The 180° Spin is Not a Technique for Spinning

When people talk about the 180° spin,
they often think, "How do I rotate?"
Many people think about things like that.
Of course, since it is a spin trick, you do rotate.
But when you actually try it,
the 180° is not a technique for spinning.
That is how I think about it.

The most important thing in a 180° is
not the rotation.
It is switching the positions of your front and back feet.
In my experience, this feels much closer to the truth.

For example, if you are in a regular stance,
your left foot is in front.
When you do a 180°,
your right foot will be in front upon landing.
In other words, what is happening is simply that the front-to-back relationship of your feet has been swapped.

When you think of it that way, your mindset changes a little.
"I have to spin."
Instead, it becomes,
"Let's switch my feet."

In reality, the more you think about "spinning,"
the more your body tenses up.
You swing your shoulders.
You swing your arms.
You try to force your body to rotate.
This causes your axis to shift,
or your board to lag behind.

However,
when you think about switching your foot positions,
only the necessary movements naturally remain.
Unnecessary tension is reduced.
Therefore, as a result,
the rotation also becomes smoother.

Of course,
you cannot switch them with just your feet.
That is where you need your
upper body.

You use your upper body
not to create the rotation,
but to make it easier to switch your feet.
Lead slightly with your shoulders.
Use your arms to maintain balance.
Look in the direction you are going.
Through these movements,
your lower body naturally becomes easier to move.

In other words,
your upper body is not the main character.
It is strictly
there to support your feet.

Here, too, I
think about separating the goal from the means.
Rotating the upper body is not the goal.
I am just using my upper body
as a means to switch my feet.

This is not limited to the 180°.
In snowboarding,
"spin,"
"turn,"
"press."
Many such words come up.

But in reality,
that is just how it looks as a result,
and there is often something else you should really be doing.

Previously,
I wrote an article titled "Turns are not about turning, but about being turned."
This is somewhat similar.

For the 180° as well,
instead of "spinning,"
think of it as "switching foot positions."
When you think that way,
the movement becomes much simpler.

When learning a technique,
I try to think about what actions lead to that result.

If you only look at the result of the rotation,
your body will try hard to force a spin.
But,
if you look at the goal of switching foot positions,
you can see only the necessary movements.

When you organize techniques with words,
things that were difficult can suddenly become easy.
The 180° is one of those.
Instead of "Let's spin,"
try "Let's switch foot positions."
With just that,
the way you see the spin might change significantly.

This was Rei Aoki, the master of verbalization.