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Switch pop shove is all in the big toe, if you lodge it in the right place of the tail (usually covering the tip but with the ball of the foot mostly resting inside) it will ensure the board will stay flat as it's a 'neutral' part that will rebound, that's how and why done right those can look like they barely ever leave your feet, usually I just think Jan Kliewer or Alex Carolino or most people from the Lordz/Square era really for a reference (it's also one of those tricks where you mostly face backwards, like switch ollies, otherwise it can be tempting to turn frontside unless you lock your upper body in place). Key to good front shove is try and eliminate all scoop, just pop straight down (again from the right spot on the tail so it doesn't start flipping) and watch the bolts come around. With that technique though just doing one frontside pressure flip once will fuck me up on them for days.
Can you elaborate a bit on that front shuv tip?
Front shuvs are sort of a monkey's paw trick for me where I can do them every try, but I hate how I do them. I do the the kind where you sorta jump backwards and I've tried every foot placement to prevent it.
Yeah, basically the logic is similar to what I was describing with the switch pop shove, just reversed, in both cases you want the center of the tail to hit the ground in an explosive manner (doesn't have to be strong pop - although that works too - but has to be sudden and fierce). On all pop shoves, if the board is (barely noticeably) off axis as the tail hits the ground because your foot positioning was applying pressure over incorrect spots, basically that's when the board starts flipping. For optimal technique and good control you want to think 'modified ollie' on those tricks and form them on your way up then catch them which is the only thing the front foot really has to do, which means you can drive pretty much all the force you put into the trick into completely vertical pop just from being set up right. A lot of the scoop is purely stylistic and optional if you want it to be (unless you're doing non-popped shoves), ties back into how I was saying pop shoves can feel like ollies when they don't leave your feet.
I had to dig deep for that one, but I found some I filmed for a shop Instagram back in 2016 with that technique, may be a better visualization:
Apparently I also had one for switch front bigs, may be a better reference since I seem to remember you're regular (I had completely forgotten about those clips until now):