Improving air awareness

Posts: 33 - Karma: 120

Jul 9 2014 4:11AM

So i'm looking to improve my kicker game, my skiing sucks but especially my kicker game. I can 3 and have hit a couple of 5s before (CLAIM) but never backflipped or stuff.

Since i'm from the UK i'm limited to hitting decent kickers like 1-2 weeks a year.

My problem is when i'm in the air I "blackout". I hit the kicker, hit my trick then land, but i'm never spotting my landing, or know where the hell I am really.

What would you guys advise to get better at knowing where I am and throwing down some bigger tricks. Really wanna learn to cork 7 at some point so need to get over this issue first!

Cheers NS.

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Japaneezy

Posts: 1039 - Karma: 4,267

Jul 9 2014 5:41AM

TRAMP.

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spaceghostpurp

Posts: 249 - Karma: 835

Jul 9 2014 9:57AM

take it slower. like when you spin think about making it more smooth and slow it down and try to concentrate on spotting the landing. It worked for me.

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bedin

Posts: 482 - Karma: 1,972

Jul 9 2014 11:35AM

Don't set the spin as hard.

I was having issues with this until I made my set minimal to get the trick around. Not whipping your head off takeoff will help air awareness.

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Download-My-Apps

Posts: 5069 - Karma: 1,017

Jul 9 2014 8:08PM

Doing more movement orientated sports in general will give you better body awareness, and it will ideally allow you to learn faster for skiing. Spending time at a gymnastics facility, trampolines and diving boards are obviously your best bet for air skills. You might be able to enable your jump edging and pop playing around on roller blades or ice skates as well.

That being, said being on skis a few times a year will limit your ability to move onto bigger tricks such as cork 7. IMO there are a list of other tricks you should be able to do first.

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casey_cope

Posts: 675 - Karma: 3,398

Jul 9 2014 10:52PM

trampolines. you'll get used to spotting your landing and stuff and besides, tramping is fun as balls.

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Mingg

Posts: 13936 - Karma: 48,466

Jul 9 2014 11:36PM

Pretty much do what everyone else said. Slow it down and focus on it more than you need to.

Your "blackout" or whatever is normal. Air awareness doesn't mean you visually know where you are in the air. It means you can feel where you are in the air. If you had like insanely excellent air awareness, you would be able to close your eyes and still know where you are in the air. It's something that you can't really teach. You naturally learn it. Seriously, the best thing you can do is the same trick over and over again.

To spot for a 3 I would recommend when you feel like you're at about 270 you look over your leading shoulder and look at the landing. There ya go, you spotted your landing.

Just do this over and over and over again. You'll get used to bringing your eyes around faster than your spin so you have that extra second to spot it. Then after a while you won't need as much time to spot it.

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