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Don't give up Frenchy.
I thought I lost all my flip tricks in my late 20s but started re-learning them again in my mid 30s to 40s. Lonely flat ground pandemic sessions really helped. I can do more flips now than I've been able to do since my late teens (they look slow, clumsy and terrible but its the personal challenge I dig) Landed my first Fakie tre at age 46. Working on switch tres right now.
I worked on it this summer relentlessly .. I must have succeeded in about fifteen ahah Thank you for the advice, it gives hope! In fact, I only skate flatground now, it's my goal to progress in this area and to see that you can do it over 35, that motivates !
I'm 48 and I've been trying to kickflip for 2 years with little success...so I'm inspired by y'all older cats who are landing your flip tricks. Any thoughts on the following?
*I can only extend my leg so far these days. Lately I've been trying actual slow karate kicks (side kicks) to try to get my leg higher. Anybody tried this?
*I can only jump so high these days. Lots of times if I get a good flick the board ends up higher than my feet. Anybody else struggled with/fixed this?
*If you ride loose trucks, Mike Mo's foot placement (both feet kinda on one side of the board) seems wild. Anybody doing it the other way? (Back foot toeside, front foot centered to a bit heel side)
Thanks pals
You don't need a high ollie to do a kickflip, as long as you got a decent ollie (or even a shit one like me) you can kickflip. The magic really comes from the flick of the ankle and timing of the flick. For the ankle flick it helps to get resistance bands and watch Dr Kyle Brown on Insta - his ankle rehab videos use the bands for recovery and get the desired flick motion down. For the timing of the flick that takes time and lots of repetition.
If your board is going higher than your leg you're probably dragging up too much instead of forward and towards the nose. Also the outsole of your shoe is catching a lot of griptape resulting in a lot more height than you need, again drag up slightly but more forward and flicking straight off the nose.
Truck tightness is something you can adapt your kickflip to, as long as you're rolling straight and getting a solid pop you will be fine. The problem I find with loose trucks is the deck popping off center resulting in ghost pop or an off-angle pop that sends the board upwards at an angle, this throws off my drag, catch and roll away if I'm lucky enough to stay on top of my board.
His actual skateboarding is hard to watch but the 3D diagrams are good at illustrating the physics of it. He's right about keeping the kickflip compact (board and foot right under you), the best kickflips I've ever done were when I consciously told myself to control my drag instead of shooting my entire foot out like Neen does with his heelflips.
At 2:45 you can see how little he flicks his toe, just the edge of your shoe should catch to initiate the flick.
See 3:19 for how the flick works and is the most important part of the trick, not a karate kick. At 4:19 it can look like he's kicking out hard, but it's really the ankle doing the heavy lifting
Last couple of pointers:
- Keep the head, shoulders and hips aligned with the centerline of your board, i.e. imagine there is a line running from nose to tail. This help you get the straight drag and solid downward pop. Really pay attention to the hip over your dragging / flicking foot, a slight angle is natural but you want to be as aligned to the centerline of your board so you get the initial ollie part of the kickflip before the actual flick off.
- Don't hunch your shoulders or dip your head too much, a little is fine but too much and you'll end up ahead of your board
- Flexibility and mobility is good to have for all tricks and sports, keep working on that.
Just like I'm working on getting a solid ollie 20 years after starting, focus on getting the board low and leveled first before flicking off. In the past I've always gone with a huge pop thinking I needed lots of height to give the board space to flip, but as you can see in the Tactics tutorial you don't need a super high ollie, the actual flip comes from hitting the flick at the right spot at the right time.
Topic: Kickflip Fundamentals: correct your mobbed, ninja or rocket flips here (Read 12639 times)