Kickflip Fundamentals: correct your mobbed, ninja or rocket flips here

[Peepeeboy69]

I keep breaking the tail of my boards whenever I start trying to spam kickflips, that's how rocket my shit b

[FrenchSkater]

Am I the only one who lost this trick years ago ?  I have 15 years of skateboarding, I put kickflip during my first 4 years and it disappeared .. I had to put without lying, on recent years, 10 Kickflip per year .. Psychologically impossible for me that this trick succeeds.. I can no longer coordinate my legs, whereas before it worked perfectly.. However, no problem for the half cab flip / flip back , hardflip , tré flip, and switch flip / nollie flip haha

Go to hell Kickflip cursed ! 

[Lee Ralphs Dear Old Mum]

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.

[FrenchSkater]

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 !

[FrenchSkater]

my madness goes do it again, but .. is there a particular truck brand that helps a lot more for the Kickflip ? 

[hameesvx]

my madness goes do it again, but .. is there a particular truck brand that helps a lot more for the Kickflip ? 

Any particular issue you’re having? I find lighter trucks make them easier but it’s not really a dealbreaker

[Southernmost]

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.

Solid info, thank you! Glad to know I’m not the only one who has a rocketed, mobbed or non existent kickflip but feel more comfortable doing Fs flips and hardflips. I’m gonna try my foot placement higher up towards the bolts and more of my foot on the board. For fs flips and hardflips my foot is usually lower and pointed.

[rocklobster]

Expand Quote

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.

[close]

Solid info, thank you! Glad to know I’m not the only one who has a rocketed, mobbed or non existent kickflip but feel more comfortable doing Fs flips and hardflips. I’m gonna try my foot placement higher up towards the bolts and more of my foot on the board. For fs flips and hardflips my foot is usually lower and pointed.

Veering into gear madness a bit - I still have my front foot quite far behind the bolts on my kickflips, only because I have Venture with forged baseplates that push the wheels out towards the tail the most. Ace trucks do the opposite and bring your wheels in and make the board more twitchy, so I'd have to put my front foot close to the front bolts to remain stable.

A lighter pop has really helped my kickflip consistency, harder pop = faster drag on the front foot to level out the board before flicking, so you're more likely to rocket flip.

[guyledouche]

My kickflips used to be mobbed and rocket but they’re getting better. A major breakthrough for me was keeping more of my foot on the board, leading with my front knee, and really visualizing kicking my front foot through the nose.

[GroovySinner]

Set your feet up like this . Next pop and flick , wait until you see the grip tape , catch it and land bolts and roll away 👍🏻

[Fartknocker415]

Does any of yous feel as though overthinking your mechanics can lead to things getting screwy? Sometimes when itry to many methodical tweaks in my technique I end up having a harder time than just letting it flow. But I do feel as though there is a balance To be found.

[slimvanilla]

can't seem to shake the muscle memory that i've developed by immediately placing my back foot on the ground in fear of falling. Any tips on how to fix this?

[Tom Pearl]

i can switch flip ok, i can nollie flip good but my kickflips are beyond garbage. i've been working on them for like 2 years and atleast im kinda landing them now but they're still horrible. idk what it is, i've put so much time and effort in and nothing changes. seriously about to give up and say fuck kickflips

[Pbn_jake]

i can switch flip ok, i can nollie flip good but my kickflips are beyond garbage. i've been working on them for like 2 years and atleast im kinda landing them now but they're still horrible. idk what it is, i've put so much time and effort in and nothing changes. seriously about to give up and say fuck kickflips

Go with that last sentence. I go through phases where I can kickflip decently and I also use the kickflip as a marker as to whether or not a piece of gear is worthy but in all reality, I ain’t kickflippin shit. Would rather do shove it’s or 360 flips. That being said I understand that it is a staple trick.

[scab]

whats going on??? i just cant land on the board and half the time cant flip the board completely

You're flicking off the side. Try to flick off the nose more, there are a couple of good pointers for that in this thread already. Flicking off the side takes more effort for the rotation to go full circle, which is why your board often doesn't flip all the way around, and it also makes the catch harder because you've moved your front foot further away from the board.

[Bill Salt]

People always point at front foot position that is incorrect but mostly, problem comes from the back foot that isn't at the right place.Put your foot more in the center of the tail.

[RichardBarkley]

I dont square my shoulders square with the board like a heelflips. I have them just slightly open like a 360 flip.

[Bill Salt]

We should name them "popflip" instead of "kickflip", that will help a lot.Due to its name, we kinda subconciensely focus on the flick but to make hem higher and catch hem better key is to  squat more and pop harder in the center of the tail.

[Tom Pearl]

people who are good at kickflips do u bend over and crouch down before u pop or do u keep your back straight and then crouch???

[Urtripping]

My kickflips used to be mobbed and rocket but they’re getting better. A major breakthrough for me was keeping more of my foot on the board, leading with my front knee, and really visualizing kicking my front foot through the nose.

Been reworking mine for about 4 months now. The idea of leading with your front knee is super important imo. My kickflips are kinda high and very consistent, and I flick with my toe. However, I don't lead with my knee and that causes my front leg to do weird shit to make the flick happen. I watch slomo footage of my kickflips and I kinda have the Gonz mobbed but not mobbed thing happening.

My goal is to flick straight thru the nose and fully extend my front leg, but my body just can't do this if I don't lead with the knee and open my hips a bit.

Edit: come to think of it, I do lead with my knee. I guess I need to focus more on finishing the flick through the nose and extending my leg out straight. Pointing my toe up and heel down and just karate kicking.

[Urtripping]

Double posting here, seeking advice. I'm gonna link a kickflip I did below that I'm wondering about... my front arm ALWAYS fails backwards, and I think that's opening my shoulders too much. When I land this kickflip, my shoulders are perpendicular to the board.

I'm wondering if my flick is going so far off to the side frontside because of this, and how I might train shoulders to stay closed.

https://youtu.be/ZIeZgqidGaQ?si=bFvScy4KYEOi367I

[Ok]

Double posting here, seeking advice. I'm gonna link a kickflip I did below that I'm wondering about... my front arm ALWAYS fails backwards, and I think that's opening my shoulders too much. When I land this kickflip, my shoulders are perpendicular to the board.

I'm wondering if my flick is going so far off to the side frontside because of this, and how I might train shoulders to stay closed.

https://youtu.be/ZIeZgqidGaQ?si=bFvScy4KYEOi367I

i don’t even know what mine look like. i can’t even self film.

that being said, here’s my skoaching: tighten up your back truck. put the ball of your right foot closer to 7 o’clock on the tail. bring your left foot closer to the toe side of your board. the balls of your feet looked like they were in a line, and to me, that is more difficult. by placing your weight in your popping foot closer to the heel side of your board, and having your front foot being weighted towards the toe side, you can build
up some cross tension. pop hard flick hard.
right now i’m posting from the toilet. as i’m looking the toes of my popping foot be maybe two plus inches back, compared to my flicking foot.
@silhouette is the person you need to summon for good advice tho. that person sees it.

[silhouette]

^ That is so kind I'm going to risk showing you wrong, after you've described things well already too. I think Urtripping's 'mistake' is to open up their shoulders frontside flip style which makes me think they probably have a good one whether they already know it or not but kickflip style is different, you want cross tension as Ok put it but you're trying to stay in line with the board so it shouldn't feel like trying to go off axis (at all).

Way I personally like doing kickflips is front foot first serves to keep the board flat so most of it is on the board just below the front bolts and at a very slight angle that's as minimal as possible but just enough so that as soon as you'll pop you'll be able to throw your ankle and instantly get the flip. The flip happens also in reaction to how you pop so while my front foot stabilizes the board my back foot positions itself for the corresponding leverage, at a slight angle inwards just to match and then if you get that balance right you should already feel it that as soon as you pop a straight kickflip will happen.

By open shoulders on kickflip people mostly mean the way you'd open them up on ollies, no more no less, you want some looseness and they matter but it's more of an axis thing and how you set up your upper body in relation to your now in place lower body. Like, how your back as a whole is aligned.

Back foot probably is what matters the most, you want the aforementioned angle but also pop off the center of the tail (not tip) with your big toe, that way feels like the orientation of the knee on your popping leg will assist and secure the stability and direction. Cross tension also comes from there and then all you need to do really is ollie, but prolong the ollie by extending your leg and it should just work. Keep far back on the board and throw the kick in front of you but don't jump through the motion with it.

You'll find your sweet spot for the flick with time but it also changes depending on where your back foot is placed and what it does which usually is what people with inconsistent kickflips do not get. When you start getting good ones, setting up feels like loading a spring and you just know (which becomes part of the fun).

Kickflippers to study: Quim, Donger, Carlos Young, PJ. Maalouf too because he really pushes the technique, you can just see the formula in plain sight with every one he does.

tldr: twisted body, chopped up feet.

[Ok]

this is so sick thank you!

i tend to ‘muffle’ mine: meaning i initiate the flip too soon, resulting in a lower, but higher percentage of landing (for me) kickflip.

stoked to go watch some quim, and carlos young stuff as i haven’t for a long while. i was watching kien’s maple part last night. and always pj.

thanks again for chiming in with well laid out thoughts.

@Urtripping hope they go the way you want them too, but i forgot to mention that i’d be fine with the one you posted. skateboarding will always be fun to watch, but i enjoy(ed) seeing more distinct styles.

[silhouette]

this is so sick thank you!

i tend to ‘muffle’ mine: meaning i initiate the flip too soon, resulting in a lower, but higher percentage of landing (for me) kickflip.

stoked to go watch some quim, and carlos young stuff as i haven’t for a long while. i was watching kien’s maple part last night. and always pj.

thanks again for chiming in with well laid out thoughts.

@Urtripping hope they go the way you want them too, but i forgot to mention that i’d be fine with the one you posted. skateboarding will always be fun to watch, but i enjoy(ed) seeing more distinct styles.

You kind of want an early flick/flip actually if your goal is to catch the board at or even before the apex (should always be the goal or at least is the game I like to play, regardless of how often one succeeds in practice because that's a variable). Just then your foot needs to be in the right place and body aligned to compensate. It's really like a rather rudimentary equation that just needs to be balanced in order to get the correct result, the more you simplify it the more optimal for efficiency and comfort but at the end of the day you introduce some yin and then you introduce the exact corresponding amount of yang. That's why when one can really kickflip they usually have no problem taking them up curbs or adapting to terrain, they're not just going through a textbook motion that would be the same every time, they understand the principle of the equilibrium of the trick and so they naturally flex it around the settings. Also why you occasionally hear those old stories about Penny spending hours playing the game of forming fat kickflips and then tiny quick little kickflips in every stance. It's the balance that you play with, kind of like when cooking, miss it and you feel it by exactly this much.

People in general shouldn't waste their time flinging tricks at random in hope that one day they magically work, they should look at what they're actually doing in relation to what they're trying to do and study the effects, and notice the (relatively few) patterns, that is if they actually want to be able to eventually do the trick. The board only does what you tell it to do and if you study just the basic geometry of the object (including concave and pressure points) and of your feet/body it's just there in plain sight to tell you everything. It's so basic in principle (until one complicates it) that once you pay attention to the right few things is when you can then go by feel and thus not try too hard.

[Hubba Bo-Tep]

Double posting here, seeking advice. I'm gonna link a kickflip I did below that I'm wondering about... my front arm ALWAYS fails backwards, and I think that's opening my shoulders too much. When I land this kickflip, my shoulders are perpendicular to the board.

I'm wondering if my flick is going so far off to the side frontside because of this, and how I might train shoulders to stay closed.

https://youtu.be/ZIeZgqidGaQ?si=bFvScy4KYEOi367I

I found out not too long ago that I do the flailing front arm too, and I'm definitely not a fan.  My kickflips are 'ok' at best, but they go to shit if I concentrate on keeping the front arm from flailing.  I don't do that shit when I ollie so the best reason I can think of for this happening is that my brain thinks it needs to counterbalance the flick with the flail.  The flail always begins as the kick/flick initiates, and continues flailing until the feet are back on the board.

Not helpful, but just know you aren't alone hahaha. 

[Ok]

Expand Quote

this is so sick thank you!

i tend to ‘muffle’ mine: meaning i initiate the flip too soon, resulting in a lower, but higher percentage of landing (for me) kickflip.

stoked to go watch some quim, and carlos young stuff as i haven’t for a long while. i was watching kien’s maple part last night. and always pj.

thanks again for chiming in with well laid out thoughts.

@Urtripping hope they go the way you want them too, but i forgot to mention that i’d be fine with the one you posted. skateboarding will always be fun to watch, but i enjoy(ed) seeing more distinct styles.

[close]

You kind of want an early flick/flip actually if your goal is to catch the board at or even before the apex (should always be the goal or at least is the game I like to play, regardless of how often one succeeds in practice because that's a variable). Just then your foot needs to be in the right place and body aligned to compensate. It's really like a rather rudimentary equation that just needs to be balanced in order to get the correct result, the more you simplify it the more optimal for efficiency and comfort but at the end of the day you introduce some yin and then you introduce the exact corresponding amount of yang. That's why when one can really kickflip they usually have no problem taking them up curbs or adapting to terrain, they're not just going through a textbook motion that would be the same every time, they understand the principle of the equilibrium of the trick and so they naturally flex it around the settings. Also why you occasionally hear those old stories about Penny spending hours playing the game of forming fat kickflips and then tiny quick little kickflips in every stance. It's the balance that you play with, kind of like when cooking, miss it and you feel it by exactly this much.

People in general shouldn't waste their time flinging tricks at random in hope that one day they magically work, they should look at what they're actually doing in relation to what they're trying to do and study the effects, and notice the (relatively few) patterns, that is if they actually want to be able to eventually do the trick. The board only does what you tell it to do and if you study just the basic geometry of the object (including concave and pressure points) and of your feet/body it's just there in plain sight to tell you everything. It's so basic in principle (until one complicates it) that once you pay attention to the right few things is when you can then go by feel and thus not try too hard.

hmmm. interesting.
when i don’t think about flicking hard, i’m much more likely to get some quick retraction/mob.
my highest percentage kickflips come from having my front foot very high up in the board, just below the bolts, or on the bolts even.
carlos, with that beautiful one at wallenberg, his front foot is lower, and to me, he flicks hard/fast, but after he’s already up there

happy to be incorrect

this quim part is sick

[Urtripping]

Expand Quote

Double posting here, seeking advice. I'm gonna link a kickflip I did below that I'm wondering about... my front arm ALWAYS fails backwards, and I think that's opening my shoulders too much. When I land this kickflip, my shoulders are perpendicular to the board.

I'm wondering if my flick is going so far off to the side frontside because of this, and how I might train shoulders to stay closed.

https://youtu.be/ZIeZgqidGaQ?si=bFvScy4KYEOi367I

[close]

I found out not too long ago that I do the flailing front arm too, and I'm definitely not a fan.  My kickflips are 'ok' at best, but they go to shit if I concentrate on keeping the front arm from flailing.  I don't do that shit when I ollie so the best reason I can think of for this happening is that my brain thinks it needs to counterbalance the flick with the flail.  The flail always begins as the kick/flick initiates, and continues flailing until the feet are back on the board.

Not helpful, but just know you aren't alone hahaha.

Dude I noticed Alexis Sablone does something similar, so definitely not alone.

@ok and @silhouette these tips are so huge because it's helped me reframe how I think about kickflips. I do feel like I was overcomplicating them, and I haven't truthfully played with back foot position so it's definitely something I'll goof around with.

Hoping to come back and post another kickflip in a few months when I'm happy with them... cold winter flatground sessions are brutal but usually produce results. Love the scientific approach to learning to skate, only wish I'd thought this way when I was younger!

[silhouette]

hmmm. interesting.
when i don’t think about flicking hard, i’m much more likely to get some quick retraction/mob.
my highest percentage kickflips come from having my front foot very high up in the board, just below the bolts, or on the bolts even.
carlos, with that beautiful one at wallenberg, his front foot is lower, and to me, he flicks hard/fast, but after he’s already up there

happy to be incorrect

this quim part is sick

Not incorrect as in it all makes sense, front foot higher up the board and early/quick flip goes together because then what you're doing is minimizing the ollie motion (pop plus dragging of the front foot all the way up to the nose and only then out) and so you start with the front foot already lodged inside the sweet spot for the flick for that and you actually want that. Allows for the rapid fire type kickflips up curbs (sometimes easier than on flat because the obstacle guides your eyesight and encourages to keep in line with the motion), or easy flips out of e.g. manuals. You usually see nollie and fakie flips with the flicking foot starting covering the bolts too because popping 'backwards' makes it that you compensate for the momentum.

Whereas early/quick flip starting with the foot in the middle of the board would most likely result in missing the flip entirely or in the best case scenario mobbed flips because your weight wouldn't be distributed over the board optimally for what you're trying to do, if you want your ollie to get some height before you then flick you want the correct leeway in your stance because that means you're trying to work around the center of the board but not directly on it (or else that's how you'd force double/triple flips on flat, by exaggerating focus there), you don't want a downward kick, you want a solid ollie and then extended response but you also need to build up that response with the appropriate set up on the ollie so that you can get it.

If you've found a way of doing kickflips that seems to click for you then really that means you sense it and have found your pop and timing. Rest is just experimenting with different foot positioning to make sure you understand as many dimensions of the trick as possible and after a while you just sense that it's going to work and get to pick and choose depending on context. But back foot placement really is big and also popping off the center of the tail, visualizing the trick only happening on a 2D axis going through the truck hardware and nothing else exists also helps (and will ensure you kick through the nose and not off to the side). After a while when your placement and tension over the board is correct to 'wring' a good flip you'll just know, in a way it becomes a position you can just lock into regardless of exact specifics as long as the equation is correct.

[skateboardingenthusiast]

Jumping the tiniest bit behind you (heel/ass) as you pop and flick, I find, helps level out and even add some dip and backfoot catch to kickflips. Jumping forward (toeside) does not have quite the same effect. I notice my kickflips tend to rocket more often if the momentum of my jump is going towards my toes.

I never noticed this until just recently. Give it a shot, I swear it works. My kickflips have been as solid as they ever have been ever since I started adding a slight backwards hop.

Placing your backfoot right above the edge of your back baseplate (in the middle of your tail, rather than at the end of your tail) also helps add control.

Front foot placement, for me, is just behind the front bolts. Placing my front foot in the middle of my board never really felt comfortable for me.

Add a slight backwards hopping effect to your pop, guys. Or not. Thats just what helps me out.