# 1st year of boardercross



## poutanen (Dec 22, 2011)

I'm 100% talking out of my ass here because I've never been in a bordercross race. However, I did race back in the mid 90's a little.

Rule #1: Have fun. If you take it too seriously you'll get psyched out. Think of it as a fun way to spend a day and the results are just something to look at at the end of the day.

Rule #2: Get in shape. Yes adrenaline will help you for the first few runs, but when you're going full tilt for several runs a day it'll catch up with you and you could get hurt. Do squats, jumps, etc. to make sure your legs aren't your limiting factor.

Rule #3: Be consistent. Get into a routine of pre-race nutrition (doesn't need to be crazy but a healthy breakfast that's easy to digest will go a long way in any sport), gear setup (try to always have your boots the same tightness, your edges the same sharpness, etc. You don't want to have to learn to ride dull edges in the middle of a race.

Rule #4: Look at rule #1 again... 

Good luck! Any courses to practice on there? I've got a local course to practice on, gets bloody icy though cause everybody and their brother goes through there.


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## ankkassa (Sep 25, 2012)

Well they do have a track and its kept in good shape. But I know for a fact ill be in shape cuz I rowed for a couple of months so my legs are huge and my only proble is my knees hurt but I usually just Ignore it. Im mostly doing it so I have an excuse to go snowboarding on the week days… but my only goal is to not come in last place lol.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

also out of my ass...but be the first out of the hole and then attend to a clean line.


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

ankkassa said:


> only proble is my knees hurt but I usually just Ignore it.


Ice? I get left knee pain if I do too many jumps in a day, but a good cold pack takes care of it.


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

ankkassa said:


> Hey what's up guys this will be my first year of boardercross and I just want to know what should I expect what should I do and any tips are much appreciated.
> I can carve well enough to go down a hill fast and im able to bomb down blue runs when im in the zone.also


I was a mediocre boardercross racer with a very short racing career. You need very good balance and very strong/flexible leg muscles. 

You need to have shock absorber legs in the the rhythm/roller/bumps sections otherwise they wil eject you out of the race. 

You also need to be able to handle doing funky lines (paths) through the course because someone is blocking/pushing you OR you are blocking someone else who is trying to pass you from behind.

Here's a video on how 5-time X Games Boardercross Gold Medalist Nate Holland trains.


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## ankkassa (Sep 25, 2012)

Donutz said:


> Ice? I get left knee pain if I do too many jumps in a day, but a good cold pack takes care of it.


For me ice doesn't do the trick I had to wear brace for sometime because it used to hurt so much that couldn't walk on it and to make it worse my high school is like a campus which consists of have a 20 pound back pack walking up and down 2 or 3 flights of stairs and walking a mile each day.


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

ankkassa said:


> For me ice doesn't do the trick I had to wear brace for sometime because it used to hurt so much that couldn't walk on it and to make it worse my high school is like a campus which consists of have a 20 pound back pack walking up and down 2 or 3 flights of stairs and walking a mile each day.


It sounds like you are young (in high school)... since you haven't a serious knee injury I'm pretty sure you knee pain is directly due to over-developed and over-tight quad muscles. If you quad is too strong and tight, it will literally pull your kneecap out of it's groove (which not surprisingly will cause kneepain). You need to roll them out (and you IT band) on a foam roller and stretch them.

My info might be out of date... but last I checked your quad to hamstring strength ratio should be something like 2:1... and I bet your is way imbalanced (probably like 4:1 or even 6:1)... and you need to strengthen you hamstring a lot to balance out your huge quad. I would do a lot of bodyweight single-legged deadlifts (don't bother with weights as that requires hands on instruction to avoid wrecking your body... with this variant... you will know when your form is bad because you will fall over!)


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## ankkassa (Sep 25, 2012)

wait what do u mean by ratio. do u mean my hamstrings are too strong and are litterally pulling on my knee cap... and i did realize the pain was no where near as bad when i actually streched. thanks for actually help me realize that i was missing the biggest step in doing any sport... STRETCH.


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

ankkassa said:


> wait what do u mean by ratio. do u mean my hamstrings are too strong and are litterally pulling on my knee cap... and i did realize the pain was no where near as bad when i actually streched. thanks for actually help me realize that i was missing the biggest step in doing any sport... STRETCH.


By ratio... I mean how much weight can you do on a leg extension machine and divide that by how much you can do on a leg curl machine.

Quad is the front/top of your thigh. Hamstring is the back/bottom of your thigh. 

Yes... if you quad is too strong and/or tight, it will literally pull on your knee cap. Here is a diagram of your knee. You can see the quad muscle connects to you knee via all those white thingies which are tendons/connective tissue (illiotibial band)... now you can imagine if you quad was too strong or too tight... it would shorten and pull on your knee (like a clingy girlfriend) causing irritation to your knee (like a clingy girlfriend).


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## ankkassa (Sep 25, 2012)

lonerider said:


> By ratio... I mean how much weight can you do on a leg extension machine and divide that by how much you can do on a leg curl machine.
> 
> Quad is the front/top of your thigh. Hamstring is the back/bottom of your thigh.
> 
> Yes... if you quad is too strong and/or tight, it will literally pull on your knee cap. Here is a diagram of your knee. You can see the quad muscle connects to you knee via all those white thingies which are tendons/connective tissue (illiotibial band)... now you can imagine if you quad was too strong or too tight... it would shorten and pull on your knee (like a clingy girlfriend) causing irritation to your knee (like a clingy girlfriend).


lmao thanks i have conditioning so ive been streching 3 times aday again it really does help...


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

My daughter when she was 16 had similar issues with the knee/quad thing and now when doing lots of or big drops skiing or riding her knees will be sore. I keep telling her to dial it back because at the rate she is going she'll have to get both knees replaced by 35-40.


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## skip11 (Jan 28, 2010)

Please don't do the leg extension exercise machine. It's one of the worst if not the worst exercise you can do for your knee. The bottom position of it puts a lot of stress on your ligaments + it is not "functional" (hate to use this word) for snowboarding at all. You're better off doing barbell squats (until parallel), deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, 1 legged DB romanian deadlifts, glute ham raise, reverse lunges.


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

skip11 said:


> Please don't do the leg extension exercise machine. It's one of the worst if not the worst exercise you can do for your knee. The bottom position of it puts a lot of stress on your ligaments + it is not "functional" (hate to use this word) for snowboarding at all. You're better off doing barbell squats (until parallel), deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, 1 legged DB romanian deadlifts, glute ham raise, reverse lunges.


I agree (if you notice my previous page included the 1 legged deadlift and other body weight exercises)... but I don't think doing a few reps in one day just to get an idea of what your quad/hamstring strength ratio is going to do any serious harm.

You don't need to do max weights... just do something where you can do like 12 reps at medium exertion on the leg curl and and find what weight is roughly the same exertion level on the leg extension.... or just do a lot of hamstring exercises and quad AND hamstring stretches. I've never found anyone with overly developed hamstrings (compared to quads) so you really don't need to measure it I guess.


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