Secrets of Skateboarding

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The Secrets of Skateboarding
By Tony Waters
Secrets of Skateboarding 2008
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DISCLAIMER
Please note that the author and publisher of this book are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner whatsoever for any injury that may result from practicing the techniques and/or following the instructions given within. Since the physical activities described herein may be too strenuous in nature for some readers to engage in safely, it is essential that a physician be consulted prior skateboarding. First published in 2008 by Secrets of Skateboarding Inc. 2008 by Secrets of Skateboarding Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from Secrets of Skateboarding, Inc. Distributed by: Secrets of Skateboarding, Inc. First edition Printed in the United States of America
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Table of Contents
Part I: Comprehensive Trick Guide Introduction Beginners Guide Q& A Stance Terminology Flatground Tricks The Ollie Troubleshooting How to Ollie Higher Pop Shove-it Backside Pop Shove-it Frontside Pop Shove-it Troubleshooting 180 Ollie Backside 180 Ollie Frontside 180 Ollie Kickflip Troubleshooting Heelflip Troubleshooting Varial Flip Troubleshooting Backside Flip Troubleshooting Frontside Flip Troubleshooting 15 19 21 24 25 27 29 31 32 34 36 40 44 47 49 53 54 58 59 63 5 7 7 11 12
-4________________________________________________________________________ 360 Flip Troubleshooting Hardflip Troubleshooting Backside Heelflip Troubleshooting Grinds 50-50 Grind 5-0 Grind Board Slide Nose Grind Crooked Grind Nose Slide Smith Grind Tail Slide 5 Most Common Mistakes Getting your Tricks Higher Part II: Skating for Success 79 81 83 85 98 90 92 94 96 99 100 65 68 70 74 75 78
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Introduction: How to Make the Most of this Book
Dear Reader, Congrats on taking the first step to becoming a better skateboarder! You are about to uncover some of the most valuable secrets of skateboarding. The methods and techniques you are about to learn will not only dramatically slash the time it takes for you to learn a new trick, but can also be applied to any other area of life to achieve success. Applying these techniques to directly to skateboarding will significantly improve your skateboarding skills. Applying these techniques to other parts of your life will yield financial abundance, lasting relationships, and a fit body. Again, I want to congratulate you on making a decision that may carry you to your skateboarding goals. The reason I say may is that there is only so much I can do to guide to you. The rest is entirely up to you. If youre the type of person to carefully read this guide, actively take notes, and most
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importantly, take action, then you are about to reach a level of success you can hardly imagine. Whether you skate for fun or aspire to skate for a living, this guide will help you reach your goals. Part I of this guide explains how to properly execute the tricks. Park II is about goal setting and how to truly make this program work for you. It is crucial that you study this information carefully, since it is the foundation of this course. You may be tempted to quickly dive into Part I and learn the tricks, but the real secret to success at skateboarding lies in your attitudes, beliefs and habits. Part 1 of this guide will teach you how to condition your brain in order to reach your goals as quickly, efficiently and effortlessly as possible. Most importantly, have fun when skating. Skateboarding is a privilege and having a good time is what skateboarding is all about! Do not become so frustrated or upset when you meet an obstacle that you forget the purpose of skateboarding. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said, Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. Love skateboarding. Sincerely, Tony Waters
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Chapter 1- Beginning Skateboarding Beginners Q & A

Q. Whats a good board for beginners? A. Anything but a Wal-mart deck. If you are seriously striving to become a good skateboarder, you need a good deck to practice on. A $19.99 K-Mart board definitely wont cut it! I recommend starting out with a blank complete. Blank decks are cheap and are constructed very well, so they last a long time- theyre great for beginners. As you get better and better, you may want to start looking into brand name decks. CCS.com offers great blank completes starting at $69.99! Q. Does it matter which end of the board I use? A. Not really- Most use the shorter and lower end as the tail. The higher and wider end is the nose. However, its all a matter of personal preference. For example, some find that the tail has better pop but the nose is easier to scoop. Q. Do shoes matter? A. Obviously, you dont want to be skating in sandals or dress shoes, so I strongly recommend getting a pair of skate shoes. They are a great investment because they provide comfort and can withstand the stresses of skateboarding.
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Skate shoes have a larger surface area to allow more balance, and many come with ankle support to prevent yourself from rolling your ankles. Q. How should I push? A. You always want your front foot on the board and push off the ground with your back foot. The opposite is called pushing mongo. Make sure you develop the habit of pushing your board the right way- pushing mongo makes it more difficult to set your feet up for tricks. Q. How do I turn? A. To turn, you simply lean in the direction you want to turn into. Just bend your knees and place more weight on your heels or toes, depending on the direction you want to turn into. For a tighter turn, do a quick manual by placing more weight on the tail, lifting the front wheels off the ground and turning in the direction you want to go in. Q. How do I stop? A. To stop you can simply put your weight on the tail, and drag your tail on the ground. This is called a tailstop and can wear away your tail. You can use an alternative method and use your pushing foot to slow yourself down. Q. When can I start learning tricks?
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A. Before learning any trick, you must be comfortable standing and riding a skateboard. If you cant even stand on the board without falling, there is no way youre ready to learn the Ollie. Practice riding around everyday until you can easily push, turn and stop. Then, you know you are ready to learn the Ollie. Q. Why is your method so much better than tutorial videos? A. You see, most trick tip videos give so little information that its almost impossible to get a good idea of all the details of the trick. If you have lots of free time to explore and mess around with learning a new trick, then a traditional video tutorial might be a good place to start. But if you want to learn new tricks in the fastest, most effective way possible, then most likely, video trick tutorials wont do much to help you. Even if the video gave you the instructions in detail, youll still have trouble remember exactly what to do. Thats why a written guide is so important. However, a visual can still be very helpful. Thats why I encourage you to watch a few videos on how a trick is supposed to be executed so you have a clear image of what to do. Q. What can I do to ensure I learn these tricks quickly and effortlessly?
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A. Have fun when skating! Read the trick tips thoroughly, watch videos of pros, ask questions on discussion boards but most importantly, practice, practice and practice
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Finding your Stance

Walk up to your skateboard and stand with one foot in the middle and the other foot on the tail. Which foot is in front? If your left foot is forward you are regular. If your right foot is forward you are goofy. If you still have trouble deciding which foot goes where try this. With out giving it too much thought, walk up to a soccer ball and kick it. The foot you used to kick it will most likely be your back foot, since you want the balancing foot in front and the kicking foot in the back. The stance you choose is entirely up to you. One stance is not better than the other. Its all personal preference and you should stick to whichever feels more comfortable.
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Terminology
How many times have you been given ambiguous skate tips such as, just move your front foot up a little as you Ollie. What does up mean? Toward the nose of your skateboard? Toward the direction of your toes? Up in the air? It is very difficult describing 3 dimensional movements in words. For this purpose of this guide, we will be using the north/south/front/back system to refer to a particular direction.
This may seem strange at first. Saying front, forward, up, down, back, and behind seem perfectly fine. However, these words become ambiguous (i.e. when we use words like back, do we really mean back or south?) so its better to have an absolute system when describing direction.
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Throughout this guide, north will refer to the direction you point your toes. South will be the direction your heels are facing. Front is the direction the nose of your board is facing and back is the direction your tail is facing. Up will refer to straight up in the air and down will be towards the ground.
On flatland, backside refers to rotating in the direction you are facing, and frontside is rotating in the opposite direction you are facing. When grinding, they are reversed. Backside refers to the rotating toward the skaters back and frontside refers to rotating in the direction the skater is facing. Now that we covered the basics lets begin!
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Chapter 2- The Ollie
Ah, the Ollie. If skateboarding tricks were represented as a tree, the Ollie would be the trunk of the tree. Terrible analogy, I know, but the Ollie is truly the foundation of almost all flatland skateboarding tricks and is usually the first trick a beginner learns. Once you master the Ollie, you can begin exploring more advanced tricks such as the Kickflip or Heelflip, or you can take your Ollies to the next level and jump off/over/onto obstacles! Requirements for the Ollie Before learning the Ollie, you want to be comfortable riding around on your skateboard.
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Ollie Foot Placement Place your back foot, with the ball of the foot on the middle of the tail. Place your front foot an inch or two behind the front bolts, in the center of the board. Generally, the farther back (toward the tail) your front foot is, the higher you will Ollie. When beginning, its a good idea to have you front foot a little farther back to get a feeling of the dragging motion. Balance You want to stay over your board as you Ollie, keeping your weight in the center. Make sure you have all four wheels on the ground and you are not leaning towards one side. Pop As you get ready to Ollie, bend your knees. Experiment with how far down you bend. The more you bend your knees, the higher your Ollie will be. However, it can be easy to lose your balance when bending down too much.
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Slam down on the tail with your back foot. Give a quick, hard, clean slam. Slam straight down; do not scoop the tail as you pop As you slam, youll also want to jump into the air off of your back foot and pull your foot up. This part of the Ollie requires some practice to get the timing down. Drag The dragging motion of the front foot is what actually gets the board up in the air. Timing the drag along with the pop and jump is by far the most difficult part of learning the Ollie. Take your time with this step As you pop and jump, drag your front foot along the griptape up towards the bolts. This dragging motion pulls the skateboard higher off the ground. Youll want to lean forward as you drag. If you have youre the majority of your weight on the tail, your board will pop up crooked and will not level out. As you reach the end of your drag, youll want to suck up your knees, bringing them as high as you can. Focus on hitting your chest with your knees. As long as youre not leaning too forward to too backwards, the board will flatten out by itself.
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Landing If you maintained your balance through out the whole trick, your feet should land on the bolts. Bend your knees to absorb the shock of the landing and ride away! Learning the Ollie Many skaters learn the Ollie by practicing stationary on the grass or carpet. This keeps the board in place, so you dont have to worry as much about your balance and your body can focus more on the actual motions involved in this trick. However, learning tricks stationary can cause bad habits to form. For this reason, I strongly recommend learning the Ollie both moving and stationary. Start on the carpet or grass. When your Ollies begin to look somewhat decent, start practicing moving at a slow speed. As you get higher and more comfortable with Ollies, completely abandon practicing them stationary and do them at faster speeds. After you are able to Ollie while rolling, take your Ollies to the next level by Ollying off of curbs, ledges, and stairs. Youll be in the air for a longer time now, so landing becomes more important. It is vital that you remain balanced over the center of your board, and bend your knees to absorb the landing.
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Troubleshooting the Ollie

Problem: I land one footed Solution: One footed landings are caused by lack of commitment. Usually, its your front foot that lands on the board and the back foot that lands on the ground to catch yourself. To fix this, just focus on keeping the foot that comes off on the board. You may want to try Ollying lower so, you will land more balanced. Problem: My board slides out in midair Solution: Losing your board in mid air is usually caused by kicking the board out instead of staying over the board and dragging. Remain balanced as you pop, leaning slightly forward as you drag and you will have no problem keeping the board directly under you. Problem: My Ollies are too low Solution: Low Ollies are caused by not getting enough pop before your Ollie. It is easy to fix this problem- simple crouch lower and move your front foot back a little, so it has more room to drag. When youre in the air, remember to suck up your knees! Read the Ollie Higher section for a more detailed explanation on how to get more height. Problem: My landings are sketchy
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Solution: If you land unbalanced, with your back wheels hitting the ground first, you are not keeping your shoulders level in the air. Focus on keeping your shoulders stationary in the air and use only the sucking up motion of your legs to control the board.
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How to Ollie Higher
Danny Wainwright sets the world record for the highest Ollie with an amazing jump of 44.5! Low Ollies are quite common for beginner skaters. There is a lot to take in when first learning the Ollie so the timing of the trick can be difficult. However, once you learn how to get your board at least a little bit off the ground, you wont have any trouble learning how to get your Ollies higher and higher.
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Low Ollies almost always result from not picking up your feet high enough. However, you need to be perfectly balanced in order to be able to suck up your legs. While preparing for the Ollie, have your shoulders centered, and your weight over the center of the board. As you pop your tail, suck up your legs and pull your feet into the air! Aim for hitting your chest with your knees. When practice getting your Ollies higher, it is not important that you land your Ollies. Just focus on getting the board up into the air. Dont worry about your front foot; it might slide off the board a few times, but for now, dont think about it. Concentrate on popping up, dragging your lead foot up all the way, and sucking up your legs. I can not stress how important the sucking up motion is. A great way to practice Ollying higher is to pop the tail to begin an Ollie, take off your back foot and plant it on the ground, but continue to drag your front foot and slam down on the board. Basically, you are doing an Ollie with only the front foot. If you can get the board pretty high in the air, you are doing it right. This practice method will instantly help you feel the appropriate dragging motion of the front foot.
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Right now, take a break from reading and go skate for a while. Anyone, including pro skaters, can benefit from practicing getting their Ollies higher. Practice the techniques I described and focus on get that Ollie high. Happy Ollying!
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Chapter 5- The Pop Shove-it
Pop Shove-its are not difficult to learn. It is very easy to rotate the board 180 degrees, but the landing can be a bit tricky. When starting out, it is a good idea to learn backside shove-its before frontside shove-its, since they are easier and give you a feel of the trick. Requirements for Pop Shove-its You should be able to consistently pop Ollies before learning Pop Shove-its.
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Backside Pop Shove-it

Foot Placement Set up your foot as you would for an Ollie, with your front foot a little higher up, about 1-2 inches away from the front bolts. You also want to move your back foot up more, with your toes higher up. This allows you to scoop the board, causing the spinning motion. Pop You dont need much pop for this trick. A slight knee bend will be adequate to get the board in the air. Spin As you pop, you want to scoop the back foot south towards you. At the same time, push your front foot up and north. Your feet should be doing sort of a scissors kick. As the board is spinning under you, you want to completely stay over it. The board will most likely spin if front of you (towards your toes) so you will have to compensate for that by jumping forward a little. Landing Stay over your board as you land and keep your feet spread apart. A common problem is landing with the feet close together
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and losing your balance. After the board spins the 180, catch it, bend your knees and land!
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Frontside Pop-Shove-it
Foot Placement For the Frontside Pop Shove-it, have your front foot in the middle of the board about 1-2 inches away from the front bolts. You want your back toes a little lower on the tail, so you can scoop forward to get the board rotating Frontside. Pop As with the backside Pop Shove-it, you dont need much pop for this trick. Just bend your knees. Spin As you pop, you want to kick your back foot north. At the same time, bring your front foot toward you (south), guiding the board to rotate 180 degrees. Stay over the board through out the spin and jump backwards a little, since these tend to go south of you. Landing The board will probably go south of you, so jump back a little as you land. Also, keep your feet spread apart and aim for the bolts. Learning the Pop Shove-it Initially, this trick may be pretty scary, since you might land on the tail and have the board shoot out. Regardless, you should
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learn the Pop Shove-it while moving since its a completely different feeling landing these stationary and moving.
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Troubleshooting the Pop Shove-it

Problem: Landing one footed Solution: One footed landings are due to one of two thingshaving the board stray from you in the air or lack of commitment. This trick may feel scary at first, but you need to commit to the landing. Practice these moving slowly, focusing on landing with both feet. Then, take them to higher and higher speeds. Problem: Board flips while rotating Solution: Landing this trick while the board is flipping can lead to a nasty spill. Flipping the board (in a backside pop-Shove-it) is caused by the front heel hitting the edge of the board, causing it to flip in the Heelflip direction. Simply fix this by kicking out your front foot and scooping with your back foot at the same time. If you scoop first, and then kick, the board will hit your heel and naturally flip. If the board flips in a frontside shove-it, you are hitting the edge of the board with your toes, sending it into a Kickflip. Simply adjust by kicking both legs at the same time. Problem: Board flies out from underneath me
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Solution: Usually, the board will end up in north of you if youre doing this trick backside and south you if youre doing a Frontside Pop Shove-it. To have the board stay under you the whole time, just jump slightly forward or backwards depending on which direction you rotate it. Generally, just lean and jump in the direction the board flies out in. It seems overly simple, but youd be surprised how consistent your Pop Shove-its are after doing so.
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Chapter 6- The 180 Ollie
The 180 Ollie is a simple trick that is a lot harder than it looks. It is a basic flatland trick that sets the foundation for more advanced tricks such as Backside or Frontside Flip. Like all rotation tricks, the 180 Ollie can be done backside or frontside. Requirements for Learning the 180 Ollie The Ollie. Knowing pop shove-its would definitely help, but they are not absolutely necessary.
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Backside 180 Ollie

In the backside 180 Ollie, the skater spins 180 degrees in the direction he is facing. In other words, a goofy skater would spin to his left, and a regular skater would spin to his right. Foot Placement Your back foot should be set up in the middle of the tail, in an Ollie position. Your front foot should be a little closer to the front bolts than in a regular Ollie. You want to have your feet a little wider, so you have more control over your board. Pop Before you pop, have the majority of your weight on your back foot. You also want to have your shoulder wound up already. As you pop, start rotating in the backside direction. When you reach the apex of your Ollie, your board should have already rotated 90 degrees. Rotation You should remain centered as you rotate. To complete the 180 Ollie, just quickly twist your legs.
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You want to turn your head around so you are facing forward again- doing so will help you regain balance quicker. Landing It is especially important to bend your knees after you land. When doing the Backside 180 Ollie, you weight shifts from your back foot to your (now) front foot so there is a tendency to fall off when landing. You can regain your balance by bending your knees- a little more than usual.
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Frontside 180 Ollie

Foot Placement Your back foot should be set up in the middle of the tail, in an Ollie position. Your front foot should be a little closer to the front bolts than in a regular Ollie. You want to have your feet a little wider, so you have more control over your board. Pop Before you pop, you want to have your shoulder wound up already, with your arm across your stomach. As you pop, scoop your foot forwards, unwind and start rotating in the frontside direction. As you reach the apex of your Ollie, your board should have already rotated 90 degrees. Rotation As with the backside 180 Ollie, remain centered when you rotate. You dont want to be moving all over the place- you just want your legs and the board to rotate 180 degrees.
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After you reach the height of your Ollie, quickly twist your legs, bringing your back foot forward, to complete the turning motion. Landing Landing the frontside 180 Ollie is easier since you are facing forward the entire time and you get to see where you land. However, there is still a tendency to land with too much weight on your font foot and having the board shoot out from under you. Fix this by remaining centered and staying over your board while bending your knees as you land. Learning the 180 Ollie With both the frontside and backside 180 Ollie, you want to practice while rolling at a slow, comfortable speed. It is very difficult to learn this trick stationary because you need some momentum to turn the whole 180 degrees. Practice this trick moving at a slow speed at first, then do them at faster and faster speeds, and you will find that the board will rotate better the faster you do them.
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Chapter 3- The Kickflip
One of the most difficult tricks to learn as a beginner, the Killer Kickflip is also one of the most rewarding. Once learned, the Kickflip can be performed along with spin tricks to create an almost endless possibility of tricks. The Kickflip is the trick that separates beginner and intermediate skaters. After you learn the Kickflip youll find that other, more advanced flip tricks that are variations of the Kickflip (such as the Varial Flip and Backside Flip) become much easier to learn. A Kickflip should be done like the Ollie. You pop up the tail and slide your front foot up the board, flicking out your ankle at the concave, causing the board to flip. Youll want to stay over the board as it flips and land with your feet on the bolts.
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Lets take a more in-depth look at the Kickflip: Requirements for Learning Kickflips Before learning Kickflips, youll need to be able to Ollie while rolling. A measly 6 Ollie wont cut it. You need to be able to Ollie at least 2 decks (about a foot) consistently before attempting Kickflips. Kickflip Foot Placement Place your back foot straight across your tail, with your toes in the middle of the tail. Some would say to place the ball of your back foot on the tail, but this decreases your stability and results in the board rotating backside. Place your front foot about an inch or two behind the front set of bolts. You want about half of your front foot on the board, with your toes slightly facing the nose. Balance You want to have the majority of your weight on your front foot, so you stay over your board throughout the trick. Bend your knees to prepare for the pop, keeping your back straight. Pop Pop the board hard with your back foot.
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Give a strong, solid pop on the tail, but make sure your not scooping the tail at all. Just slam straight down. The Kickflip should start out feeling like an Ollie. Flip As your front foot drags up, flick it out and down toward the corner of the board, where the board starts to bend upward. You simply want a nice little flick with your ankle, just enough to spin the board. As soon as you flick, suck up your legs to give the board some room to spin and prepare for the landing. A common problem with the Kickflip is flicking with the entire leg rather than just the foot. This results in kicking the board in front of you or a rocket flip, which well discuss later on in the troubleshooting section. Landing The landing of this trick is all instinct. When you start, the board will probably flip low and you will land as the board hits the ground. However, as you get comfortable with the flip, you will start to catch the board while its still in the air. As you land, aim
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to place your feet on the bolts and give a slight knee bend was you land. Learning the Kickflip The Kickflip is perhaps the most frustrating trick to learn, so have patience when learning it! When first learning this trick, your goal is to get the board flipping. After that, focus on staying over the board while its flipping. This is key to learning the Kickflip and what most beginners tend to ignore. Most people focus on the flip, but if you focus on staying over the board, the flip will come naturally and the Kickflip will come much faster. When you land your first Kickflip, chances are its going to look no where as clean as Andrew Reynolds. Itll probably pop up only a few inches, bounce off the ground, and youll catch it in a manual. Dont worry though! Congratulate yourself for landing it! As you continue to practice, focus popping harder and sucking up your legs more to get them higher and cleaner. Youll soon begin to see how easy and effortless Kickflips can be.
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Troubleshooting the Kickflip

Problem: The board does a rocket flip Solution: In a rocket flip, the board flips while tilted on the tail. To fix this problem all you have to do is pop a few Ollies before hand and then do a Kickflip, feeling the dragging motion of the Ollie. This helps you concentrate on dragging your front foot UP and out. Another reason why the board is flipping on the tail is that you are kicking with your entire leg. Remember, all you need is a nice, gentle ankle flick to get the board spinning. Problem: The board doesnt flip Solution: First of all, make sure you have your Ollies down. Some people move on to the Kickflip before being able to land clean Ollies and wonder why they cant get the board to flip. As you drag your front foot up, flick your front foot out in front of the bolts, where the nose begins to form. Many try to kick their foot back in attempts to flip the board, but this does not cause the board to spin. Problem: Board does a nose dive Solution: If the board is tilting toward the nose, you are flicking down too much. Focus on flicking UP and SOUTH FRONT. When
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starting out, it is very easy to want to flick directly down to cause the board to spin. Again, the Kickflip should feel like an Ollie- you want to drag your front foot UP and let it leave the board around the bolts, giving it a little flick. Problem: My board only flips half way. Solution: This is a very common problem, caused by not flicking enough. The farther north you place your front foot, the slower the board will flip. To adjust, all you have do is adjust your front foot more north or south, finding the spot which will cause the board to spin exactly once in the air. Problem: Board turns backside Solution: The most common reason for the board turning backside and going into a varial is not having shoulders parallel to the board. You want to keep your shoulders square with your board as you pop up. Another possibility is having your foot too much off the board, and scooping the tail as you pop. Fix this by placing your back foot straight across your tail, with your toes in the middle of the tail. Problem: The board lands towards in the back or in front of me
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Solution: All of the landing problems are caused by being off balance when popping. If the board lands behind you, you are leaning too forward. Make sure your head is aligned with the rest of your body and your back is straight. If the board lands in front of you, you are not staying over it while you flip. Imagine the Kickflip as an Ollie- have your weight of your front foot and stay over the board the whole way through. Do not shift your weight onto your back foot and lean back when you pop- this will cause you to kick out too much, causing the board to flip out in front of you. If you are still having trouble, this tip will definitely help you out: simply jump forward a little- you will easily stay over your board. Problem: Board lands to the north or south of me Solution: A common problem with the Kickflip is landing with only toes the board. Simply fix this by keeping your weight centered and not leaning towards your heels when you pop. Lean a bit towards your toes if you have to, keeping the board directly under you at all times. If the board lands south, you are out off jumping the board. Although this problem is rare, it is easy to fix. Just focus on popping the board moving forward (toward your front foot) and not sideways (towards your toes and heels).
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Problem: I land with one foot Solution: If the board flips fine, but you are still landing one footed, its a matter of commitment. When starting out, many skaters have landed Kickflips into manuals, have the board shoot out, sliding off onto their butts, making them terrified of Kickflips for the rest of their lives. As with any trick, you need to stay committed to landing the trick in order to get it down. If you are landing one footed because the board is not under you, then you need to check out another troubleshooting tip to see what exactly the problem is. Problem: Board flips and lands before I do Solution: Remember the Ollie? Well, the Kickflip should feel like one. I think thats only mentioned that about 200 times in this chapter. Remember to flick UP and out, as you are dragging your lead foot up. As you flick, suck up your legs as you would in an Ollie, allowing the board to stick with you rather than flip and fall down before you do. Sucking up your legs allows the board to stay underneath you.
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Chapter 4- The Heelflip
Some argue that the Heelflip is much easier than the Kickflip, but I personally feel that its a tough trick to learn, and should be treated like a difficult trick. Pay attention to the details of the trick to build a good foundation to work with. Requirements for Learning Heelflips The only requirement for Heelfips is a solid Ollie. This trick will come to you easier if you can already Kickflip, but it is certainly not a prerequisite. Foot Placement There are many ways to position the front foot. The front foot should be placed 1-2 inches behind the front bolts. Generally, skaters will have personal preferences when it comes to how much toe should hang off, but his is entirely up to you.
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Because everyone is different, experiment with your front foot positioning until you can find a comfortable spot for your foot. You will probably find that having 2 inches of your toe hanging off will feel right. The back foot should be set up like an Ollie. Here is a general rule of thumb- the farther north your have your toes of your front foot off the board, the farther south you should place your back foot. This is to maintain good balance during the Heelflip. Pop Give the board a clean, hard pop! Like the Kickflip, the Heelflip should start out feeling like an Ollie. As your front foot drags up, flick it out toward the northfront corner of the board, where the board starts to bend upward. Flip You want to slide your front foot diagonally off the board while Ollying. Its an up and out motion. I cannot stress this enough. Most Many beginner skaters kick down or north with their front foot when attempting to Heelflip. Sliding it off diagonally will make the board flip much smoother.
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But this trick is essentially the same as an Ollie- you drag up with your front foot, but you drag towards the north front corner and give a little flick. Remember to suck up your legs after you flick. Landing With the Heelflip, it is common to catch the board with with both feet simultaneously. As long as you suck up your legs as you flick, the board will naturally find its way to your feet in the air. As soon as you catch the board, stomp down and ride away. Learning the Heelflip I recommend to start learning the Heelflip by practicing stationary on carpet or grass. As you get comfortable with the board flipping underneath you, begin to do Heelflips while moving at a slow, comfortable speed. Its important that do not practice all the time standing still. This will cause bad habits that will be hard to fix when you start doing them while moving.
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Troubleshooting the Heelflip

Problem: The board flips vertically Solution: You are kicking out too much with your front foot and/or leaning back. Remember that this trick is just like an Ollie, so remain completely centered over your board. Also, focus your weight on your front heel- this will help you stay centered and balanced as you pop.
Problem: Board goes south of me Solution: This is perhaps the most common problem when learning Heelflips. Because your front foot is hanging off the front edge of the board, there is a tendency to hunch over and lean north. When you Ollie, you will jump north, but your board will flip in place and end up south of you. To overcome this, focus on leaning south and have your weight overtop of the board when popping up. Doing so will keep the board underneath your body through out the trick. Problem: Landing with the back foot only Solution: One footed landings are caused by lack of balance. If you are landing with your back foot on the board, and your front foot on the ground, you are still leaning forward too much.
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Stay centered of the board, or even lean back just a bit and imagine doing and Ollie. Your front foot should drag, flick, and immediately come back on top of the board.
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Chapter 7- The Varial Flip (180 Varial Kickflip)
Varial Flips are a lot easier than they look. They are one of the best looking flatland tricks, while also one of the easiest to master. Requirements for Learning the Varial Flip Backside Pop-Shove-it is definitely a must-know. You want to able to land reasonably high Pop Shove-its. The Kickflip, however, is optional. Although Varial Flips will come to you quicker if you can already land Kickflips, they are certainly not a requirement to learning Varial Flips.
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Many skaters Ive worked with skaters who have learned Varial Flips before Kickflips! While you dont need to be able to land Kickflips with both feet, you should know how to flip the board well. Foot Positioning: Your front foot should be set up in the Kickflip position, but with a more exaggerated angle and farther south. Set up your back foot flat on the tail, as you would for a backside Pop Shove-it. You may want to move your toes more north to get more scoop and pop. Pop Pop the tail and pull south with your back foot in a scooping motion to start the spin. You don't need a huge scoop to get the spin, just enough to get 180 degrees. You want to pop hard, getting the board up in the air; otherwise the board will spin a pitiful Varial Flip on the ground. Flip
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After board has popped up and is slightly angled backside, then flick your front foot off the side of the board causing it to flip and spin at the same time. As you flick, you also want to give a tiny backside shove with your front foot, to help the board rotate. Its important that you dont pop and flick at the same time. Doing so will cause the board to stay and flip on the ground resulting in an ugly looking Varial Flip. Remember, the secret to this trick is popping first, then giving a shove to get it spinning and flipping. This will allow the board to flip and spin smoother and higher. The board will now spin and flip in a smooth motion. Experiment with the positioning of your front foot, since where your front foot is determines how the board will flip. The more angled or further south and back your front foot is, the faster the board will flip. After you flick, remember to lift your back foot up and suck up your legs, so the board may spin and flip freely. You will find that sucking up will cause the board pop up higher and stick to your feet as you land.
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Landing Your front foot, after flicking out, will naturally find its way back to the board, so you do not have to worry about bringing your front foot back. Just focus on staying over your board during the flip. At first, you may have to jump forward a little to land on top of the board. After landing a few, youll find that you can make the board stay underneath you by giving the proper amount of scoop and flick. Spread your leg as you catch the board to keep balance, bend your knees and ride away. Learning the Varial Flip As I mentioned earlier, the Varial Flip can be learned at the same time as Kickflips, but youll unlock them much quicker if you can already Kickflip. When starting out, practice them rolling at a slow speed. This is another trick that youll need momentum for, so doing them stationary isnt going to cut it.
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Troubleshooting the Varial Flip

Problem: Landing on the board upside down Solution: You are focusing more on the pop shove it than the Kickflip. You can fix this several ways. 1. Angle your front foot more to get a faster flip 2. Pop harder, letting the board get more air and having more time to flip 3. Suck up more to give the board more room to flip Problem: I land with one foot Solution: You're not committing. The landing feels just like a Pop Shove-it. If you can land Pop Shove-its, there is no reason you cannot land Varial Flips. As always, be as balanced as possible. Staying centered over your board will place you in the optimum position to land on the board with both feet. Problem: My board only flips half way Solution: One possible reason for a half flip is having too much of your front foot on the board as you flick. Fix this by moving your front foot south, letting more of your heel hang off the board.
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Chapter 8- The Backside Flip (Backside 180 Kickflip)
The Backside Flip is something every skater should have in his bag of tricks. Watch any skaters part in any skate video and you will see some Backside Flips. It is one of the most stylish tricks out there and looks awesome down stairs and gaps. Requirements for Learning the Backside Flip You need to get your Varial Flips and backside 180s down before attempting Backside Flips. When you are able to 180 Ollie over about 2 skateboards, you are definitely ready to learn Backside Flips.
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Foot Positioning Foot positioning is vital in pulling off a clean Backside Flip. Your front foot should be set up like a Kickflip- set up your front foot a couple inches behind the front bolts and angle it 45 degrees, with the heel just hanging off the board. Your back foot should be set up just like a Kickflip. You want the ball of your back foot on the center of the tail. This is crucial! Pop Give the board a good amount of pop, as you would for an 180 Ollie. Start turning your body in the backside direction as soon as you pop. You dont need much scoop for this trick since its mainly the front foot that guides the board, but you still want to get a good amount to get the full 180. Flip When you have turned about 30-40 degrees, you want to start the flick. Like the Varial Flip, you are going to slide your foot diagonally (front-south) off the board to start it flipping.
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Because the board is rotating backside, away from you, you do not need a powerful flick to get the board spinning. But you do want to push your front foot a little north, to help the board rotate. Remember, you are doing this while your body is rotating backside, so its important to remain in control and over your board. The timing of the flick is tough and varies from person to person. Experiment with this step until you find a comfortable time to flick Landing The Backside Flip is caught at about 160-170 degrees, unlike the Frontside Flip, which is caught at 90 degrees and brought around. Because of this extended rotation, the catching the board will be extremely scary at first. Commit to this trick and jump with your board. As soon as you catch the board, square your shoulders to keep your balance. You need to remain centered and balanced when landing, otherwise the board will shoot out from under you and youll be served some lovely concrete for dinner.
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You can keep your balance by shifting your weight to your (now) back foot as soon as you land. As you catch, stomp on the board to prevent it from flipping further. And as always, bend your knees and ride away smiling. Learning the Backside Flip Practice these on flatground first, moving at a slow speed. You will land some backside 90 degree flips at first. Dont worry, as you get more and more comfortable with the timing and rotation of the trick, you will start throwing down some clean looking Backside Flips!
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Troubleshooting the Backside Flip

Problem: The board wont spin all the way. Solution: Pop higher and get more scoop with your back foot. Problem: The board does not flip properly Solution: The flip is all due to the front foot. So you need to focus on sliding the front foot down diagonally. If the board is over flipping, adjust by moving your front foot north, and just give a nice sharp flick. If the board is only flipping half way or barely flipping at all, move your front foot south or angle it more. Problem: The board hits my legs Solution: You are not giving the board enough room to rotate and flip. Fix this by sucking up your legs.
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Chapter 9- The Frontside Flip (Frontside 180 Kickflip)
When you think of Frontside Flip, a name immediately jumps to mind: Andrew Reynolds. Reynolds has the one of cleanest and best look Frontside Flips and he makes landing Frontside Flips down huge stair sets and monster gaps look effortless. Taking careful notice on the execution of this trick and practicing Frontside Flips regularly will help yours look just like Andrews! Requirements for learning the Frontside Flip: Obviously, you want to be able to frontside 180 Ollie and Kickflip. You want to get your 180s higher, since the board needs room to flip.
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Foot Positioning Pay close attention to the foot positioning of this trick. It is one of the most vital aspects of the Frontside Flip and it is a good idea to focus on where you place your feet and develop good habits. Put your back foot with the ball of your foot on the southern edge of tip of the tail. This is crucial! You need the back foot to get enough scoop to rotate the entire 180, so you want a lot of heel hanging off. Place your front foot in the Kickflip position You want your front foot slightly angled (about 30-45 degrees) and a few inches behind the front bolts. Be careful that your front toes are not too close to the southern edge of the board. Because the front foot is responsible for both flipping AND rotating the board, it is important that you have most of your front foot on the board. Pop Your back foot plays a major role in this trick. You need to pop hard with your back foot, but at the same time, scoop around so you get the board to rotate 180. This scooping motion should feel the same way as the Frontside 180 Ollie. It may take a while to get used to, but stick with it and youll develop a feel for it.
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Flick With your front foot, you want to slide it off diagonally (front-south direction) to start the flip. Unlike the Kickflip, in which you give a nice little flick at the end, you will need to kick out hard in order to get the board flipping properly. The front foot must be timed precisely to flip the board as it spins and rotates at the same time. There isnt much else to say about the flick. The Frontside Flip, along with other more advanced tricks, requires you to experiment around before they stick. Because this trick is done frontside, you do not have to turn your body much to complete the 180 rotation. Before popping though, turn your upper body 90 degrees frontside to prepare for the trick. Just have your torso facing forward instead of north when you start the trick. The hardest thing about this trick is getting your back foot to scoop and come around properly. The Frontside Flip is done with mostly legs and lower body. Your upper body just faces forward the whole time. Landing The Frontside Flip is caught in the air after the board rotates 90 degrees. Basically, the board flips, spins 90 degrees, you catch it,
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and bring it around the rest of the way. You need both of your feet to catch the board at the same time. Otherwise, you will have a fun time doing Ffrontside 180 splits. After you catch, shift your weight over your back foot, and stomp the board to the ground to prevent it from over flipping.
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Troubleshooting the Frontside Flip:

Problem: I can't get the full 180. Solution: Get more scoop! Move your back toes more south, have only the very tip of your back foot hanging on the tail. Youll need to get lots of scoop for this trick. Keeping this tip in mind will save you hours of practice! If you position your back foot like a Kickflip, youll just land sideways. Move your toes back so you can get that extra scoop. Problem: The board hits my leg. Solution: You are not catching early enough. Aim to catch the board at 90 degrees so that you can bring it around with your legs already on it. You can fix this flicking harder. Problem: The board always lands upside down Solution: You are not flipping hard enough. To correct this problem you should move your front foot (flipping foot) further south, so less of your foot is one the board. This will help give a quicker, more efficient flip to complete the trick.
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Chapter 10- The 360 Flip (Tre Flip/ 3 Flip)
Invented by Rodney Mullen in the 1970s, the 360 Flip has become the king of flatland tricks and is an instant crowd pleaser. Watch any skate video and youll see footage of Tre Flips down stairs and gaps. The trick is actually a lot easier to learn than it seems. While practicing, the main thing to focus on is the scoop. You will hear me mention that a million times in this guide, but it truly is the most important technical part of the trick! I will go into much more details later, but you want a clean, hard scoop that gets the board spinning. Add a light ankle flip and you got a stylish 360 flip! Requirements for Learning the 360 Flip
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Kickflips and Backside Pop Shove-its are must knows for learning the 360 flip. One very common misconception is you have to be able to 360 Shove-it or Varial Flip. In fact, using 360 Shove-its or Varial Flips as templates for the 360 Flip may hinder your learning of the since they each spin differently. The only real requirement is being comfortable rotating and flipping the board before attempting 360 Flips. Foot Positioning Place your front foot as you would for a Kickflip, but at a sharper angle. The exact positioning of the front foot is not that important since the front foot only flips the board and guides the rotation. The back foot is mainly responsible for the 360 degree rotation of the board. The ball of your foot should be in the northern edge of the tail, along the curvature. You may even want to hang your toe off. The reason you have your foot so far up in the top right corner is that you need a lot of scoop in order to get the board rotating 360 degrees. Pop
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With your back foot, pop hard (get the board as vertical as possible) and pull back with in a sweeping motion to get the full 360 degree rotation. This scoop is the most important part of the entire trick. Scoop the hell out of that board! You want to scoop in such a way that it feels like the board is spinning behind you. You do not want the board to spin in front of you. After popping and scooping immediately lift your back foot up so the board has room to rotate. Your back foot is what powers this trick- if you have a good amount of scoop youre all set. Flick With the front foot, just give a gentle forward flick towards the corner where the concave is to get the board flipping. Do not give a little backside shove with the front foot as you would with the Varial Flip. The front foot simply gets in the way and causes the board to flip. You do not need to worry much about exactly how to flick; just focus on the back foot scooping.
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Experiment with the timing of the front foot flick with the back foot scoop until the board flips and spins smoothly. Landing Landing is the most difficult part of the 360 Flip. Everyone lands them differently so you need to discover your own style of flipping and landing. Youll want to stay over your board through out the entire trick, so lean forward a little to keep your board under you. When first learning these, notice which way the board tends to go and jump in that direction. For example, if the board lands north and back, you need to jump in that direction in order to catch the board. As you catch the board and land, you will most likely have a tendency to fall over forward. Overcome this by bending your knees and leaning back slightly. Learning the 360 Flip Though it is possible to do these stationary, its best to learn the moving. Start practicing at a slow speed until you feel completely comfortable executing the trick while rolling. At first, the board will land away from you, but just practice jumping with the board and pretty soon, youll get the flip down and can naturally stay over the board.
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Troubleshooting the 360 Flip

Problem: Im always landing on the nose Solution: You need to put more power into the spin. Scoop the living daylights out of the board and make the effort to get the tail to go in front of you. Pop the board harder and try to get it vertical to get a more powerful spin. Problem: The board hits my shin Solution: You need to focus on jumping higher and sucking up after you start the trick. Make sure to lift you back foot up as soon as you scoop. Problem: The board lands away from me Solution: It will be hard to stay completely over your board when you first start learning these. Your body will soon adjust with practice, but to help you land it quicker, you can do two things: 1. Give the board more pop before you start the scoop. This means you try to get the board as vertical as you can with the pop. This motion carries the board into the air along with you, as opposed to scooping it right away and having it spin away from you. 2. Jump in the direction the board lands. This technique never fails- just jump with the board. Your landing may be a little sloppy, but at least youre close to landing it. As I
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mentioned before, over time, you no longer need to focus on jumping forward as your body will naturally adapt to the trick and keep the board under you. Problem: I land primo Solution: Landing primo means the board is either over flipping or under flipping. If the board is over flipping, you need to ease off the front foot. The front foot gives a gentle flick- not a violent kick. If the board under flips, angle it more or move it back so it provides a more efficient flick. Also be sure to suck up your legs, giving the board more room to spin and flick, so you manage to catch the board in the air. Problem: I cant get the full 360 degree rotation Solution: Since the rotation is all in the back foot there is only one way to fix this- scoop harder! Your front foot may be interfering with the spin- be sure to give nothing more than a gentle kick forward with the front foot. Remember: its all in the scoop!
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Chapter 11- The Hardflip
Hardflips are almost always every skaters goal trick. Your flatground bag of tricks wont be complete until the Hardflip is added to your arsenal. They are extremely stylish and look nice in every situation, whether you do them on flatground, down stairs or over gaps. Requirements for Learning the Hardflip Know the Frontside Shove-it, Kickflip, and Frontside Flip before learning the Hardflip. Although the Hardflip is a combination of the frontside Pop Shove-it and Kickflip, knowing the Frontside Flip will accelerate your learning of the Hardflip. Foot Placement
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Like many advanced flip tricks, your foot positioning is extremely vital to pulling off a clean Hardflip. You want to set your back foot at a 30 degree angle on the middle of the tail. Moving your back foot a little more south can help you get the board spinning the full 180. Your front foot should be 3-4 inches behind the front bolts, turned at a 50 degree angle. You want about half of your foot hanging off the board. Pop The pop of the Hardflip is the toughest part of the trick. The board will flip vertically and go through your legs. At first, it will be very scary committing to this trick, so you may want to practice on a mini deck to build your confidence. As you prepare to pop, turn your upper body to face the nose. With your back foot, you are going to scoop, not pop, the tail in a Frontside Pop Shove-it motion. This will get the board rotating frontside. Make sure you give a powerful scoop so the board completes the full spin. After scooping, lift your back foot north and up so the board has room to spin freely. Remember to jump high and suck
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up your legs, since the board needs a lot of room to flip and spin. Flick To get the board flipping, use your front foot and slide it diagonally off the board when the board has popped up about 45 degrees. Since the board is already rotating in the frontside direction, you only need a slight flick to get the board flipping. However, you need to kick your front foot out to give the board room to spin and flip. Landing Catching and landing are the toughest parts of this trick. After the board completes the flip and spin, focus on catching the board with your front foot first, to stop further flipping and spin. Then, bring down your back foot and stomp it to the ground. I have seen some skaters catch the board with their back feet first, but you need to be careful when doing this, since the board will tend to shoot out. Finally, land with your knees bent and a huge grin on your face. Learning the Hardflip
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It is best to learn the Hardflip rolling at a moderate speed. You might want to practice with a mini deck, if youre worried about popsicling yourself. Many skaters dont commit to the Hardflip since they fear getting hurt, so a smaller deck will help you overcome that.
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Troubleshooting the Hardflip

Problem: The board always hits my front leg Solution: The board is hitting your front leg because you are not providing enough room for it to spin and flip. Make sure you kick out your front farther. Problem: I have trouble flipping the board Solution: By this time, you should know what causes the board to flip too much or too little. Simply adjust by flicking harder or softer, or adjust your foot position. Problem: The board goes in front or behind me. Solution: If the board shoots out in front of you, you need to lean forward. Similarly, if the board ends up in back of you, you are leaning forward too much and you need to lean back more. Problem: I get popsicled when I Hardflip Solution: Ouch! First, check to make sure youre not bleeding. Then make sure you give enough scoop on your subsequent Hardflips. Not enough scoop causes the board to stop vertically in the air, putting you in a very unhealthy position. Also, jump higher and suck up your legs more to ensure the board has enough room to flip.
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Chapter 12 The Backside Heelflip
There isnt really much to say about backside 180 Heelflips. They are just a combination between backside 180 Ollies and Heelflips. It requires much practice to get these down, but they are one of the best looking tricks around. Requirements for Learning Backside 180 Heelflips Obviously, youll want to know Backside 180s and Heelfips pretty well. Get your backside 180s pretty high, since you need a lot of room for the board to spin. Knowing Backside 180 Kickflips isnt crucial, but it can definitely facilitate the learning process. Foot Placement Place your front foot a little further back than you would for a normal Heelflip, and set up your back foot as you would for an
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Ollie. You may even want your back foot a little further south on the tail so it doesnt get in the way of the board flipping. Pop Give a good, hard pop to get some decent height. Because this trick spins a little slower, youll need a bigger pop. As you pop, start turning your body backside, just like a backside 180. Flick Put some weight on the heel of your front foot before you start the trick. After you pop, give a good, clean flick with your heel by dragging it towards the front northern edge of your board. The motion will feel pretty natural. Landing Catch the board after you have rotated about 90-100 degrees. Catch with your back foot first and bring the board the rest of the way with your leg. You can also give a little pivot if you cant get the full 180. The motion of this trick is remarkable similar to the Frontside Flip, since it is a mirror image of the Frontside Flip. Reread the landing tips for the Frontside Flip and apply them to this trick.
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Learning the Backside 180 Heelflip Learn this trick moving at a slow speed. There is almost no way you can spin the full 180 if youre doing it stationary.
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Troubleshooting the Backside 180 Heelflip

Problem: I can't flip the board all the way. Solution: As always, experiment with your foot positions and try to place your feet in different places. Focus your weight on your heels, and give a quick, sharp, flick. Problem: I land one footed Solution: Either youre not committed enough to the trick, or you do not have your weight even distributed. While you want to have your weight on your heels, you dont want to be leaning forward. Stay centered over your board and keep it under you at all times.
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Chapter 13- The 50-50 Grind
The 50-50 is the most basic of grinds. 50-50s set the foundations for the other grinds, and once you have them mastered, other, more advanced grinds will come to you naturally. Technique Come up to the target at a slight angle. When you get close enough, Ollie up onto the target, letting both trucks hit at the same time. Slight bend your knee as you land to keep your balance and ride out the grind.
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During your grind, its important to stay centered over your board to keep your balance. If youre leaning too forward or backwards, the board can easily shoot out from you. To get off of the grind, you can do one of two things. You can simple lean back a little and lift up your nose to finish the grind. OR, if you have time, pop an Ollie to get off of the grind. Practice When first starting out, a great way to practice 50-50s is to lay down a small pole or hockey stick and practice Ollying on to that. You dont necessarily have to grind it; just get comfortable getting in the 50-50 position on top of it from different angles. Practice from both the right and left side, getting used to backside and Frontside 50-50s. Once you master that, find a nice, waxed curb to practice your 50-50s on. You need to be rolling at a moderately fast speed so you have enough momentum to grind properly, otherwise, you will just suddenly stop. When youre comfortable with curbs, you can now take your 5050s onto higher surfaces such as ledges, rails, and eventually handrails!
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Chapter 13- The 5-0 Grind
Technique Ride parallel to your target as you would for a 50-50 grind. Ollie on to the target and shift your weight on your back foot. Get into the grind with your back foot pressing on the tail, but still leaning forward so you dont slip out.
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To get out of the grind, simply shift your weight back onto your front foot. Just simply pivot out of the grind and ride away. Practice Practice the 5-0 grind by rolling up to your target at a slow, comfortable speed. Pop an Ollie, shifting your weight onto your back foot as you land on top of your obstacle. Repeat this until you become comfortable Ollying into the 5-0 position. Next, roll up and 5-0 at a faster speed, but not too fast. You want to gradually increase your speed so you get a good feel for how much you should lean as you are grinding. Theres not much else to say about this trick; just practice until you can stay balanced throughout the grind.
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Chapter 15- the Board Slide
Technique This is another basic trick, but unlike grinds, you will be sliding much faster. For the Frontside Board Slide, youll need to know how to Ollie in the Frontside direction. Likewise, you need to be comfortable with backside Ollies for backside Board Slides. Begin by riding toward your target a comfortable speed. Depending on whether you want to do a backside or frontside Board Slide, Ollie up 90 degrees frontside or backside. A key aspect of the Board Slide is to land into the slide balanced so the board doesnt shoot out from underneath
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you. You can accomplish this by a slight knee bend. If you are leaning back, even the slightest bit, be prepared slip! During the slide, you just need to keep your weight centered and your shoulders parallel with the board. This will be extremely easy if you land into the slide balanced. To complete the slide, do a quick 90 degree turn, either frontside or backside to get out of the slide. Practice A great way to practice Board Slides is to do them on parking blocks. When first practicing, just get comfortable with going into the slide without falling. Parking blocks are at a low height, and are very smooth, reducing the risk of injury. It is best to start off practicing on low blocks rather than rails so you wont be scared of falling and can focus on balancing your body throughout the slide. As you start to get a feel for the slide, focus on getting out of the slide until you can slide out smoothly.
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Chapter 16- The Nose Grind
. The Nose Grind is another basic grind that looks great down handrails or across ledges. The toughest part of learning the Nose Grind is figuring out how to balance yourself over your front trucks as you grind. Before trying the Nose Grind, it is important to be comfortable with the 50-50 grind and the nose manual. Technique: Approach the target at a moderate speed, depending on the length of the target. The faster you go, the longer you will be able to grind for. Since the Nose Grind relies on only the front trucks, it is important to find a smooth target. You will find it extremely
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difficult to Nose Grind a ledge or curb with many cracks and gaps. Ride parallel to the object and prepare for the grind by setting your feet as you would for an Ollie. Give a good, clean pop to the tail and Ollie up. As you come down on your Ollie, you want the nose pointed down towards the target, as you would for a nose manual. Hold this position by keeping your front leg straight and bending your back leg. Put a moderate amount of pressure on your back foot to keep the board straight and prevent it from turning sideways. You want enough weight on the nose so you are locked into the grind, but you dont want the nose to drag and cause you to lose momentum. In other words, it is best if you grind solely on your front trucks, but having the nose touch a little is okay. You want your weight on the front nose, but you dont want to be leaning forward. This is where many skaters have trouble. Leaning forward will cause the board to shoot backwards and throw you forward. Instead, you want your body to be centered over your board, keeping extra pressure on the nose with your front foot. To complete the grind, simply do a small Nollie and land back on the ground.
Practice
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One of the best ways to practice the Nose Grind is to practice the nose manual, since the nose grind is basically a nose manual performed on a rail, coping, or ledge. Practice Ollying into nose manuals and holding them for at least five to ten seconds.
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Chapter 17- The Crooked Grind
The Crooked Grind is an extremely good looking grind. However, before learning the Crooked Grind, you should be able to Nose Grind. Technique: Crooked Grinds are very much like nose grinds. Come up parallel to your target, with your front foot a little closer to the nose. Pop your tail and Ollie onto the target. Putting your weight on your font foot, straighten out your front foot while keeping your back leg a little bent. When your front trucks lock onto your target, push your back foot so the tail out at an angle (so that its crooked)
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Push your nose all the way down and keep your weight centered over your front trucks as youre grinding. It will take some time to learn the correct balance, but experiment with different foot placements after you get a feel for the grind. Remember you have to press the nose completely down on the target, so they are easier to balance than Nose Grinds. To get out of the grind, youll want shift your weight off the nose. Then pop a semi-Nollie out and ride away! Practice You must be rolling at a moderately fast speed in order to grind smoothly. For this reason, its a good idea to learn the Nose Grind first so you can start trying this trick moving at a quick speed.
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Chapter 18- The Nose Slide
The Nose Slide is a clean looking trick thats pretty easy to learn. Before learning this trick, you should be able to frontside or backside 180 Ollie in the direction you want to Nose Slide in. Technique: Ride parallel to the target at a good, comfortable speed. When starting out, it is a good idea to try these on ledges and curbs rather than rails, since with rails, there is the possibility of leaning too much and falling over to the other side. As you approach your target, you want to set up your feet in 180 position. Have your front foot a little closer to the nose, so it can reach and press down on the nose quicker.
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Pop an Ollie and shift your weight over your front foot, which should now be over your nose. Lock your nose onto the target and stay balanced throughout the slide. A good tip for balancing the Nose Slide is keeping your arms parallel to the target rather than your board. To get out of the slide, simply press down with your front foot and give a slight scoop to turn the nose of the board off of the target. Land on all four wheels and ride away. Practice A great way to practice Nose Slides is to practice olleing into nose stalls on a curb or ledge. Once you get good nose stalls by approaching straight on, practice olleing into nose stalls riding by parallel to the obstacle, so youll have to do a quick 90 degree turn. Dont worry if lose youre leaning over too much after getting into the nose stall- the important thing to focus on is shifting your weight over the nose and locking it in place.
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Chapter 19- The Smith Grind
The Smith Grind is definitely a tough trick to learn. The most frustrating part of this trick is figuring out the right amount of pressure on the tail. However, once you experiment and get that down, you will be able to pull off one of the nicest looking grinds ever! Technique: Before learning the Smith Grind, it is important to be familiar with 50-50s and Lipslides as well. Knowing the 5-0 grind is not a must, but will definitely accelerate the learning of this trick. Approach your target a good speed. The faster you go, the longer youll be able to grind for. Set up your feet as you
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would for an Ollie. Some like to set up their front foot a little more toward the front. This will help you balance the grind better, since your legs are further apart. Pop up your tail and Ollie, bringing your tail towards the object, sort of like a Lipslide. Lock your back trucks onto the target, and push down with your front foot, so the middle on the deck is also touching and your front trucks are hanging below the target. Be sure to stay centered over your back truck; if youre leaning forward too much, your board just stick and youll quickly fall out of the grind. To complete the grind, simple give the tail a slight pop and land your wheels. Practice This is a hard trick to learn and will take much practice before mastering it. Start out by practice on grind rails rather than curbs or ledges. Grind rails can be scary to learn on, but its a good idea to start out by practicing on them because its much easier to learn the correct balance on them, since your board wont be as tilted as they would if you were using a ledge.
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Chapter 20- The Tail Slide
The Tail Slide is a little harder than the Nose Slide, since the tail is slightly shorter, so you have a smaller sliding surface. Before learning this trick, you should be able to frontside or backside180 Ollie in the direction you want to Tail Slide in. Technique: Ride parallel to your target at a confortable speed. Like the Nose Slide, it is best to try this trick on a ledge or curb first since theyre easier to balance on. Set up as you would for a backside or frontside 180 Ollie. Pop your tail and do a quick 90 degree Ollie to get your tail locked onto the obstacle. Apply pressure to your tail and shift most of your weight over it. Again, keep your arms parallel to the obstacle so you remain balanced throughout the slide.
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As you near the end of the slide, shift your weight evenly to both legs. Give a quick press with your front foot and turn out of the slide. Land on the ground and ride away! Practice Like the Nose Slide, a good way to practice the tail slide is Ollie into tail stalls. Do this by rolling parallel along a curb or ledge at a moderately slow speed. Pop an Ollie and turn 90 degrees away from the curb, locking your tail onto the curb. Be sure to shift your weight to your back foot so you remain locked onto the ledge or curb.
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The 5 Most Common Skateboarding Mistakes

1. Not Popping Hard Enough- This may sound like common sense, but youd be surprised how many skaters do no pop hard enough. This is because were not really consciously aware of our movements- they have become completely habituated. Strive to slam down on the tail hard as you can every single time you pop. Whether youre doing a flatground Kickflip or Ollying a 7 set, aim to pop as hard as you can every single time. Over time, your body will develop a habit of popping hard, and your tricks will be naturally higher. This is one of the most overlooked parts of skateboarding. 2. Leaning Over your Board- As you bend down to prepare for the pop, be sure to squat- do not lean over the edge of your board. This throws off your balance and leaves you with less control over your board and body. The only exception to this is when youre learning a new trick and the board is going away from you. Leaning in the opposite direction when you first learn the trick will help keep the board under your feet. As you become more and more comfortable with doing the trick, your body will naturally stop leaning and the board will stay under you without you adjusting. 3. Bending Down Too Much or Too Little- This is something I have discovered recently. I found out that bending
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down too much slows down the popping motion and, as a result, you lose height on tricks. Bending down too little doesnt give you enough power for a good clean pop. This is like bending your knees before jumping. If you bend them all the way so your butt is practically touching the ground, you wont jump very high because itll takes longer for your legs to extend, and you lose a lot of the force. If you dont bend enough, you wont be able to generate enough force to jump as high as you can. The trick is to bend the optimal amount- somewhere in the middle. Personally, I like to bend slightly more for gaps and stairs and not as much for flatground. 4. Letting a Bad Day Affect You- Everyone has bad dayseven professionals. The key is seeing past them and not letting them affect you. Skateboarding is a wonderful journey with many ups and downs. After you land a huge gap or learn a new trick, you feel like youve conquered the world. But when you have days when you get hurt or cant land anything, youll think about giving up. If youre having a bad day, make the most out of it. Read some motivational quotes if you have to. Just remember that the harder you work, the greater your rewards. 5. Skating without a Goal- In section one, we learned about the importance of goal setting and how it gives us a purpose and direction. Many skateboarders skate without really thinking about why theyre doing it and what they want to get out of it. Think about why you started skateboarding. Was it
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because your friends did it? Was it because skating is the cool thing to do? Well whatever the reason may have been, Im sure they have changed by now. You probably want to skate because it creates a sense of freedom, creativity, and thrill. Make sure you know why youre skateboarding. If youre doing it to be cool or to fit in I can bet you wont last long. Also, think about what you want to get out of skateboarding. Set goals and think about where you would like to be in 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years. Maybe you want to go pro. Maybe you want to skate a famous spot. Maybe you just want to skate for the sake of having fun. Whatever, you want, just be sure to write it down and remember it every time you skate. Of course, your goals can change over time and you are encouraged to stop every once in a while and reflect upon what you really want.
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How to Get Your Tricks Higher

The main problem with executing tricks low is not enough pop. Simply put, all you have to do is pop harder. However, there are others factors that influence how much air you get. Here are some additional ways to increase the height of your tricks Sucking up- Sucking up your legs will give the board more time to stay in the air. As you drag your front foot up after you pop, the board naturally follows. Thus, if you suck in your legs, the board will have a tendency to go higher. Moving your front foot back- Moving your front foot back gives your front foot more room to drag, which naturally brings the board closer up to your body. Using more of your toe to pop- Using the toes of your back foot to pop allows you to give a sharp, quick snap, which in turns gets the board moving up faster. Having some of your heel on there gives you more balance, but at the same time, slows you down. Experiment with the back foot placement until you get a good, high pop, but still keeping balance.
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Part II: Skating to Success
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Table of Contents
Setting up for Success Making Sure you Stay Committed and Get Results How to Set your Skate Goals Goal Outline Page Success Enhancers Skate Card Visualization Success Questions Skate Progress Planner How to Defeat Frustration Closing 102 103 104 114 117 117 120 132 136 144 145
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Chapter 1: Setting up for Success

Goal Setting: Guaranteeing Success Groannn! The concept of goal setting seems somewhat clich and seems totally unrelated to skateboarding. However, its hard to argue against once you consider it carefully. Strongly enough, virtually everyone agrees that goals are important, yet less than 5% of the population has one Goals give us purpose in life. They direct us in all areas of lifepersonal, career, spiritual, and material. Goals give us a reason to wake up early and go to bed late at night. They drive us to do the things we do allow us to avoid the things we do not want. In essence, goals put drive and passion in our lives. What if we dont have any goals? Then we are driving across the country without a map. We will wander around aimlessly, without any purpose or direction. Not having goals is why some skaters quit after they learn all the flatland tricks. They become disappointed and ask, Is this all there is?
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In addition, having a goal will dramatically facilitate anything we desire to accomplish. Traditionally, goal setting courses are geared toward helping someone achieve success in areas of finance, relationships and physical fitness. However, I have adopted these goal setting principles and fine tuned them to apply directly to skateboarding so you can learn tricks much, much faster, land them on a more consistent basis and have loads of fun in the process! Apply the techniques Im about to teach you, you will soon have a fully functional map to use to reach your skateboarding dreams and desires. I strongly recommend you buy a notebook to use as Skateboard Success Journal and devote it to writing down your goals and using it for other techniques mentioned in this book. I say this knowing that many of you will not take action and get a notebook. Just keep in mind that the benefits you receive from this book are equal to the amount of effort you put in. How to Make Sure you Stay Committed and Get Results Make a firm commitment to yourself right now that you will work to improve on your skateboarding everyday and write that commitment down in your Skateboarding Success Journal.
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Without a written declaration of your intent to improve, it becomes easy to forget or skip exercises because you dont feel like doing them. Make a decision right now that you will give 100% of yourself to working on improving your skateboarding skills. I know that you will encounter many roadblocks on your journey to become the best skater you can be. At times, you will be too tired, lazy, or busy to do these exercises. Just remember that the biggest difference between champions and regular people is that champions stay focused on completing activities which are the highest and best use of their time. With that said, lets get started! How to Set your Skate Goals Now that we understand the importance of goal setting, lets take a look the basic outline. Here is the basic 6 step process I developed for setting and achieving whatever you want: 1. Decide what you want 2. Write down what you want 3. If possible, make each goal more specific 4. Set a deadline date for each goal 5. Write down enough compelling reasons for achieving your goals 6. Brainstorm a few actions you can take 1. Decide what you want
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If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it. William Arthur Ward
Many years ago, it was thought by some to be impossible to run a four minute mile. Experts said it couldnt be done. They said our cardiovascular system wasnt ready for it. Our bone structure wasnt right. Our muscles werent suitable. In 1954, a man named Roger Banister quit believing in the experts and started believing in Roger Banister. He broke the 4 minute mark and within a month, others accomplished the same thing! The four minute mile is now the standard of all professional middle distance runners. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. Start by telling yourself that you do deserve success when it comes to skateboarding, and the level of success you want is attainable. When you believe that its possible to reach what you define as success, you have taken your first step toward achieving your dreams! As long as you accept that you can be successful when it comes to skateboarding and you are willing to take action, I am 100% confident that you will reach your goals.
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But what is success exactly? Success is exactly what you define it to be. To some, success at skateboarding is turning pro. To others, success is being sponsored by a local skate shop. And to others, success is being able to land Kickflips. I cannot tell you what success means to you; only you can do that. I can only help you achieve that success. 2. Write Down What you Want Take a moment right now to jot down some your goals in your Skateboard Success Journal- write down what you want to accomplish in skateboarding. Write what you truly desire, no matter how impossible it may seem. Make two lists. Make a Goal Tricks list, where you include all the tricks you want to learn and an Other Goals list, where you write down anything else you want to accomplish in skateboarding. Jot down a cool trick you saw in a skate video. Jot down a new trick that you made up. Jot down a crazy line youve always wanted to do. Jot down a gap or stair set youve dreamed of doing. There are no limits. Jot down anything you like. Here are a few initial goals I wrote down: Goal Tricks:
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be able to land all the tricks taught in Tony Hawk Trick Tips Vol. 2 ( this was the only resource I had to learn skateboarding tricks Other Goals: be able to land any given trick at least 50% of the time be able to Kickflip the Worcestor Bush Gap ( a popular local gap) Over time, I added a few more goals. But the point is this: write down anything you desire, no matter how impossible or trivial they seem. Write anything from landing Ollies to getting sponsored to Smith Grinding El Toro. You may write as many goals as you want; I only had a couple, but you may have 10, 20, or even 50 goals you want to accomplish. As I said earlier, do not dismiss a goal because it seems impossible. Your goals should make you feel uncomfortable because you probably have no idea how to achieve them. The reason most people dont set goals is that they are afraid of failing. The fear of failure inhibits us from going for what we want. We sometimes feel fear that failing to succeed will bring unbearable negative consequences.
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These people rationalize (usually unconsciously) that if they never set a goal, they can never fail. Unfortunately, these people also fail to realize that the flip side of this pattern is that they will also not succeed! If fear of failure seems to affect you and the actions you take, consider that even if you fail to realize your goal, its still likely that you have improved to a measurable degree along the way. For example, maybe you set a goal to enter a local skateboard contest. It turned out that you came in dead last and felt terribly embarrassed. But consider what really mattersdid you significantly improve your skating abilities in the process of pursuing the goal? If so, you efforts were totally worthwhile. Turn into a process oriented person, eager to learn from the process rather than focusing exclusively on the outcome. How do we overcome this fear of failure? By setting a goal so large that it is quite possible for us to fail! You cannot have success without failure or failure without success. The key thing here is that you MUST write it somewhere. You might ask, do I have to write my goals down? Cant I just remember them? The answer is, ABSOLUELY NOT! You must write them down on paper or type them in a document otherwise its not a goal. Its simply a wish, a vague desire or a fantasy.
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Many studies have shown that goals written down are much more likely to be actualized than goals kept in the back of the mind since they are much clearer and focused. 3. Make your Goals More Specific It was a little while after I set my initial goals that I realized that it is better to be extremely specific when setting an objective. Instead of writing be able to land all the tricks in Tony Hawk Trick Tips Vol. 2 I should have written, be able to land the Backside Flip, Frontside Flip, Varial Flip, 360 Flip, etc and list out the specific trick I desired to learn. In the same way, your desire to get better at skateboarding isnt a goal. It must be specific and measurable. This reduces the vagueness of the goal and gave your mind something specific to focus on when you skate. If you wrote any vague goals, take the time now to split them up into more specific goals. 4. Set a Date You Want to Learn the Trick by Now that you have written down your goals, you must set a rough date you want to accomplish it by. Make sure youre reasonable when setting the date. I want to emphasize that this should not be seen as a deadline. The word, deadline turns many people off because it is
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associated with the idea that youre doing something you dont want to, but have to, since you must complete it by a certain date. The date should be seen as a goal, something to shoot for and as a way to push yourself to make sure youre on track. However, just because you wrote down by tomorrow doesnt mean youre going to accomplish immediately. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to accomplish each goal. Be sure to have fun while setting your goals. By writing down what you want and when you want it, you are setting yourself up for massive success! 5. List Reasons Your goals must be personally meaningful. In other words, it must be worthy of your unconditional resolve and personal sacrifice. You must be willing to giving up something in order to gain something greater as a result for the allotted time-frame. It must contain real value and undeniable potential to improve your life. Now, write down a couple of reasons for why you want to accomplish your goals. In studying goal setting, it was discovered that many fail to achieve success simply because they didnt have clear and compelling reasons for doing so. Do not let this sabotage your success!
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Give serious thought as to why you desire to achieve a goal. Do you want to be able to land Switch Hardflips? Why? Do you want to become sponsored? Why? The more compelling reasons you have for achieving your goals, the greater your chances for accomplishing them. Keep in mind that every person has different reasons for wanting something. One mans junk is another mans treasure. We all have different values, so the reasons that you give must be completely honest, strong and motivating to you. Here are a few reasons I had for wanting to succeed at skateboarding: to impress my friends and family to be respected to increase my passion for skateboarding to be good at something and feel that sense of accomplishment to prove to myself I can succeed if I try to meet and befriend new people to prove to others that I can be good at something to have fun
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The more reasons you have the better. Just be sure your reasons truly represent your desire for something. As you constantly review your reasons, you will find yourself becoming more and more motivated to strive toward your goals. Anytime you feel frustrated, upset, angry, tired or unmotivated, all you have to do is to look over your list of reasons, and your mind will immediately shift frames, bringing back the motivation needed to accomplish your goals. 6. Brainstorm ways to achieve your goals Now that you know what you want and why you want them, you are pretty much set on accomplish them. Your mind now has a target to aim for. Motivational speaker, Brian Tracy, found that if you simply write your goals on a sheet of paper and put it away, you will achieve six out of seven of them in a year. How liberating is that? Did you write everything down? If not, go back and do it now! This exercise is key to your future success in skateboarding! In this last step, you will be coming up with ideas that will lead you to accomplishing your goals. By simply listing your goals, you are pretty much set for success. However, we can materialize our goals much quicker if we come up with ways of accomplishing them.
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Now, take the time to write down a few things you can do that will lead you closer to your goals. Write down anything at all no matter how insignificant that will ultimately allow you to achieve your dreams. For example, if your goal is to become sponsored by XYZ Skateshop, some actions you can take are make a sponsor video learn more about the shop buy a better skateboard talk to people who are already sponsored etc. If your goal is to be able to land 360 flips, you may write set aside an additional 30 min a day to practice read trick tips of 360 flips ask for advice from friends who can already land them etc. Just jot down anything, no matter how obvious or simple that will guide you in the direction you want. Now were going to transfer all this onto a single sheet of paper you can refer to anytime. Prepare a new page in your Skateboarding Success Journal and use the following outline:
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Goal Outline Cheatsheet Todays Date:___________ Goal Tricks & Deadline 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. . Reasons for my goals 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 7. 8. 9. 6. Other Goals & Deadline 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
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10. 11. Things I can do to reach my goals 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
12.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
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Read over this goal sheet several times a day. I suggest looking at it when your first wake up, before you skate, after you skate and before you sleep. Staying consistently focused on what you want and why will bring your goals to life much quicker. Thats it! You have successfully set your goals, and are well on your way to doing what youve always dreamed of!
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Chapter 2: Success Enhancers

Now that we decided on what we want and when we want them, we have taken the first step to achieving them. There are still many things we can do to ensure we reach our goals as quickly as possible! We call these techniques Success Enhancers: 1. Keeping a Goal Card 2. Visualization 3. Success Questions 4. Skate Progress Chart
1. Skate Card: Making Sure Youre On Track

One of the best ways to reach your goals in the shortest time possible is to write them on an index card and carry it around in your pocket. Then, you must read it aloud to yourself whenever you get the chance. This is exactly how wealth guru, Bob Proctor, achieved success. A high school drop out with a resume of dead end jobs, Bob simply
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wrote down his financial goals on an index card, kept it in his pocket, and read it aloud to himself whenever he got the chance. Within a year, he made more than $100,000, and soon topped the $1 million mark! How to Make a Skate Card All you have to do is pick a goal from your list, and write it on an index card in this format, I now choose to [insert your goal here] in a natural, effortless and growth seeking manner. This or something better The last statement, This or something better, is sort of like an insurance policy- it prevents your ego from being too demanding and guarantees that you will receive what is best for you. How a Skate Card Works If you are constantly reading your goal and reminding yourself, your mind will become more and more focused on reaching it. Soon, the goal will be implanted into your subconscious mind, which will constantly look for ways to accomplishing it. The Subconscious is the part of the mind that has the instructions for running your day to day life. Anything you do that you do not think about is controlled by your subconscious mind. Habits, thought patterns, and behavior are all controlled by the Subconscious.
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There are often memories of negative experiences or beliefs that are imprinted in there that lead to self-sabotage, low selfesteem, and unwanted behavior. By constantly thinking about what we want (constantly reading Skate Card), we are impressing positive images into the subconscious and we will naturally do whatever is necessary to achieve what we want. My 360 Flip Story After relearning the Kickflip and Backside Flips, I decided it was time to learn how to throw down some nasty Tres. This is what my Skate Card for that week looked like:
I now choose to constantly land 360 flips in a natural, effortless and growth seeking manner. This or something better
I kept it in my pocket and read it whenever I had the chancewhenever I went to the bathroom, before meals, when I got into my car, before I skated, after I skated, while I skated, when I woke up, before I went to bed, etc. Before the week was over, I landed my first 360 flip! It only took 2 or 3 days of 1 hour practice sessions. And this was after not having touched a skateboard for almost four years!
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The more you read it aloud to yourself, the quicker the goal will plant in your mind, and the faster your subconscious will materialize it. When you accomplish a goal, go reward yourselfits going to feel great. Then, decide on another goal you wish to achieve and write that one on a card. Keep creating new goal cards and constantly reading them until all of your goals have been reached. Using this method, you will be surprised at how quickly you will achieve your dreams!
2. Visualization: Conditioning your Body for Success

This is the traditional process by which we learn a new trick: First, our mind has an image of what the trick looks like. We then gather information that will guide us to land the trick. We learn about the foot positioning, the amount of pop we give, what the front foot should do, where our balance should be, etc. Next, we actually try the trick. Our initial attempts almost always results in failure. Why? Just because we know what were supposed to do doesnt mean were going to do it right. We must experiment numerous times before we get a good feel of how the trick actually works. Eventually, we land the trick and remember the actions that caused it to happen. After repeated landings, our body
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automatically remembers what it feels like to land a particular trick, fires the appropriate muscle movements, and we can finally land it on a consistent basis. The trick is now learned. The time it takes to complete this process can be quite a long time. Personally, it took me about 3 months of skating many times a week before I landed my first Kickflip. Although the amount of time it takes varies from individual to individual, this traditional method of learning tricks is ineffective because it relies heavily on the body to get a feel for the trick. However, when you use your mind to assist you in learning a trick, youll be absolutely astonished at how quickly and effortless the trick comes to you. This is where visualization comes in. How Visualization Works One of the greatest advantages of our mind is its ability to be trained and programmed. It is the ability to visualize our intended destination or goal. Our mind thinks in pictures, not in words. Everyone sees pictures so we think in pictures as well. Think about your skateboard. Did a picture of your skateboard flash upon the screen of your mind? You saw the image of your skateboard, not the words, s-k-a-t-eb-o-a-r-d.
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If you cannot genuinely picture yourself achieving your goal, chances are, its not going to be actualized. The old, overused and clichd axiom, conceive, believe, and achieve, is packed with truth. But whats so special about seeing images in your mind? This is extremely important because your subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between a real experience and one that is vividly imagined! Read that sentence over again and think about it. The Power of Imagining Psychologist, Alan Richardson, conducted an interesting study to prove this point. He formed three groups of basketball players and selected them to make a series of free-throws. Group A practiced making free throws for 20 minutes a day for three weeks. Group B visualized making free throws for 20 minutes a day. The third group, Group C, served as a control group and did nothing. Interestingly enough, after three weeks, the group that actually practiced improved their free throw percentage by 24%. The group that didnt practice at all showed no improvement. And the group that visualized making free throws improved by 23%!
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If this doesnt get you excited about the possibilities of visualization, I dont know what will! Visualizing yourself having already accomplished your goal will bring you to that goal much quicker. How do we visualize ourselves achieving our goals? Simple- there is a simple outline we must follow to effectively take advantage of the visualization process. How to Make Visualization Work for You 1. Write a Metastory 2. Put yourself in a relaxed state 3. Visualize yourself already having achieved the goal 4. Be consistent 1. Write Down a Metastory Stuart Lichtman, in his breakthrough book, How to Get Lots of Money for Anything Fast, explains the usefulness of a Metastory, or a perfect picture imaginary experience that gives our brain something to focus on. Simply put, a Metastory is an invented experience you wish to have. For this purpose, youll use a picture of yourself accomplishing your goal. You can write your own Metastory any way you wish. Here is one of my personal Metastories:
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I catch the board in midair, my feet over the bolts. My wheels hit the ground and I ride away smoothly. I hear loud shouts of awe and disbelief from my friends and see them come running over to congratulate me for successfully Kickflipping the Worcestor Bush Gap. I can hardly believe what I had done myself! A huge grin lights up on my face as I stare at the huge row of bushes I just kickflipped over. This is definitely a huge milestone in my skateboarding career. My passion and love for skateboarding explodes- I just cant wait to learn new tricks and skate new spots! In this example, my goal/Metastory was Kickflipping the Worcestor Bush Gap. But your metastory can be anything you want. It can be about signing the contract for a pro shoe model, Ollieing over a curb, landing a heelflip, whatever you want! Make your Metastory as desirable as you want. Remember, you are in control and have freedom to create whatever you want! Take the time now to write a couple Metastory of you achieving one of your goals in your Skateboard Success Journal. Familiarize yourself with your Metastory and fine tune it so it is perfect and extremely desirable to have. As you read and reread your Metastory, start forming images, sounds, and feelings associated to having experienced it.
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2. Put yourself in a Relaxed State You now have a clear idea of what you want and you now must prepare your mind to bring it into reality. Sit or lie in a comfortable position, in a place when you are not going to be distracted for the next 5-10 minutes. Make a conscious effort to feel every part of your entire body relax. Start monitoring your breaths and focus on taking slow, deep breaths. Start from the number 10 and count down with each breath. Start out by feeling the tension move out of your toes. Feel waves of peacefulness and relaxation move up and throughout your body. Next, move up to your ankles and loosen them, allowing them to relax. Continue onto your calves and slowly move up your body relaxing your legs, torso, arms, neck and face. You should spend about 10 seconds relaxing each body part. When you have relaxed every part of your body, you should feel extremely comfortable and peaceful. Great! Now you may start the visualization process and start to visualize your Metastory! 3. Visualize yourself already having achieved the goal You are now in a relaxed and optimal state for visualization.
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You must spend some time concentrating on your desire and imagine it as if it were already here. There are three key guidelines to effective visualization: 1. Feel your accomplished goal- Run the Metastory through your mind. You must not only see yourself having goal, but hear, smell, taste, touch, and most importantly, feel it. You may imagine a movie or still frames of key images. Utilize all your sensory factors so you can make the image as real as possible. Ask yourself What would it feel like if I had already accomplished my goal? Feel the feelings throughout your entire body and make the feeling as real as possible. If you are doing this right, you should feel absolutely joyful in the moment. So joyful and happy that you do not even need the goal to happen because you have the feeling within you already. Have some fun when doing this! The more real the image is, the better this technique works. You may choose to imagine a fulllength movie starring you. Replay the movie over and over again, seeing yourself achieving your goal. Create some background music, see it in high definition, and make the pictures bright and vivid. 2. Visualize your goal in the first person- When seeing yourself already having the goal, you do not want a third
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person view of yourself. Remember, the mind cannot differentiate between what is real and what is vividly imagined. See and feel the skateboard underneath your feet. Feel the wind blowing across your face as you ride. See your legs and feet move to execute the trick, see the board flipping beneath you and see and feel yourself landing the trick perfectly. See the smiling faces of your friends standing nearby and hear their shouts of awe and disbelief. Finally, feel the sense of accomplishment that you deserve. 4. Be consistent Utilize this visualization technique everyday! The more you do it, the quicker your goal will be implanted into your subconscious and the quicker it will become reality. I suggest visualizing your Metastory at least 3 times a day- when you wake up, some time during the afternoon, and right before you go to sleep. The most important time to visualize is before you sleep. When you fall asleep, your last conscious thought will be in your subconscious mind and will remain there as you sleep. Each visualization session should be about 5-10 minutes. Each day, if you can devote a mere 15 minutes of your time to doing
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these visualization exercises, youll be well on your way to reaching your skateboarding dreams. When you Should See Results The actual time it takes for a goal to completely manifest varies from person to person. For some, it may take a day, for others, it may take a month. However, as long as you continue to do everything on a consistent basis, you will reach your goal. Its like driving a car. As long as you follow your map and stay on the right roads, you will reach your destination. Sometimes, youll be the only car on the road and you may get there quicker, but other times, there is traffic and you may have to wait a while before you reach your destination. How to Get Better at Skateboarding without Actually Skateboarding Perhaps the greatest example of the power of visualization is the story of American Serviceman, James Nesmeth. Major Nesmeth was held as a Prisoner of War during Vietnam War for a number of years. While serving as a prisoner in a 5 by 4 feet cage, Nesmeth visualized playing a perfect round of golf every single day.
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He did this because he was not allowed to come in contact with anyone. He eventually realized that he had to find a healthy way to occupy his mind to prevent himself from going insane. The result? After returning home and playing his first game of golf in 7 years, Nesmeth shot an amazing 74! This was 20 strokes off oh his personal best; pretty good for not having touched a golf club in over half a decade! Apply the same concept to skateboarding and youll get better at skating without actually skating! This technique comes in handy whenever you have to take a break from skateboarding. Whether you are on vacation or just taking a hiatus, you can make sure you continue to improve simply by skating in your mind! How to Consistently Land Any Trick As long as you have a clear, mental picture of yourself landing a trick that you have landed before, you can dramatically increase your consistency. Try this: 1. Pick a trick you can land about 25%-50% of the time. 2. Try the trick 10 times and record how many times you landed it. You should land the trick about 2-5 times out of 10. 3. Try the trick 10 more times, but this time, before each attempt, visualize yourself on your skateboard and perfectly executing the trick. You must visualize as vividly as you can- see, in your minds eyes, the details of your shoe, your
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exact foot positioning, the board flipping or spinning in the air, your feet meeting the board on its way down and landing it smoothly. Record the number of times you land it and you will find that it is higher than the first time! When I first developed this method, I was a little doubtful of this technique so I tried it backwards. I practiced my Kickflips with all the visualization exercises part before practicing them without visualization. I did to prove that visualization played a key part in landing the tricks, not being warmed up. Guess what the result was? I landed 7 Kickflips when I visualized and only 3 when I didnt. You can even try alternating visualizing and non-visualizing and experience the results for yourself! The key to landing tricks consistency is consistency. You must visualize the trick every single time before you try it. I know this sounds hard, and indeed it is. At first, you will find yourself forgetting or having difficulty seeing it in your minds eye. Stick with it because over time, the images will be much clearer and you will develop a habit. Your mind will automatically visualize each trick before you attempt them so you dont even have to think about it! You may still be a little skeptical but my suggestion is this: give this method a try for 21 days (the average amount of time it
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takes for a habit to form) and I guarantee that you wont be able to mess up a trick- even if you tried!
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3. Success Questions: Get Inspired and Motivated

Another powerful success enhancer we can utilize is asking ourselves positive questions. Motivational and success guru, Anthony Robbins (f your only exposure to Robbins are his infomercials, dont rush to judgment his concepts and teachings have very real merit) says that questions are the control keys to focus. Asking the right questions can immediately direct our focus so we may be more resourceful and motivated. Success Questions can quickly and effectively change the focus of our thoughts so they are directed toward the goals we set for ourselves. How they work is by overriding our internal negative questions so our subconscious mind works with us instead of against us. Most people ask lousy questions that hinder their results. They ask, Why does this sort of thing always happen to me? or How come its taking so long for me to learn the Varial Flip? By asking these questions, you are presuming that bad things always happen to you and you take a long time to learn tricks.
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By these questions, you are turning your focus away from what you want and towards more of what you dont want. When we think about what we do want, more of it will come into our lives. When we think about what we do not want, more of it will come into our lives as well. This is the wonderful concept of the Law of Attraction (featured in the hit movie, The Secret). I have hinted towards this Law several times in this book, but because I do not have the time to fully delve into it, I highly recommend learning more about it, as it affects every single aspect of your life.
How to Use Success Questions Now that we know that positive questions lead to positive outcomes, we must learn to use them effectively to get the results we desire. Success Questions are simply positive questions you ask yourself regularly when you have spare time, when you start doubting yourself or anytime you feel you need to focus your thoughts. They should be directed to the specific goal youre working on. Here are a few examples of Success Questions: What can I do to learn the Varial Flip as quickly and efficiently as possible?
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What can I do at this moment that will lead me toward my goal of getting sponsored? How can I improve the height of my ollies? What do I love about skateboarding? How would I feel if I just landed [name a goal trick]? Whats great about this? How did I get so good at skateboarding? The last couple questions are extremely powerful because they are asked with the assumption that the situation is great and you are good at skateboarding! Ask yourself now, What is that I love most about skateboarding? and write down your response. As you think about your answer, you mind runs through the things you love about skateboarding. Your mind will begin to focus on positives aspects and pretty soon, your state will completely change and you will feel excited and motivated about skateboarding! Write your Own Success Questions Take the time now to write down a list of 15 Success Questions you can ask yourself on a daily basis or when you are skateboarding. Write them down in a new page in your Skateboarding Success Journal and ask yourself these questions whenever
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your get the chance to or whenever you feel stuck or unmotivated to change your focus and redirect yourself towards your goal. Make a habit to ask yourself these questions constantly. I usually always ask myself Success Questions when I brush my teeth in the mornings. Write down some times during the day when you can ask yourself a couple of these questions. The more frequent you ask yourself positive questions, the faster your mind will be conditioned to focus on the positive and the faster your goal will manifest.
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4. Skate Progress Planner: Planning your way to reaching your goals

Making a Skate Progress Planner is one of the quickest and most effective to chart your progress when learning new tricks. The first step is to write down all the tricks you want to learn and decide the order in which you want to learn them in. Youll definitely want to refer to your initial goals list when doing this. Make one for flatland tricks and another one for grinds or freestyle tricks. Here is a sample trick learning progression for flatland tricks: Ollie/Manual Pop Shove-it 180 Ollie Kickflip/ Switch Ollie/ Nollie Heelflip /Varial Flip/Nose Manual 360 Flip/ Casper Flip/Switch Pop Shove-it Backside Flip/ Switch Kickflip Frontside Flip/ Switch Heelflip Hardflip/ Switch 180 Frontside Heelflip Backside Heelflip /Switch 360 Flip 360 Heelflip (Laser Flip) etc.
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You may choose to learn some tricks at the same time. For example in the sample progression I gave, the Ollie and Manual will be learned at the same time. Block Some Practice Time Now, decide how much time you can dedicate to skateboarding every day. You want to dedicate about 30 minutes in each practice session. Set aside a number of days you will use strictly to practice and other days to skate with your friends. Using a monthly calendar, or creating one in your Skateboard Success Journal, block the amount of time you want to practice and skate everyday. Practicing refers to working solely on something new while Skating refers to doing anything you like. Here is a week in my sample calendar:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursda y Frida y Saturda y Sunda y
P 30 min S 30 min
P 45 min
P 30 min
P 30 min
S 2 hr
As you can see, I took Thursday and Sunday off. I decided schedule my practice sessions during the week and skate with my friends on Saturday and Monday.
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Now, look over your goals list and transfer your goal deadlines onto your calendar. Write in the trick you want to learn under the date you decided you would learn it by. You want to do this at the beginning of each month. Do not go too far into it and fill out a schedule for the whole year. Concentrate on one month at a time. Be 100% honest with yourself: if you schedule a practice or skate session, then you must follow through and do it! Dont skip it if youre not feeling good or a little sore. It is consistency that turns into long term results. Practice Sessions: Do more with less! You will be dedicating all of your practice sessions to learning the goal trick(s) for the upcoming deadline. In other words, during your practice sessions, you must focus exclusively on the trick you intend to learn by the next deadline. That doesnt mean youre not allowed to do any other tricks. A Kickflip here and there wont hurt, but you want to focus the majority of your time on learning the new trick. Save the tricks you already know for you skate sessions. Why does this technique work so well? Because you are dedicating all your energy to learning the trick. Before, when learning a new trick, you would try out a new trick a couple of times, do something else, try it again, and do something else.
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Every time you stop trying the new trick and switch to something else, your body partially forgets what you were just working on. By giving all of your attention and concentration to learning the new trick, your body will quickly pick up the muscle actions and movements required to execute the trick much, much faster. In a 25 minute practice session, you will average about 125 trick attempts (5 attempts per minute for 25 minutes) How many trick attempts do you do in a 25 min skate session? The Reason We Arent Learning As Fast As We Could When I first started skating many years ago, I never thought about practice sessions. Constantly practicing tricks was stupid, I thought. I always skated with friends and did whatever I want. This was also the reason why I was such a slow learner. I learned the Kickflip over a period of 6 months, skating almost every day. Each skate session averaged about half an hour. I would probably try about 10-20 Kickflips every session. After 6 months, I had attempted a total of about 1680 Kickflips (18 Kickflips /session x 4 weeks/month x 6 months x 4 sessions /week) before landing one. However, if I had used the practice session technique, I would only have to do about twelve 25 minute practice sessions to have 1680 Kickflip attempts under my belt! I could have learned the Kickflip in only 13 days, practicing 25 min a day! Also, Im a slow
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learner; Im sure most of you would not need over 1600 attempts to land a trick. And all this is just learning tricks by merely attempting them. Combine practice sessions with goal setting, visualization, and Success Questions and your learning time will be dramatically reduced! I truly cannot express how powerful these techniques are! If you follow through with your practice sessions correctly, you will be amazed at how fast you can learn a new trick. Dont be surprised if you learn a brand new trick in one or two sessions! Now that youre pumped to skate, lets move into what goes on in a practice session Preparing Your Practice Sessions You want to prepare your practice sessions by watching some videos of your goal trick to get you excited and give you a clear picture of what you want. Search tutorials on Youtube or watch skate video parts of the trick you want to learn. Also, be sure to read as much on the trick tips as you can. Its a good idea to print out a copy of Part I of this book and keep a copy of the trick tips handy when you practice. Pre Practicing Technique I: Stretching
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Before getting on your skateboard, you should first stretch. Before you groan and close out of this book, understand this: stretching is a powerful part of any program that increases flexibility, balance, circulation, and reduces stress and the chances of injury. Have you ever noticed that you skate better in the summer than the winter? Its because your muscles are looser in the summer due to the warm temperatures and as a result, they work better. The type of stretching we will focus on is dynamic stretching. Unlike static stretching, which involves holding a position and reaching to the farthest point, dynamic stretching involves moving parts of your body and gradually increasing reach, speed of movement. Some dynamic stretching exercises you can do are high knee runs, butt kickers, hops, skips, lunges, slides and leg kicks. Refer to this website for a comprehensive list of dynamic stretches. Pre Practicing Technique II: Visualization After you have warmed up your body for about 2-5 minutes, its time to begin the second part of preparation: visualization. Sit in a relaxed position and see yourself successfully landing your goal trick.
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Imagine the feeling of the board meeting your feet, landing and rolling away. Visualize for about 5 minutes before actually attempting the trick. I know this seems long and pointless, but trust me- its going to be well worth it when you land that 360 flip after a couple hours of practice. The mental side of skateboard is just as important as the physical. Now youre finally ready to skate! For the remainder of your practice session, practice the trick. Remain completely focused and do one attempt after another. Aim for about 5 attempts per minute. Visualize yourself landing the trick perfectly between attempts. Ask yourself Success Questions along the way and be sure to drink plenty of water! Learning a Trick You have to decide what learning a trick means to you. It might mean youve landed it once. It might mean being able to land it every 1 out of 10 times. It might mean being able to land it 50% of the time. It is ultimately up to you to figure out what you consider as learning a new trick. Reaching your Goals But what if you do not learn a trick by the deadline you set? Do not worry; you can overcome this one of two ways. You can start
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learning the next trick you planned on and just schedule in some additional practice sessions to work on the previous trick. Or, you can simply reschedule. This is why we plan out every month. Just give yourself a couple of additional practice sessions to learn the trick and push every thing else back. Just because you do not learn a trick by your deadline doesnt mean youve failed. You only fail if you choose to give up. Even if you pass your deadline, as long as you learn the trick, you have succeeded. The purpose of the deadline is to motivate you and push you to achieve what you set out to learn. The outcome we are after is being able landing the trick. When starting out, it may be difficult to plan out your months because you arent really sure how long it takes for you to learn a new trick. After learning three or four new tricks, you will begin to get a good idea for how long it takes to learn a new trick. But what if you are ahead of schedule? What if you learn a trick in two days that you planned on learning in two weeks? Congratulate yourself, you little speed demon. You may either use the remainder of your practice sessions as skate sessions or just move everything closer and begin working on your next goal trick.
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How to defeat frustration: remove the blocks that are preventing you from achieving what you want! Frustration is a feeling every skater experiences at least one time in his life. It happens to everyone, even professionals! Whether you have trouble learning a new trick, hurt your ankle, or have difficulty landing a trick you already know, you have experienced and will experience frustration, no matter how long you have been skating. Frustration is a part of the learning process and a part of life. We see professional skaters slam, throw, and break their skateboards out of anger and get the idea that its okay to feel frustrated and respond that way. However, frustration, if handled improperly, can be detrimental to your success as a skateboarder. Frustration lessens your passion for skating and can ultimately cause you to quit. Dealing with Frustration The best way to handle frustration is to not focus on it at all! It is a natural law that we will get more of what we think about. If we feel frustrated, we will experience more frustration. In the same way, if we focus on what we intend to do instead of whats we cannot do, we will get more of what we want!
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There are many ways of achieving this and they all involve changing our states. We can do this through asking ourselves positive, Success Questions, visualizing ourselves succeeding, or taking a break and doing something else. Whatever we do, we must stop focusing on our current situation and switch into a state that makes us feel content. Congratulations! You now have all the resources you need to reach your skateboarding dreams. It is now up to you to take action and make those dreams come true. Remember, the ultimate objective of skateboarding is to have tons of fun! Remember, skateboarding is a privilege and if you are not having fun in the process, then you are approaching it the wrong way. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. -Melody Beattie

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-1________________________________________________________________________

The Secrets of Skateboarding

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Introduction: How to Make the Most of this Book

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Chapter 1- Beginning Skateboarding Beginners Q & A

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Finding your Stance

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Chapter 2- The Ollie

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Troubleshooting the Ollie

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

How to Ollie Higher

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Chapter 5- The Pop Shove-it

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Backside Pop Shove-it

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Troubleshooting the Pop Shove-it

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Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Chapter 6- The 180 Ollie

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Backside 180 Ollie

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Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Frontside 180 Ollie

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Chapter 3- The Kickflip

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Troubleshooting the Kickflip

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008

Secrets of Skateboarding 2008