The Japan
- Skill:
- land a tweaked Japan grab off a kicker
- Prerequisites:
- Method Grab
The Japan is one of the most distinctive-looking grabs in snowboarding. It's a mute grab, front hand on the toe edge in front of your front foot, wrapped around the outside of your front knee and tweaked up behind your back. Once your Method is dialled and you're comfortable changing your body position mid-air, the Japan is the next grab worth chasing. It's a head-turner on its own and even better bolted onto a flip or a spin.
The grab itself is the easy half. Reach outside your front knee and just past the boot, so your forearm ends up lying across your shin rather than your hand poking out at the end of the board. Pulling both legs back behind you a little before you reach makes the spot much easier to find. Then comes the tweak: push your hips forward and out to extend the whole shape. That hip push is doing two jobs at once, it's what makes the grab look good, and it's what counters the tweak so you don't get pulled off axis and land in the back seat.
The Tuck Knee is the same idea mirrored. Back hand, reaching around the outside of your back knee and grabbing between the bindings, forearm across the shin again. Same technique: legs back a touch before you reach, extend outward with the hips, and counter the tweak with your upper body to stay balanced. Watch where your hand lands, because if you grab outside the binding on the tail you've just done an Indy and you'll have some explaining to do to your friends.
Both of these need airtime and a body position you've never held in the air before, so they're worth drilling on a trampoline board or training board first. Getting the reach and the tweak into muscle memory on the ground means you're only managing the jump when you take it to a kicker.
Learn more here:
Video by Snowboard Addiction
Key tips
- Japan: front hand, outside the front knee, just past the boot. Your forearm should end up across your shin
- Tuck Knee: back hand, outside the back knee, grabbing between the bindings
- Pull your legs back behind you slightly before you reach. It brings the board to your hand
- Push your hips forward and out to tweak. That extension is where the whole look comes from
- Counter the tweak with your upper body so you stay balanced and on axis
- Grab outside the binding on the tail and it's an Indy, not a Japan. Check your hand position
- Drill it on a training or tramp board first so the reach is automatic before you take it to a jump