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Freestyle instructing

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ScreamingNarwhal
Posts: 24 - Karma: 214
So in addition to building & maintaining the park, I also get tossed in occasionally to teach a freestyle lesson. I can slide rails and spin, but I don't exactly have a huge bag of tricks.

And unfortunately due to snow/ planning issues our park isn't in great shape. The only jump we have setup has a landing that is flat af, and one out of three small rails never sees use.

So for teaching a kid 3's today, I got kinda creative and used the side of the flat landing as a step-up. But he's interested in learning more, but doesn't have an interest in rails, and doesn't exactly have 3's on lock.

Any suggestions for helping a kid progress? I feel pretty shitty for him to be stuck with me just to hike a jump and practice 3's, that he could do for free.
Jan 24 2016 10:49PM
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JAlps
Posts: 555 - Karma: 1,937
Hell yeah man you just have to work your way around tricks that don't need air time, start working on variations of other tricks with him. I'm not sure what your mountain is but look around for side hits that he could practice 3s off of, or even if there is a big wall on the side of the cat track he can carve up it and practice 3's (it's easier than a normal one because you only have to do 3/4 rotation.)

On top of that see how good he is at doing switch. Help him progress and style out his 1's, tell him to stay straight and then turn around really late to get some steeze going. you can do the same with switch 1's, he might not be comfortable taking off switch its a different feeling. have him do switch shifties to late 1's.
If there are rollers anywhere start teaching him butters, you don't need a ton of air time to pull them off, and at the beginning they are essentially the same as doing 3's.

It's all about creativity, sure a sick park would help but there's always endless variations to be done without one!

Also it would be sweet to see a pic of the park setup haha.
Jan 24 2016 10:59PM
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B_stan
Posts: 65 - Karma: 189
butters are cool easy to teach and add a ton of steeze into a skiers arsenal. its something easy that adds crazy style to 3's plus IMO they are easiest to learn flat, because you can really practice getting over the tips or tails of your skis and get comfortable doing that.
Jan 24 2016 11:13PM
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edai
Posts: 4988 - Karma: 4,655
I just started coaching at my local mountain this year, ill ask my head coach and see if hes got any advice in terms of progression. personally id say light the fire under his ass to start hitting some rails. as far as jumps go, start him on unnatural spins if hes trying to jump ahead too quickly. thatll slow him down and make his air awareness and coordination all that much better. then later you can bring him back to his natural 3s and hell be able to clean them up and then you can move on from there.
Jan 24 2016 11:32PM
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KneeDrop
Posts: 641 - Karma: 1,487
Get out of the park and show him how to view the entire mountain more 'freestylie'. Kids love to 180 side hits
Jan 25 2016 12:35PM
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yungsteeze
Posts: 673 - Karma: 1,969
The referenced post has been removed.


this is very accreate. i used to hate rails because i never really tried to get good and just wanted to hit jumps all the time. once i learned rails i started having a lot more fun skiing because i used to want to go hit jumps when my friends were hitting rails, and riding the lift for jumps takes way longer than lapping the rope and hitting rails.
Jan 25 2016 12:40PM
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