Teach Your Child How to Snowboard

Snowboarding was adapted from skateboarding and surfing into a winterized sport. The white glistening snow rushing through the blade of your board while you’re weaving from side to side down a mountain slope is exhilarating. It’s a perfect opportunity for the whole family to have fun!  A cup of hot cocoa, conversing around the flames of a fireplace after an excellent cardiovascular workout creates memories to last a lifetime.

Winter can be a difficult season to get your child motivated to get outdoors.  Snowboarding makes it an easy enticement. The fresh mountain air and the crisp, clean snow topped off with killer views makes for a fantastic landscape. Every muscle in your body is being used. A slow enjoyable ride can turn into a rush when you introduce adrenaline driven jumps and tricks. This will surely get your child interested in the awesome sport of snowboarding.

So let’s get out there in the great outdoors for winter sports fun with these tips on teaching your child to snowboard. Before you begin, make sure you have the basic snowboarding equipment; it is a necessity when snowboarding at any age. The basic equipment includes:

• Helmet
• Gloves
• Eye Goggles
• Boots
• Leash
• Bindings
• Snowboard
• Stomp Pad

Preschool
Make sure you have the right equipment for young children. Although most boards are made for children as young as five you can still use these tips to get your younger child ready to take on a snowboarding challenge.

To begin teaching your child to snowboard young it is recommended to put them on a snowboard in the backyard or large living room (if you don’t have a yard), you can take them to a park or other outdoor recreation center as well. Allow them to stand on the board for a while, as though they are actually snowboarding down a hill.

If you have snow in your area or visit sky resorts, you can use a small sled to teach them how to snowboard. Have them stand in the middle of the sled and bend their knees to hold the sides. Make sure they continue to hold the sides of the sled as they go down the hill, for safety reasons.

Main points to address:

• Put them on a snowboard in your backyard.
• Teach them with a large sled.

Grades K-3rd
Watching snowboarding on TV will help children to understand the basic rules and styles of professional snowboarders. Allow children to be active in snowboarding competitions on cable or the internet. It’s a great way to learn throughout the teaching process.

As well as watching snowboard videos online children will learn a lot about the snowboarding process by playing online games. This is a great way to be active in snowboarding and learn the basic rules, stance and various styles of snowboarding.

Standing properly on a snowboard is as important as the equipment for a snowboard. Check out * About snowboarding stance in the resource links for proper or various ways to stand on your snowboard which, can have a large impact on the learning process.

Main points to address:

• Allow your children to watch the winter games on TV and pick a favorite snowboarder.
• Allow them to play online snowboarding games.
• Help them understand the proper stance on a snowboard.

Grades 4th-6th
Four different snowboarding styles can be taught to your child. Those styles include:

Freestyle
Using a soft boot and a relatively short maneuverable board, freestyle includes snowboarding with all the snazzy stuff included. This is the style most youngsters enjoy because this is where snowboarders can do jumps, tricks, half pipes and switch riding.

Technical Freestyle
This style consists of complicated spins and jumps, and back and forth swinging in the half pipe.

Free riding
Free riding is the most commonly used style for beginners. Also called all mountain riding, free riding uses the same soft boot as freestyle, yet free riders use a longer board that is more directional in shape. Free riders use the basic down the mountain riding we normally see on TV.

Alpine/Freecarve
The boards used for alpine are long, stiff and narrow boards to better shift for this style of riding. Alpine is commonly used for speed snowboarding, racing and carving.

Main points to address:
Teach your child the various styles of snowboarding

Resources
Resources that can help you in your venture include:

• * About snowboarding stance – http://snowboarding.about.com
• Moms Team, snowboarding – http://www.momsteam.com
• Snowboarding – http://www.snowboarding.com/
• ABC’s of Snowboarding – http://www.abc-of-snowboarding.com/
• USA Snowboarding Team – http://www.ussnowboarding.org

Games online 

• Snow Grind – http://www.candystand.com
• Pretty Extreme Snowboarding – http://gamescene.com

Posted in Leisure.

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