kick flip
- The kickflip is considered the most difficult, basic trick. It combines the ollie with the skateboard doing a barrel roll,
where it just rotates on an axis that goes across length ways. It rotates counter clockwise when looking from behind. Once
the kickflip is learned, a lot more difficult tricks that combine the kickflip with other rotations become possible to learn.
The stance of this trick, is similar to an ollie, but the front foot is usually closer to the heel edge of the board.
Kickflips are one of the most difficult tricks to learn when you first start skating. You should
be able to Ollie at least one deck and be fairly familiar with skateboarding.
It is better to learn tricks moving so take a little push so your moving a bit then setup in your stance.
I like you have my front foot half way into the board and right about middle, my back foot is usually setup like an Ollie.
Make sure you are comfortable with your stance if you are falling over all the time move your front foot more into the board.
Ok now you have your stance, pop down and start dragging your front foot up like an Ollie and drag until you
reach your bolts. The only difference about this drag and your Ollie drag is that you foot drags on and angle until it falls
of the edge and spins the board. Remember to pop really hard and really flick the board out with your foot, it helps your
board spin. Once you have practiced the spinning and can spin a full kickflip almost directly under your feet (not in front,
be sure not to kick the board in front of you when you spin it) the you should now practice catching the board with both feet.
This is where most people have trouble, getting both their feet onto the board. You want to really pop your
board hard then tuck up. When you hear all those other people saying to you look down see the grip tape? then catch the board!
They are right there just to lazy to help you. One of the best things to do is try to focus less on spinning the board and
more on landing with two feet. So just try to spin half a kickflip and try to catch and land it with both of your feet. When
you can do that then don't change how you pop or drag just flick a little harder so you can get the full kickflip around.
It is pretty hard to land both of your feet if you board is spinning up and down but this is hard to control when you go off
a ramp (I'm not just making excuses for the pictures having the board spin up and down. What? I'm not!). To help the board
spin level with the ground have your front foot up a bit on the board and not so much back. Just move it up till the board
spins level, another thing is lean forward when you pop and drag or put some more weight on your front foot.
If you have tried spinning the board half a kickflip and landing it and did that for a while and it didn't
help then you can do something else. First practice spinning the board and having Only your back foot land and your front
foot to the side of the board. Then try the same thing except have only your front foot land and your back foot on the side
of the board. Do this for a while and then try your kickflips, it should help.
Remember to always try this trick with a bit of speed and don't be afraid to land on the board. If you are
still having trouble after all the tips I can give you then post a message in the message board and some one will try to help
you.
Good luck!