# Frontside 3s, landing blind



## northidahomike (Dec 29, 2016)

I'm finally able to hit frontside 3s consistently off side hits so I'm gonna take it to some med size booters tomorrow. I'm able to hit grabs, front and backside 1s and different variations and combinations of that type of stuff consistently but have never tried a 3 off a park jump. I've been told to try landing my frontside 3s blindly like I would doing a backside 1. When I do the 3s off side hits I haven't been landing them blindly because it's almost like I don't have enough air time, it happens so quick I just time it and huck it. So I'm wondering off bigger jumps with more air time do you guys land your frontside 3s blindly? It seems like an awkward motion because naturally your head wants to follow your body but it makes sense how landing blindly would be smoother, so let me know if there's any tips for spinning but keeping your head facing blind while your body spins another 180. Thanks!


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## bazman (Jan 15, 2017)

I can't do 3's yet but have seen the tutorial from Snowboard Addiction on YouTube and that teaches you to land blind (or looking towards the jump you just took of from)

Have a look yourself, they make excellent training vids


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## robotfood99 (Mar 19, 2016)

You will be going faster so you actually want to land early, a little over 270 so your rotation will complete the 360 and allow you to ride away clean. Its cleaner and safer than over spinning. Your sight should be leading the spin even as you land toe side so you don’t stall on impact. Bailing backwards is a major bummer - pun intended - wear a helmet!


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## Bertieman (Jan 19, 2014)

^ What he said. I had an instructor look at my 360s and he said it may feel like I'm landing my 360s a bit short - which it felt like I was - and he further said it is a good thing. He said it's a good habit because it allows you to get used to landing on your edge and not over rotating. 

I would also say a key thing is when you are just about to go off the lip, make sure you only have slight pressure on your heels. If you have too much edge, you will cork your 360 and that can throw you off balance. This is the only issue I'm having with my 360s... I always go off the jump with too much weight on my heel edge, which makes the 360 feel forced and unnatural. I guess that's the only way to explain it from my experience. 

I would also add the 'pop' [off both feet evenly] later on. I'm no professional, but I feel like it's just an extra step that is unnecessary at this point. You can glide off the jump with slight edge pressure and land it just fine as long as you have the speed.


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## SGboarder (Jun 24, 2012)

Bertieman said:


> I would also add the 'pop' [off both feet evenly] later on. I'm no professional, but I feel like it's just an extra step that is unnecessary at this point. You can glide off the jump with slight edge pressure and land it just fine as long as you have the speed.


Good advice. For small spins (1's, 3's) there should be no need to pop of any kicker/jump. Of course you can pop to more airtime for steezy slower rotation/in preparation for 5's and 7's etc But for 1's and 3's you should have plenty of time bringing it around by just riding off the lip - most people over rotate rather than come up short.


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## robotfood99 (Mar 19, 2016)

Yeah I agree totally with SG and Bertie. If you huck like you do off sidehits, you most likely will over rotate and eat it or worse, get inverted because your board is gonna shoot off to the moon. Its more important that you glide off the lip smoothly with a moderate heel carve.


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## lbs123 (Jan 24, 2017)

You need to stop rotation by a combination of a counter rotation and landing on the edge. Your head leads the spin but also stops spinning sooner than your body and board. Any spin ends either with fs180 or bs180 so the last 180 should be done like you would be doing one of those.


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## Mr.Zywall (Jan 5, 2017)

if doing frontside 3's, should we be landing them on a slight heal or toe edge? I've just stomp the landing, flat base. I might be on the slightest edge but I haven't payed attention. Maybe i'll be more conscious this weekend out.


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## Brewtown (Feb 16, 2014)

Mr.Zywall said:


> if doing frontside 3's, should we be landing them on a slight heal or toe edge? I've just stomp the landing, flat base. I might be on the slightest edge but I haven't payed attention. Maybe i'll be more conscious this weekend out.


Toe edge. Land on your heel edge and you will revert. Landing flat base out of a spin seems like it would be just about impossible.


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## tonymontana (Dec 10, 2016)

I just learned 360's recently so this may not be perfect advice but what I find is that,


It is important to be very familiar with, a) the amount of air you are going to get and b) how fast you are going to rotate

it depends how much air you get and how fast your rotation is. Sometimes I can bring around my board quick enough to spot and prepare for a landing( bend knees or lean back or forward or w.e is needed) well before I hit the landing. I dont worry about over rotating because I know what momentum is needed to do ONLY a 360. I am not producing my maximum amount of torque, only what is required to do the full rotation. This is good because the rotation may throw you slightly off balance in the air and you will need to correct that to land successfully and you will have time to do that if you complete the rotation before you natural path through the air ends.

This should be easier to achieve on a bigger jump with more air time.

Now this is how it would be ideally, buuuut we all know from experience it is not always like this.

If you over rotate, landing and then engaging an edge will help to stop you from continuing to spin. I take off of my toe edge for BS 360 and land on my toe edge ever so slightly to control any extra rotation and speed if necessary.

Landing is only the half of it. I found that practicing how I launch off the jump and how smoothly I create rotation momentum dictates how easy it is to land.

With this in mind I started to focus on tightening my spins. I noticed by leading with my front shoulder, as opposed to rotating my back hip to initiate the spin, I get a tighter rotation that is more balanced with the weight over the tail of my board for a nice and soft lay down tail landing. Imagine the path of your back leg during a 360 ideally it would stay in roughly the same spot with your front leg moving in a 360 like using a compass to draw a perfect circle. This will also help yo pop off of the jump as mentioned above because creating a tighter rotation kind of forces you to lean back before launching with a little more weight on the tail.

When doing 360 with less air landing a little before the rotation is complete is ideal. With more are idk.

I personally prefer to just complete the rotation with time to spare and prepare for a landing.

Also just a word of advice. You should know what your landing looks like, be able to visualize it in your head, before you do the jump, so you're not totally blind. Especially a park jump. 

Hope this helps!


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

I just started trying to do fs 3's. I just can't get my rotation fast enough very frustrating. Maybe I am not turning my head and shoulders enough because I keep landing 1's.
I am not hitting big jumps yet just a small booter that gets me 1-2 ft off the ground which is plenty for fs 3s if I get my rotation done right.
More practice this weekend. I need I need to dig that front heel edge harder to get a more powerful spin.


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## Phedder (Sep 13, 2014)

speedjason said:


> I need I need to dig that front heel edge harder to get a more powerful spin.


Yes. Practice frontside nose roll 180s, then nose roll 360s, and then add more pop and you'll be able to flatland fs 360 anywhere and off anything.


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## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

speedjason said:


> I just started trying to do fs 3's. I just can't get my rotation fast enough very frustrating. Maybe I am not turning my head and shoulders enough because I keep landing 1's.
> I am not hitting big jumps yet just a small booter that gets me 1-2 ft off the ground which is plenty for fs 3s if I get my rotation done right.
> More practice this weekend. I need I need to dig that front heel edge harder to get a more powerful spin.


Use your arms. Wind up and release on liftoff.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Phedder said:


> Yes. Practice frontside nose roll 180s, then nose roll 360s, and then add more pop and you'll be able to flatland fs 360 anywhere and off anything.


I do front side nose roll 180 all the time and I butter all the time too.
but never done it in such a fast spin fashion like a fs 360.
I saw someone was doing a very quick 360 off a drain pipe so he couldn't have used any edges and what I notice is he did a basically a 180 spin with 180 counter rotate to make the board go 360.


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## TooNice (Feb 7, 2014)

speedjason said:


> I saw someone was doing a very quick 360 off a drain pipe so he couldn't have used any edges and what I notice is he did a basically a 180 spin with 180 counter rotate to make the board go 360.


One of the way I've seen it taught is to do (Amount of spin aimed for) - (90 degrees), then finish off the 90 degrees with a shifty (counter rotation).

While it is not as smooth as one continuous 360 degrees rotation, it allows the rider to spin the board 360, while preventing overspinning because you stop the momentum is stopped at 270 (but still bring the board to 360) and the clean landing does look good. One benefit over a continuous rotation is that you don't have to guess how much spin you need to not come short, but still be able to able to ride off smoothly without over spins.

Disclaimer: I am more used to continuous spins myself and try to get that toe edge in to control the spin, but I have seen that method taught to/used by pro/aspiring pro riders riders.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

TooNice said:


> One of the way I've seen it taught is to do (Amount of spin aimed for) - (90 degrees), then finish off the 90 degrees with a shifty (counter rotation).
> 
> While it is not as smooth as one continuous 360 degrees rotation, it allows the rider to spin the board 360, while preventing overspinning because you stop the momentum is stopped at 270 (but still bring the board to 360) and the clean landing does look good. One benefit over a continuous rotation is that you don't have to guess how much spin you need to not come short, but still be able to able to ride off smoothly without over spins.
> 
> Disclaimer: I am more used to continuous spins myself and try to get that toe edge in to control the spin, but I have seen that method taught to/used by pro/aspiring pro riders riders.


Yes. I have been doing the continuous spin myself. I only counter spin if the landing come up short and I can't get the full 360 fast enough.
My problem was turning head and upper body winding up. I was not keeping my head turned and not winding up the upper body correctly.
I was just flinging my arms instead of actually using my shoulders and hips to spin. And I would try to look down at 270 degree so the spin would stop because my upper body would turn backwards when I do that. Keeping head turned and use shoulders and hip to spin is the most important. I was able to do clean 360s off a tiny roller on a green run.


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