For the last technique you're describing, it works by using the rebound of the very center of the tail from the downwards pop to send the board around (perhaps aided by one subtle swipe of the leg), hence the importance of the big toe placement thing, so basically if you just find that sweet spot then pop the tail the right way you should be able to form the trick with minimum effort, and just sit over the trick picturing your front foot as the center of a compass (for some reason that mental image really helps on that trick in particular). But since that's supposed to be the minimalist/lazy version of the trick (personally I don't like it, I much prefer the feeling of even the non-popped ones), for it to work you need to approach it as such which means the more you'll be using brute force for the 360 or swinging your legs by popping hard, the more you effort you will actually waste on not getting any closer. What you want is precision on the pop for optimal form and then control while over the board at all times, including of your upper body which really shouldn't be doing jack shit but remaining centered, any unnecessary movement there or even of the front leg would be parasitic. And if that technique really doesn't work for you (it's not for everyone), then just fuck it and keep doing them your way until they click, which I'm sure would look more interesting anyway. But in general I'd say try to think about the exact ways your experimentations with foot positioning and ways to pop respectively affect the response of your board, and really think about the effect on the rebound of the tail as this or that region of it first smacks the ground from this or that one. Indirectly, you'll probably unlock your grasp for the physics behind some other tricks before you know it, too.