Snowboard cross is a huge highlight of the Winter Olympic Games, featuring intense race action from the best riders in the World. 

Are you starting to dream of competing at that level and becoming a real solid snowboard professional. If so, then let's see exactly how you can get started, get into snowboard cross and also the pathway to reach the Winter Olympic Games.

Do you think you have what it takes? 

circa 5 - 10 minute read

This will take time and dedication, so your first key focus is to ensure a sport - life - work balance to thrive :

Sport : Work on being physically the fittest that you can be. Get yourself into a fitness program and target key areas in your physique that need strengthened, balanced and co-ordinated. Keep your training program exciting and challenging. Ensure to work on all aspects around it, including proper rest and relaxation, hydration, nutrition, and possible supplements.

Life : Invest in a positive and motivating support network. People that you can confide in and share your dreams with, people that will help to motivate and ground you on your journey. Choose the best of your friends, family, team mates, and other acquaintances or professionals.

Work : There will be plenty of travel, training and competing, so consider how to balance these costs and time away from work. Once you are on the ladder, you could monetise yourself through sponsorships from family, friends or local companies to begin with.

There is a huge gap between genuine real expertise of acquiring snowboard skills, and a 5 minute snowboard online video, watched from your sofa. Snowboard cross has many challenges and obstacles to conquer, and online videos will only take you so far.

Elite coaches at TORR Snowboarding will ensure a tailor made personal plan, delving into key technical and tactical concepts on your learning trajectory. They will help you to increase and refine these skills in training, breaking them into smaller components in safe environments, for you explore and develop them, taking your competency to the next level. 

On each training session your coach will be there encourage you, challenge you, and support you, as they help to deepen and shape your mentality. Our coaching vision help to incorporate the BIG RAD vibes. These are transformational coaching tools to help you explore, understand and cultivate values of Belief, Independence, Growth, Respect, Adaptability, and Determination. And, a real benefit of success in cultivating these vibes, is that they can also be applied to outside the sporting environment in real life scenarios. 

This new environment must now be learned and mastered, with rules, regulations, timed runs, heat formats of 4 riders at the same time, and a FIS points systems to understand. 

Now, ready to race, you will gain FIS points at these snowboard cross races, depending on your skill level / finished grid placing :

• Local competitions / kids FIS: For kids below 15 years old, no need for a race licence.
• FIS Open competitions : Open to any age category, no need for a race licence.
• Junior Cup / Alpine Cup : In Europe from 15 years - 19 years old, FIS licence needed.
• FIS competitions : Any age, FIS licence needed.

Each race presents opportunities of learning through new challenges, mastering higher speeds, larger obstacles, and pitting yourself against the best new competitors. Our expert guidance and continual skill development are ensuring a steady progression for you. With all the previous preparations we have started to tune into what works for you, built healthy and solid routines for training and race days. 

There will be good days, and there will be bad days. We continue to foster a healthy perspective with a growth mindset, understanding and appreciating the learning process. We delve again deeper into grounding techniques and how to handle stresses better, through our BIG RAD values of Belief, Independence, Growth, Respect, Achievement, and Determination, helping to lay the ground work for the future. 

With the years of climbing up the world rankings of FIS snowboard cross, thanks to your choices in training and competitions, helpfully guided by our elite coaching at your side. Further competitions to test yourself against other elite racers are now opening up, and must also be conquered:

• European Cup : Any age category, a minimum of 30 FIS points entry level.
• FIS World Junior Championships : Held each year for 16 years - 20 years old in the calendar year. Showcasing the best of the newcomers, each Nation decides on the best athletes to send.

With all that you have learned, this is your chance to shine and show what you can achieve against the very best in the world. You now must now navigate the highest level of competition in snowboard cross, on the World Cup circuit. Your home nation will now provide the coaching for you, as you level of competition are now : 

• World Cup : Competing each year for the coveted Crystal Globe with the worlds best snowboarders.
• FIS World Championships : Every 2 years, open to all ages, each Nation decides on the best athletes to send.
• Olympic Games : Every 4 years, open to all ages, each Nation decides on the best athletes to send.

The upcoming Olympic games are in Italy, check out here for the official website:

We specialise in high quality snowboard coaching for boardercross. Few other boardercross programs can match our innovative training methods, backed up by sport science and decades of experience.

If you have aspirations to begin your journey in this sport, or are already in the sport, looking for an external support and fresh set of eyes on you, then check out our snowboard cross courses. We can help you to train smarter, prioritise key areas and take you to the races.

Click on either of our logos below to find our websites, consider joining a camp, or even a season programme. Alternatively, for more information go direct and get in contact.