Saw a couple of topics come up recently asking for advice, thought a consolidated post for discussion would be great for pooling collective wisdom.
My kickflips have gone from ninja, mobbed, semi decent, decent, mobbed (bad ankle injury), can't do them, rocket, decent, ninja and mobbed. I developed a decent one last year after COVID but lost them and developed lots of excuses thereafter (new shoes, board steepness). Spent a good amount of time last night working on them last night and got some advice from park regulars, finally did a decently caught one slapping the back foot.
Issues:
Board was rotating frontside as I was flicking, I'm way more comfortable with hardflips and FS flips.
Fix:
Drag straight up and flick off the tip of the nose. I was dragging at an angle and flicking off the kick of the nose too early. Locked my shoulders parallel with the board too.
Issues:
Under-rotated flip.
Fix:
Placing my front foot further up the board from center of the board to just behind the bolts. I assumed that having more foot to drag would give me more height to time my flick. But that meant I was flicking prematurely, where the nose kicks up instead of the tip of the nose. Friends also noticed I would shift my front foot back slightly as I was crouching down to pop. Had to force myself to keep my front foot stationary while setting up.
Other things that helped:
Widening my stance especially since I like riding long-ish decks and slapping Ventures on them which widen the wheelbase even more. I've been shifting my front foot further up (just 1-2 fingers behind the bolts) and back foot further on the tip of the tail like Mike Mo explains in the video below:
Feel free to chime on whatever issues you may have.