Crossover Training
Crossover Training
To develop balance, coordination and timing outside of snowboarding!
Crossover training is highly relevant to young snow sport athletes. It helps to develop balance, coordination, timing and many other physical aspects.
One of the big gains of crossover training is the transfer of skills…
Positive and Negative Skill Transfer
Skateboarding
Skating is ideal for developing quick feet and accurate lower body movements. Pumping transitions, ollie and nollie combos, sliding rails and dropping into ramps are all fundamental skills in skateboarding, that directly transfer over to snowboarding and freeskiing too in some respects. More advanced skaters will see tricks directly translate between the sports, such as spinning on to rails and grabbing/spinning out of transitions.
Not only does skating help to develop similar movements to snowboarding, but if you can rise to the challenge of doing tricks on concrete, snowboarding and freeskiing are both likely to seem easier in some respects.
Surfing
Surfing is great for developing upper body and core strength, as well as reading the environment. Beginner surfers won’t gain much from direct skill transfer of riding a board, as they are unlikely to spend much time standing up when first learning to surf. That being said, the perseverance it teaches you is unlike any other sport in the world.
More advanced surfers will gain more from the transfer of board skills, particularly in relation to riding transitions and freeriding.
Wakeboarding / Wakesurfing
Wakeboarding helps to build full body strength and has some great skill transfer opportunities, particularly with grabs and inverts when airing from wake to wake. In some ways it is quite different than snowboarding due to the physics of being pulled by the boat instead of gravity. The only draw back to Wakeboarding is that the impact of landing on flat water, much the same as over-shooting park jumps. Have you athletes focus on landing on that opposite wakes transition to help minimise injuries and ensure longevity of the knees. This, in itself, can be used as a training tool for developing awareness of speed and pop.
Wakesurfing is a great crossover sport to do in the same environment but with much lower impact. It helps to build sensory awareness under the feet, plus subtle fore-aft and lateral adjustments.
Longboarding
Similar to skateboarding, longboarding helps to develop quick feet and accurate lower body movements, but with a lower risk. Simply setting up cones in a carpark or on a gentle foot path can help build awareness of line choice and looking ahead.
Balance Boards
Balance boards come in many different varieties and can even be simple homemade projects. They present a good opportunity to work on balance and coordination when at home in the living room, with very minimal risk, whilst helping to develop fine muscle movements in the lower leg and ankles – an important factor in robustness for snowboarding and freeskiing. Balance boards also help to build muscle memory for different grab variations.
Trampolining
Not only does this activity create amazing skill transfer, but it is also a pretty good whole body workout. On trampolines, riders can practice tricks over and over again in a fairly safe and confined area. It is predictable, easy to manage and perfect for building awareness in the air and comfort with spinning and flipping. As a coach, do not underestimate the value of trampoline in snowboard cross training.
Gymnastics / Intro Parkour
Gymnastics and elementary parkour-style training does wonders for both body and air awareness. It works directly on strength and flexibility, and helps to build good landing patterns, which are essential to the long term development of snowboard/freeski athletes. Gymnastics programmes designed specifically to cross train for snowboarding are the perfect off-snow training tool.
Other Sports
Almost any sport is beneficial to snowboard/ski cross training in some way or other. Team sports are often neglected by action sports athletes, so encourage participation in some form of team sport where possible. That being said, if your developmental athletes value their time on snow, select a team sport that is unlikely to create regular injuries.
A Progression Mind State
Crossover training also presents another way to help your athletes develop their progression mind state.
Sports that require falling when learning, and consequentially getting back up again, are great for developing character and drive, one challenge at a time.