# Help with fear! - tips and tricks



## Catcrawf (Feb 8, 2018)

Hello lovely people! So I wanted to try and get a bit of advice, I’m a bit of a newbie and had 2 day lessons at my local slope. On the last lesson I was linking my turns, doing really well then I fell over and broke my tailbone. 

Now fully recovered but I’m absolutely terrified of linking turns and I need a few tips and tricks to help me rebuild my confidence and start linking those turns! 

I’ve tried a bit of jumping on the toe edge and it does help a little bit, but I wondered if anyone else had any tips to try and trick myself into trusting the board again!


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

Stay low and listen to punk rock


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## Varza (Jan 6, 2013)

I'm going through this on skis. And I spent my first two seasons on a board doing this.

1. Find the bunny hill. The handle tow area*. The little tiny mound at the base that you can slide a few feet on. Start your day there. Warm up there, get used to the feeling of sliding. Start turning there. 
2. Get on the green chairs after that. Same thing, just take it easy, practice what you've learned. Do drills you've been taught. 

You will find that you can slowly increase your confidence and also riding speed as you go through this. 

When you are confidently linking turns on the greens, ask an employee or liftie for the mellowest blue run they've got. Go there. Try it out, get used to more steepness and speed, practice some more.

Every once in a while, take a lesson to learn something new, to incrementally up your skills. Regular lessons are also a good way to avoid falling into bad habits early on. 

Just curious, how/where did you fall? 

*but don't actually take the handle tow without instruction, it sucks on a board. Just walk up the tiny slope there and slide down. 
Addendum: For some new boarders, lifts are The Worst(TM). When getting ready to unload, point your board, keep the tip up. As you are unloading put your back foot against the back binding, stand up, look ahead and gently push off the chair with your back hand.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

The reason for your fear, as noted is falling and breaking your tailbone. A large part of the remedy will be to learn how to fall. Btw, there are different falling strategies depending on how ur falling and on what you are falling on...like steeps, high speed, hard vs soft snow and etc. Imho, learning how to fall is one of the important things to learn ... so that you don't break yo lil o'l self.


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## Manicmouse (Apr 7, 2014)

Body armour! Specifically... padded shorts!

Technique-wise keep your weight on your front foot. Try to stay perpendicular to the slope. Most newbies struggle as they keep their weight on the back foot.


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## [email protected] (Jan 23, 2017)

By getting low, you lower your center of gravity and most likely will slide when you fall as opposed to being whipped into the ground. There is really something to be said for trying to be relaxed and pliable so that when you sense a loss of balance you're able to react without tensing up and making the situation worse. I often encourage new riders to ride across the fall line and learn to turn up the hill to scrub speed. Speed is often what causes your fear because you think about "what ifs". Like others have said here, incremental steps will help you gradually deal with this. The fear is coming from a lack of confidence and confidence will come with more experience but attack the challenges in small increments so you spend less time healing and more time riding. When you get confident with scrubbing speed and stopping, you'll develop the confidence to go a little faster...


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Last week got @Varza on a steep chute and cued her in on how fall in order to self-arrest. And while blasting on another run, lost an edge and ended up turtled head first...sliding a looong ways down a groomer. During the slide, I knew there was nothing to hit...so I just relaxed, laid there sliding along on my back, raising my board abit up in the air and laughing to myself...thinking I must look ridiculous from the chair above...cruising along on my back.


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## Phedder (Sep 13, 2014)

Above advice is good. Apply it after 1-2 alcoholic beverages for amplified results.


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## Varza (Jan 6, 2013)

Manicmouse said:


> Body armour! Specifically... padded shorts!


Seconding this! I would also recommend wrist guards, and you better already have a helmet! :wink:


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## Synathidy (Apr 4, 2017)

Damn, breaking a tailbone that early in learning. That's rough! There must have been some really hard snow. 

I will offer just a general piece of advice that has helped me to improve my boarding and do things I was once terrified to do: make things gradual. VERY gradual. Don't feel rushed to progress or do anything you might not be totally comfortable with. Instead, get REALLY confident and comfortable with little steps that work toward the particular skill you've set your sights on. I've used this approach to start going off jumps. Jumping was SO scary to me at this season's start, but I focused on doing lots of ollies and gettng air off tiny rollers to work up to it. I still have progress to make, but I can go off most small to medium-sized jumps without fear now. It was all about repetitions of getting small amounts of air to build up comfort.

In your case, if you're early in learning and want to link turns... I'd say... focus on edge control by just sliding and stopping on your heel and toe edges. Just getting used to SMOOTHLY engaging and disengaging edges takes getting used to, but will provide a foundation of control and assurance you can start and stop at will. This helps conquer fear. Do this on an easy slope. Then, when you can start and stop without falling and are feeling good with that, start trying those "C" turns. The transitions might be clumsy at first. But eventually you'll be able to attempt linking those "C"s into linked "S" turns.

Lean into the front foot more than you think you need to (being on the back foot more will decrease control and probably lead to picking up too much speed--scary when a beginner). Keep head over shoulders over hips over board as much as possible, getting low by crouching rather than bending over at the waist or something. Being afraid will make it hard to relax the body and make fluid, smooth turning motions, but that relaxation, when attained, will lend ease, comfort, and BELIEF that you CAN make those turns without fear.

Fear is like a fog. It is the unknown; the uncertain. And like fog, it will dissipate with time and patience.


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