Muscle memory is incredibly vital to landing manoeuvres, so let's have a quick investigation and discover precisely how we can train it better.
What exactly is muscle memory?
Muscle memory in considered the natural ability of our muscles to remember a series of movements. If you catch a ball, you are depending upon your muscle memory. The same goes for performing snowboarding maneuvers.
When you spin a 360, you are telling your muscles to go back inside their memory banks and carry out each of the steps required to perform a 360 spin.
What makes muscle memory vital?
Your muscles will recall whatever you make them learn. Consequently, the better and more accurate your muscle memory is, the more frequently you will be able to land your tricks.
1) Repetition
Your muscles require time to remember the movements of every trick. Much like how you needed to learn how to walk, your muscles have to learn how to snowboard. Every technique you wish to master has to be repeated until your muscles can remember the moves.
The easiest way to teach your muscles to remember, is usually to practice. Practice lots and practice habitually.
2) High quality Technique
Ideally, you should train your muscles to recreate the correct actions. This means when you recognize a problem in your technique, go back and fix it. The longer you leave a fault, the longer it becomes part of your muscle memory.
You don't want improper habits to become a component of your muscle memory, or you may find yourself having a hard time getting rid of them down the road.
3) Visualization
Imagine your technique ahead of implementing it. The power to close your eyes and visualize every single action is a crucial factor to making your muscles perform the proper actions. Mental practice can be equally as effective as physical training.
Don't forget, work through every last action. This simply means if you're visualizing a 360 spin, you'd imagine every aspect from nearing the jump to your setup turns as well as your wind up, knee bend and release.
4) Turn it into a routine
Before you start executing a manoeuvre, stop yourself and strive to create a routine that goes through each and every step. Move from picturing to performing the technique the exact same every single time. Make everything the same. You are looking for your actions to become exactly the same anytime you perform the same techniques.
As an example: A typical routine for a lot of freestyle snowboarders is to stand at the run in ramp of a jump, visualize what they're wanting to do, think of each action of the trick, then carry it out.
