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Help doing switch-ups?

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Volcom711
Posts: 8 - Karma: 10
Hey, iv gotten better at skiing recently and can hit a lot of rails now. only problem is thats all i can do. i wanna learn how to do switch-ups but apparently they are harder then they look. i haven't practiced sliding unnatural yet but im guessing that is something im gunna have to learn. are there arny tips that could help me learn switch ups?
Nov 30 2010 5:40PM
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[creative]
Posts: 539 - Karma: 128
turn your head first
Nov 30 2010 5:45PM
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JahJahBinks
Posts: 3567 - Karma: 460
Learn front 2s first.
Nov 30 2010 5:52PM
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DADDYlongLEGS
Posts: 1574 - Karma: 47
I found it easier to learn how to spin off of rails first and then learn switch ups. It is a similar motion but you don't have to stay on a little piece of metal and if you mess up spinning off it tends to hurt less (no nutting yourself or falling on a rail)
Nov 30 2010 5:52PM
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207
Posts: 8969 - Karma: 3,846
pop up and turn yours skis 90 degrees
Nov 30 2010 5:55PM
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Yung_Gnarley
Posts: 9091 - Karma: 3,016
you mean 180º
Nov 30 2010 5:56PM
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chardi
Posts: 5040 - Karma: 59
this.


just set your edges, pop and spin, then repeat 1000 times until it becomes second nature.

the thing about learning rail tricks is its just about practicing a lot
Nov 30 2010 5:57PM
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MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
1. As you are coming at the rail, come at it slightly from the side. This will make gripping much easier

2. Pop off the lip and immediately be in the position to dig your edge. Have your back foot flat on the rail/box, and have your front foot out in front of you a little, with your tip up.

3. When you hit the rail, with your front ski’s edge digging with your tip up, load a little extra weight onto your front ski. This will initiate the spin.

4. With practice, you will get much better at digging harder, and getting your spin going faster. Dig as hard as you can

5. Turn your hips downhill. Up to this point, as usual, you should have been looking at the end of the rail.

6. As you start to spin the other way, pop off the rail a little, you don’t need much, and swing your body around the 180

7. Land back on the rail with your knees bent, in a strong position, as you will now be grinding unnatural. Look at the end of the rail until you get there. You will most likely come off switch, and won’t be able to come off forward until you are very comfortable with switch ups and are able to pretzel after the swap.
Nov 30 2010 5:57PM
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MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
digging in this case is raising the tip of your front ski.
Nov 30 2010 5:58PM
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Lwaghorn
Posts: 143 - Karma: 14
practice them on a flat box that is low risk. and dont be on your heels cause its alot harder to move. really focus on bending you knees and getting a good stance that you can control your movement
Nov 30 2010 5:59PM
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MikeTK
Posts: 549 - Karma: 126
Study people doing them on the mountain and in videos. < that helped me a lot

If your going for a front swap. Point your front toe so your inside edge, near your heel, grips the rail/box.

Blind swap dip your front toe down for the inside edge, near your toes, to grip the rail/box.

Practice practice practice!!
hope this isn't to confusing and good luck
Nov 30 2010 6:04PM
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Jonny7
Posts: 3309 - Karma: 76
and commit
Nov 30 2010 6:07PM
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broto
Posts: 9039 - Karma: 25,658
i learned first to do frontside 270s with ease. once you have those down, just try to do your 270 a little earlier (closer to the beginning of the rail), and really pop when you start to spin, until you do it so early that you tap the end of the rail at 180 degrees. then, continue doing them earlier and earlier until you can actually do it about half way into the rail or so. it's actually really easy to learn this way, and is 10x less scary than just going for it.
Nov 30 2010 6:24PM
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YetitheWookie
Posts: 95 - Karma: 70
Hey bro!  You've been getting lots of good advice, here's my 2 cents.

First off, learn doing rails unatty too.  Once you get sliding both sides down perfectly and can get on reg, switch or lip you turn into a rail ninja and it will drastically increase your skills down the road and open the door to tons of new tricks.

That being said, since you want to learn the switch up so bad, do it!  It's easiest to do them on a fat box like what has been said, as it eliminates the nutting possibility (usually) and you can initiate the switch up more with your head since you probably aren't used to the scissor motion needed on rails and for spinning out etc. But, I'm not going to lie to you, you should definitely learn the scissoring techniques described above asap as it's much more legit.

Hope that helps!  Good luck and keep on killing it!
Nov 30 2010 6:55PM
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tall_t
Posts: 1036 - Karma: 15
start jibbing those boxes. there easier do spin and do all that steeze. its bacilally a 180
Dec 2 2010 6:01PM
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A.Eberhard
Posts: 4426 - Karma: 415
Big pre-requisite to doing fs switch up is doing fs 2's just to get that feeling.
Dec 2 2010 6:08PM
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hanksy
Posts: 659 - Karma: 265
For front swaps on a box, go straight on, but align yourself so that your heels are close the edge of the box, otherwise you'll have to reach to grip the rail.

For back swaps, do it on a box for sure, but its probably easier to slide down the middle of the box. Don't focus too much on dipping your front edge down to get the grip like people do when they pretzel, instead, just look over your shoulder all the way around and stare at the box right under your feet. Jump, and follow your head with your lower body to get the skis around, while still staring at the box.

When getting started on these, it helped for me to do them on a mellow flat down box. With front swaps, start by just focusing on getting your grip right on the flat part, and just do a 90 swap to 5050 on the down (not a ski slide, just going straight on the box). Try to spin the 90 so that your momentum stays in the same direction, so that you do a 180 out at the end of the box. Repeat until you get comfortable to do a full 180 swap, but don't let yourself get comfortable just shifting your hips. Make sure you set your swaps so that your shoulders and momentum follow your swap, that way you don't get comfortable doing loser half swaps to regular. Same goes for back swaps, just do a back 90 swap and then switch 180 out, and work your way to true back swaps.
Dec 2 2010 7:16PM
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PurpleDino
Posts: 1513 - Karma: 483
Yeah this is the best way to learn them.  But one thing that I find to be key is to not jump to high, if you do, you tend to lose your balance when you come back down and fall.  Focus more on gripping with your front foot and essentially push off of it to set your spin.  Do a little pop and you'll be good.
Dec 2 2010 9:15PM
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McFellon
Posts: 1841 - Karma: 2,005
this is the trick that i'm working on right now. a bunch of this advice sounds really useful. the people teaching me just said to look at your feet and jump, not the best advice
Dec 2 2010 9:40PM
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Logey.
Posts: 2996 - Karma: 457
i focus on turning my head then just lifting my skis up, usually works.
Dec 2 2010 10:04PM
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pag
Posts: 3412 - Karma: 69
The best way to do a switch up(FS) is to come at it switch

You come switch the rotation will do it automaticly since you're already have the rotation set
you pause yourself on the rail and just set yourself when you,re ready by a little pop and set yourself to continue rotating.

it feels totally natural as your upper body won,t have to move as much as if you come.

It`s the same for BS switch up but then it`s to go normal stance

Dec 2 2010 10:13PM
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FUUUCK
Posts: 18426 - Karma: 4,888
the two really big factors are going to be how you control the rotation of your and how you position your feet. practice a lot on boxes, you can't hurt youself much there. once you've got it dialed on a box getting it on rails seems much much easier.


Watch his head in relation to how his lower body is spinning:

Dec 2 2010 10:33PM
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FUUUCK
Posts: 18426 - Karma: 4,888
head*
Dec 3 2010 1:12AM
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Malcolm
Posts: 15949 - Karma: 9,431
hit a flat box going really really slow and try it. then just keep hitting it with a bit more speed each time
Dec 3 2010 8:50AM
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hauser
Posts: 1131 - Karma: 469
grip soooo hard
Dec 3 2010 9:17AM
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cooper.fry
Posts: 2229 - Karma: 34
This kid fucking destroyed that rail. Porps to him.
Dec 3 2010 9:37AM
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HomieJon
Posts: 621 - Karma: 134

This guy is like a magnic on the rail.

HOLY COW!

Dec 3 2010 10:43AM
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Jpurd
Posts: 3196 - Karma: 3,554
if you are doing blind switch ups get on the rail and just hop and turn your head backwards... i personally think they are wicked fun and easy but i suck at front side swaps
Dec 3 2010 10:43AM
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