I also believe helps with visualisation, as you can now visualise your speed, pop, and you can get an idea of how it will feel to leave the lip of the jump.

snowslider to answer your question, I think internal is definately stronger if you put it to proper use.

Will, that’s really interesting about the basketball visualisation.

To take this one step further, what about static exercises to teach your body the required movements? Standing on your board, eyes closed, and going through the actual movements statically.

I also sometimes do this while riding (not with eyes closed). Carve in hard on my toe edge and imagine I’m about to launch a big backside spin off a jump, using the exact same pressure and technique as if I was going into the jump, then spinning the jump on the snow using the same rotary movements as I would in the air.

Visualization is super important. I never approach a booter or rail without going over it in my head first even if it’s only for 5 seconds.

rider26 - 17 June 2009 06:43 AM

External visualisation for me is what I was talking about before in understanding how the trick works, the physics of it. Seeing someone else do it (sucessfully or unsucessfully) helps me understand what my body needs to do, or not do. It also helps with knowing how much speed you need on the approach and how the kicker is going to throw you, which I also believe helps with visualisation, as you can now visualise your speed, pop, and you can get an idea of how it will feel to leave the lip of the jump.

snowslider to answer your question, I think internal is definately stronger if you put it to proper use.

Will, that’s really interesting about the basketball visualisation.

To take this one step further, what about static exercises to teach your body the required movements? Standing on your board, eyes closed, and going through the actual movements statically.

I also sometimes do this while riding (not with eyes closed). Carve in hard on my toe edge and imagine I’m about to launch a big backside spin off a jump, using the exact same pressure and technique as if I was going into the jump, then spinning the jump on the snow using the same rotary movements as I would in the air.

yeah definitely, that last paragraph is totally something I do a lot. Riding down a cattrack I pick a spot ahead where I imagine the lip would be (all on a flat run, I’m not talking about jumping off the side of the run, just practicing the tricks on flat). I get into my setup carve on my heel edge, then as I switch to my toe edge start crouching down to load up pressure and then pop when you get to the point you had planned on. Backside 540s on flat are totally possible if you get the timing right. I’m sure some young ripper could do a 720 on flat, I’d like to see that. The frontside version is loads harder though cause of lack of pop off the heel edge. Unless you spin frontside off of your toes but that’s a whole different story…..

Going off topic a bit… I find spinning cab by far the easiest on flat. I guess it’s somewhat of a cheat because I pop off the nose (tail really) of the board. I’m regular and my right leg is my stronger side, so when riding switch I can get a lot of pop off my nose because it’s my stronger side. I can spin cab 540s on the flat easily, but no way I could do that regular backside or even regular frontside for that matter. My buddy Shane (shaner on the forums) can spins backside 540s on the flat like they are nothing. I have always found it interesting how everyones preferferred body movements are different. Some people find backside easier, some frind frontside easier, for me cab is the preferred way to spin.

Frontside off the toes… now that’s something I’ve been working on for a while. Just started happening for me this past season. And backside off the heels… only on the flat and rollers etc… but still a lot of fun to work on. It clicked for me one morning on session, the way it was explained helped me so much. The upper and lower body separation concept. Never thought of it that way before, and as soon as I starting watching the trainer and thinking about it, it just clicked. I was so stoked that day!

yeah I can see what you are saying about the cab fives on flat although it is kind of a different technique to you would want to use off a kicker cause it is more of a nollie motion. Actually saying that if you could do nollie can fives over a table that would be so awesome. Thats rad you have that though, you build up on a lot of pressure on the heel edge or is it more off of the tail(switch nose)? I’ve done lots of those round 360 but never managed to get the pop to get round 5.

Everyone having different styles and trick preference is rad cause it keeps snowboarding fresh and new tricks get developed which everyone can try. Riding round with a couple of buddies who are similar ability levels but have different trick preferences is the best, feeding off each other, competing and picking up new tricks, so fun.

Oh I definately would not want to nollie off a kicker. I have accidently done this a couple of times on smaller jumps, because I am so used to popping off my nose for cab spins. Needless to say I was all off-axis and it ended badly. Technique-wise, I get down somewhat low, build a good amount of pressure on my heel edge and pre-wind fully, as the pressure is at its highest I transfer all the pressure to under my front foot, get my weight forward and pop of the nose as I unwind simultaneously. I definately had cab 3s super solid first, I was popping them off everything. I also had cab 5s fairly solid off small jumps and rollers. The first ten of so times I tried them on the flat, most the time I did a cab 450 to front edge catch. The reason I think I got them dialed was because of what this thread is all about. I understood all the parts, I knew I could do it so the confidence was there, but most importantly I could visualise them so clearly in my head.

can’t wait to try those next winter, for now guess I’m going to have put the visualization in to pratice

Hey will, good thread, now i know why you were practising your switch board slides on that down rail in whis while i was working on my regular ones!!! you’d been cheatin, visulising them before hand!!!grrrr.  sorry i’ve missed this thread so far, i’ve jus flown out to NZ and on the first day here, my girlfriend yanked out the power cable on my laptop so it’s broke now :(.

anyways on the visulisation topic, i agree with how useful it is, i think if you rode park without visulizing stuff before hand you would be able to ride park for long…..
I’ve always had problems with kickers though, say your doing a spin 360 or more, i always find it all happens quite fast and i can remember and focus on the run up and leaving the lip then it goes faily blank and hazy and then wham, the landing comes into view, or you just get the sense when your about to touch down and you just try to stick it the best you can.  does anyone know what i’m going on about wiith this??  i guess front fives are a really clear example of this for me, specially if you have to huck them a little! you just let it go then next thing you know your coming round in the action of a front one just about to put it down. 

I just started doing cab 360s off kickers and i’d say that its one spin i feel like i have all the time in the world to do it, you just float round, think about the state of the middle east….then put her down, well you get the idea. dunno why this trick is so different though…..

A question for you guys, what do you think about before you hit a jump and on the approach. for me i choose and think about the trick before i drop. but once i’ve dropped i tend to just be as relaxed as possible and loose.  i’m not really thinking about the trick in too focused a manner just maybe doing a few gentle pre pops on run in or feeling my edges?  Its kinda like before an exam stats when your waiting to file into the hall, i’m not going over the material, that time has passed (usually in the early hours of the night before   ).  i’m interested to know how you guys go about you pre drop and dropin?

I think about not getting twisted and off axis mid spin, which usually happens.
Im a hucker though, I dont give myself enough air time to be relaxed and float. I try to just crank and unload with little airtime. I dont know what going big is.
The only things that floats for me is a slow BS180, I can do them in a lot of places, and they feel like I really float them, and I wonder when I’ll get back on the snow again…
but doing a 360, I always try to spin it too fast, because I dont give myself enough airtime to relax and let it come around.