Author Topic: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?  (Read 2362 times)

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beatifk

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Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« on: September 22, 2021, 11:02:42 AM »
As I age I feel like I’ve easily lost more tricks than I currently can do well and consistently.

What happened? You get a trick and do it until you’re sick of it. Or get a trick and then learn the more difficult variant and don’t do the base as often. Or whatever it is.

Does anyone have any tips to get over the mental block of relearning tricks from zero? In my mind I can still do the trick but the reality is that my feet can’t do what my brain thinks they can. The muscle memory is gone but the mental memory remains.

Anyone else struggle with this? How can I win this battle between my mind and body and get my old tricks back?

Madam, I'm Adam

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2021, 02:04:49 PM »
I've been relearning tricks I haven't done in awhile. They're few and far between, but they're happening.

Honestly, you just keep trying it until your brain wakes up and it starts to happen again. I mean that's how it works for me.

I guess you have to tell yourself that it's worth it, as well. There might be a part of you that thinks you already did it, it's done, you don't have to spend time trying to do it again. But if you want it that badly, you'll take the time...

And I'm in the same boat as you, I've been trying to relearn backside tailslides for awhile now and they're not coming. I still remember the "keys" that I figured out, but they're not translating yet.

Peepeeboy69

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2021, 10:34:11 AM »
i was relatively happy with my kickflip for a while. I could do kickflip manual and 5050 on a small ledge, got into a few kickflip crooks.

Then one day i just lost them and i literally can barely do one on flat anymore. Seriously I had like 30 minutes before class and i wanted to do a couple and i don't think I even landed one.

Similar story with front shuvs i had pretty good ones then I tried to do a fsshuv bs5050 on a street ledge and ever since they've been trash.

I think my treflip is on its way out I could land them almost every try like a month after learning them but now i can't get the scoop right. Even the ones i do land i don't hear the "twhip" sound of the tail on the ground.

Seriously I'm going to regress to only being able to do ollies and 180s soon and I don't wanna go out like this

jimgrude

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2021, 07:24:18 PM »
My attitude towards this issue is to not expect them to ever return, but not give up as long as I really want them back.

There are several flatground tricks that I spent years learning, finally got them down, then gradually lost them the more I practiced them. I continue working on them, but some have been gone for 15+ years and rarely show any sign of returning, no matter how I go about getting them back.

I'm one of these people who don't believe in "practice makes perfect". It's complete bullshit. However, you have exactly zero chance if you don't try, so I just keep going while being aware that I might turn 50 without making any progress.

SneakySecrets

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2021, 04:18:35 AM »
Bailing water out of an old rickety dinghy.  Every time I look at it I notice more holes.
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Fhk

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2021, 04:48:03 AM »
Bailing water out of an old rickety dinghy.  Every time I look at it I notice more holes.

Photo of my last session

yungthug

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2021, 07:40:54 AM »
I've had a "will they or won't they?" relationship with tre flips since I was in middle school.

I have landed hundreds of them and have had periods where I can do them consistently, but it always disappears out of the blue and I have to try 20+ times to land a shitty 345 flip.

This valley lasts months and occasionally years. Then one day I'll be able to tre flip for 2 weeks.

There are a myriad array of issues, but chief among them are I can't get the scoop motion quite right, my timing is off, I open up my shoulders rather than keeping them "tight" and parallel to the board, and my tres are mostly flicking with my front foot rather than relying on my back foot to do most of the work.

I consciously know all of this, but my muscle memory inevitably clamps up and I can't even come close to landing one most days.

I am intimately familiar with this struggle of losing and having to slowly relearn what should be fundamentals for someone who has been skating as long as I have.

I could blame having varial flips as part of my "go-to" bag of tricks since I was a kid, but I know plenty of people who can do both very easily.

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2021, 08:18:00 AM »
Nollie flips. Used to be able to do them at will. Haven't done one in decades. I've started to try them again and while I can flip them, my board ends up so far behind me... Landed a few switch flips recently, so there is hope but I am not sure how I used to keep Nollie flips beneath my feet. Would love to get them again.

Easy Slider

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2021, 11:09:25 AM »
I used to have a decent Muska style frontside flip in the 90s. It was my signature trick and I could do it over a fun box or out of a bump. Since my return to skateboarding I have only attempted it a few times but it's completely gone. I am also a bit afraid of giving it more practice as I fear it will interfere with my very mediocre kickflips that I am already struggling with enough.
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layzieyez

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2021, 11:18:54 AM »
I should have a milk carton for all my lost tricks. Have you seen them?

I get really happy when one of them decides to come back home for a day.

SaySo

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2021, 12:30:37 PM »
I should have a milk carton for all my lost tricks. Have you seen them?

I get really happy when one of them decides to come back home for a day.

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2021, 05:48:49 AM »
Bailing water out of an old rickety dinghy.  Every time I look at it I notice more holes.

This. Pick your battles.
You can’t save them all, save what makes you smile the most.
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CorneliusCardew

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2021, 08:47:48 AM »
Expand Quote
Bailing water out of an old rickety dinghy.  Every time I look at it I notice more holes.
[close]

This. Pick your battles.
You can’t save them all, save what makes you smile the most.

Damn! Triage? It's useful to think that whenever you learn a trick it becomes part of you and you never really lose a trick the path to access becomes more complex. The trick is buried deep somewhere within your brain and the trick is figuring out how to reactivate that pathway.

rocklobster

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #13 on: September 27, 2021, 02:37:48 AM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Bailing water out of an old rickety dinghy.  Every time I look at it I notice more holes.
[close]

This. Pick your battles.
You can’t save them all, save what makes you smile the most.
[close]

Damn! Triage? It's useful to think that whenever you learn a trick it becomes part of you and you never really lose a trick the path to access becomes more complex. The trick is buried deep somewhere within your brain and the trick is figuring out how to reactivate that pathway.

Try telling that to my dogshit heelflips and FS 5-0s.

Rather than despairing about the tricks I've lost, I'm thankful for the new tricks I've picked up. My flatground game has always been limited anyway, but my bag of tricks on the ledge and flatbar have crept up over the past 2 years. Regulars at my park know they can easily smoke me in flatground SKATE (and I accept that), but I put up a solid account of myself in GRINDS / SLIDES.

I have a friend who swore off flip tricks - he used to force myself to do 10 solid kickflips every session until he went through a spell of not being able to do them to a satisfactory level. So he gave up on them and focuses on stuff that he knows he can do which gives him enough joy in his session.

I guess what I'm saying is not try new stuff outside your comfort zone. Gaining and losing tricks is part and parcel of aging in skateboarding. And if a trick is giving you too much grief, just say fuck it and don't kill your session / wreck your body over it.
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Skatebeard

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #14 on: September 27, 2021, 03:28:17 AM »
The biggest one for me is probably heelflips, as a teenager they were an absolute stock trick for me and I had nice popped ones, could also do doubles without too much effort.

Now in my mid 30s, since I came back to skating I just can't get heelflips consistent apart from rolling fakie (even then I have some pretty off days on those), my regular ones are untidy and very inconsistent and despite many attempts I just can't get them back to where they were.

I attribute this to  a couple of things - learning to kickflip last year has changed my body and weight distribution over the board a bit when i set up for flip tricks, also to moving up to skating 8.25s... I used to do heels on 7.5 setups and i think i struggle to get the same results on a more mellow wider modern setup.

Most of it is mental though, I know I am capable of doing them well, it's just having that self belief and having the discipline to put consistent time in every session to relearn the trick.

Since I learnt a bunch of kickflip variations I just don't focus on heels as much as when those were the only flip tricks I had, and I'm sure that's a big part of why I haven't got them back.

the "flip" side of all this is that for the one or two tricks i've lost, I've learnt 25-odd new ones in the last couple years... try not to get hung up on individual tricks when there's so many out there.

hotdogsweatpants

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2021, 02:12:32 PM »

Most of it is mental though, I know I am capable of doing them well, it's just having that self belief and having the discipline to put consistent time in every session to relearn the trick.


This is key, in my opinion.  When you have a trick on lock, you have self-belief, and complete confidence in your ability to do it.  That's why, for example, one can land tricks without the perfect foot position needed when one first learned the trick.

But when the day rolls around when you bail, or can't commit, the doubt starts to sink in, and that doubt is self-perpetuating.

Then the next session, you start with less confidence, so of course you are less likely to land. It's really quite unpleasant, and I'm working on mental strategies to get past this.  Coming at a trick with the inherent knowledge that you can land it is extremely important.
The pant situation is out of control at this point

Fhk

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2021, 03:28:59 PM »
Expand Quote

Most of it is mental though, I know I am capable of doing them well, it's just having that self belief and having the discipline to put consistent time in every session to relearn the trick.

[close]

This is key, in my opinion.  When you have a trick on lock, you have self-belief, and complete confidence in your ability to do it.  That's why, for example, one can land tricks without the perfect foot position needed when one first learned the trick.

But when the day rolls around when you bail, or can't commit, the doubt starts to sink in, and that doubt is self-perpetuating.

Then the next session, you start with less confidence, so of course you are less likely to land. It's really quite unpleasant, and I'm working on mental strategies to get past this.  Coming at a trick with the inherent knowledge that you can land it is extremely important.
This is very well said.

layzieyez

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2021, 03:48:44 PM »
Just learn to eat shit again and get past it. Like the good old days. When you get good enough to no longer find yourself looking up at the sky every session,  then you're lulled into thinking this is the way it will be henceforth. Nope. Get back to your roots. Eat shit but don't get too hurt and progress.

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2021, 03:56:34 PM »
I fucked myself up really bad doing just a pop shove into a bank. Knocked myself out, sprained my wrist, it was rough. They’ve been my go-to for the past almost 15 years and now I gotta get over that fear of them

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #19 on: October 25, 2021, 10:37:10 PM »
Honestly if you can't heelflip anymore, it's often a sign that you're becoming a better skater....your average good skater has switch heel way easier.....

whale

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #20 on: November 27, 2021, 01:35:51 AM »
Last 10 years have been mostly about keeping up old and relearning tricks.
I just love the feeling of setting up to trick that you've done hundreds if not thousands of times, only to pop that board and not come even close.
I tried a fakie 5-0 the other day, I don't even know what happened, barely ollied, full body slammed to ground.
Couldn't even come close to grinding all session.

But then once every blue moon, something random magically just works.

Use it or lose it.

beandemon

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #21 on: November 27, 2021, 05:29:31 AM »
For me, trick loss is a melange of fear-based mental walls, weight gain and depression. Shit, call it a viscous cycle and blame it for most of my difficulties in life.

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #22 on: November 27, 2021, 08:56:30 AM »
Sw bs 360. For awhile I thought they were easier than the regular version but now I’m not sure what I was smoking
And nollie fs 360. Had this trick soo good for a couple of days

CorneliusCardew

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #23 on: November 27, 2021, 09:53:51 AM »
This also reminds us that in a kind of subtle way we are relearning each trick re-remembering it each time that we skate
« Last Edit: November 27, 2021, 09:10:49 PM by CorneliusCardew »

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2021, 01:45:55 PM »
Ive lost pretty much every flip trick i ever had...which wasnt many to start with.. I can still land one or two after many attempts, my own fault for leaving sessions so few and far between, before year ends though im determined to dedicate some time to getting tricks down.....i hope.


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Wait we know what it is now too -
Falling down and gettin back up

Peepeeboy69

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2021, 06:55:15 AM »
goodbye treflip

i was blaming gear and not trying, but after almost 2 months I think its time to face the facts and say goodbye :(

FatGuy92

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #26 on: November 28, 2021, 10:26:19 PM »
I'm stuck here with reg heelflips. Lost it after a a winter of not trying and never got it back. I can flick them around everytime perfectly but for whatever reason I keep kicking my board too far diagonally (toe side towards the nose) so I can't get my back foot on. I tried going straight off the nose but that doesn't work either.

beatifk

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #27 on: November 30, 2021, 08:25:02 AM »
For me, trick loss is a melange of fear-based mental walls, weight gain and depression. Shit, call it a viscous cycle and blame it for most of my difficulties in life.

Haha, yes!

This also reminds us that in a kind of subtle way we are relearning each trick re-remembering it each time that we skate

The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #28 on: November 30, 2021, 08:34:45 AM »
I've had a "will they or won't they?" relationship with tre flips since I was in middle school.

I have landed hundreds of them and have had periods where I can do them consistently, but it always disappears out of the blue and I have to try 20+ times to land a shitty 345 flip.

This valley lasts months and occasionally years. Then one day I'll be able to tre flip for 2 weeks.

There are a myriad array of issues, but chief among them are I can't get the scoop motion quite right, my timing is off, I open up my shoulders rather than keeping them "tight" and parallel to the board, and my tres are mostly flicking with my front foot rather than relying on my back foot to do most of the work.

I consciously know all of this, but my muscle memory inevitably clamps up and I can't even come close to landing one most days.

I am intimately familiar with this struggle of losing and having to slowly relearn what should be fundamentals for someone who has been skating as long as I have.

I could blame having varial flips as part of my "go-to" bag of tricks since I was a kid, but I know plenty of people who can do both very easily.




I have the exact same relationship with 360 flips. I've been capable of doing them forever but I've never had them.


It's so random too. Last time I did one was because a little kid walked up to me and asked if I could. I said "I dunno" and did one first try. Other times I'll try my hardest and it looks like I've never flipped my board in my life. It's so frustrating cuz when they do work, it's one of the most satisfying tricks ever.

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Re: Tricks You Had... and Lost. How to get them back?
« Reply #29 on: November 30, 2021, 12:59:08 PM »
I can still front tail but gone are the days of going fast and holding them with reckless abandon. I got smoked doing a tail stall going slow on a curb as a fuck around one day and slipped out (super waxed) and focused my thumb, tearing a quarter chunk out. I know it was a combination of going so slow and the wax but I can't get the sensation of slipping back on my thumb everytime I go for a front tail.

I still charge at back tails with no second thought. It used to be the other way around. I would have never imagined I would be at this point in my skating career.