How to pop your tricks lower? (Specifically kickflips)

[Syllent_Deiity]

Can anyone give some advice on how to pop your kickflips lower, I’ve tried searching this up so many times and I’ve become hopeless, basically I’ve gotten so used to popping my ollies so high that whenever I kickflip now I always always always pop them so high that my front foot can’t flick hard enough for my board to rotate completely before my board hits my back foot and I’m so tired of being the only friend without a consistent flip trick


If you want more background info then:
Ok so when I first started skating, I was always competing with my friend that started skating at the same time as me, (he skated when I was very young but never learned to ollie and stopped until he got back into skating because of me) naturally, he progressed faster than me with Ollie’s, so from there for like my first year or year and a half, I super tunnel-visioned practicing Ollies non stop without trying other tricks until eventually, I started trying other tricks once I was able to ollie over 4 boards stacked primo, and because I focused on my Ollie’s so much during my first year, I’m kind of known within my skate group to have really high Ollies but that’s like my only trick, but during my next year or so, I learned both 180s and pop shuvs, and can do both pretty high, but now, popping so high has become a problem, I’ve been trying kickflips for like 6 months now and they are so fucking hard for me because I always pop them too high for them to rotate completely before the board hits my feet, and I’ve landed a few here and there and they’ve been way higher than my other friends kickflips but because they’re so high I can never land them consistently, and I’ve tried every different foot position, with my front foot in the middle of the board, closer towards the tail, closer towards the nose, I’ve even tried them like Dylan Jaeb and Nyjah where I barely have my toes on the board, and even with my front foot barely on the board, my foot still catches the nose so much that I still pop the kickflips to like my upper shins and I’m so tired of it because even tho all my friends have lower kickflips they can actually fucking land them, if anyone can please give me some advice, I’ve tried searching it up so many times, but everyone always has the problem of having kickflips too low so I can’t find a solution on my problem

I’m not trying to brag or act like I’m cool because I pop high or whatever the fuck

I’ve only been skating since around March of 2019 so like almost 3 years now and I’ve seen friends of mine that I taught how to skate way after I started progress past me and I know skating isn’t a competition but my progression has plateaued for like the past year bc I can’t get past this fucking kickflip, please anyone this is a genuine question out of desperation.

(I can send videos of my Ollie’s and kickflips if anyone would like to see)

[SneakySecrets]

Don’t worry, after your mid 30’s you’ll never have to worry about popping your tricks too high.  It’s like magic.   

[Urtripping]

You're blessed that you took the time to ollie high and well before "learning kickflips." Just jump a little higher or bend your knees more when catching the flip. Consult the fundamentals of kickflips thread for tips on flicking.

Enjoy your time to pop shit too high while it lasts before the mid 30s magic sets in.

[goodatmeth]

What's stopping you from just using less force? What happens if you pop softly?
You can ollie high, so I guess you're also able to ollie medium high or low, right? Do the low ollie pop and then flick.

[Frank and Fred]

Soak your deck in the water fountain for a few minutes, mount it to some oversized and heavy stage 6 or 7 Indy's and 39mm wheels, then get some oversized jeans to weigh you down, some cut down Full Cabs (not half cabs), learn about axle slip and flip flop away.

[FatGuy92]

Not sure if this really provides an answer but an interesting video on "over popping" kickflips

[Mean salto]

I don't think popping lower is the best option but if you insist maybe try to practice with just a deck (no trucks or wheels etc). It will make you flick faster and lower because you can't really pop. On carpet or grass is better noise wise.

[Billy Bitchcakes]

Man I wish I was in a position to be asking this question

[behavioralguide]

yea so maybe weird question but how do I do short slidesliek I can only grind long rails really long but I want to do short now tips?

[CorneliusCardew]

Not sure if this really provides an answer but an interesting video on "over popping" kickflips

This whole channel is solid gold

[biaherl]

I didn't read all of that but two things kf down a small set or off a ledge and second try tightening your hip flexers and keeping you knees ridged

Jumping down stuff helps you learn the timing of your flip and catch. Tightening your muscles might work or it's a completely wrong thought either way you will know

[Syllent_Deiity]

Thanks to everyone, that’s given their advice or given me a laugh, I haven’t been able to reply until now bc of school but I tried some of the tips and to no avail but here’s some feedback…

[Syllent_Deiity]

What's stopping you from just using less force? What happens if you pop softly?
You can ollie high, so I guess you're also able to ollie medium high or low, right? Do the low ollie pop and then flick.

When I use less force or less effort to kickflip, I end up completely missing the nose and do this regular looking Ollie north thing and almost get credit carded.. and when I try to pop lower I either end up flicking my ankle down, which I don’t want to learn kickflips like that, or my front foot does flick correctly and either flips it but the board rotates like 30° degrees backside, or it flicks correctly and drags the nose so hard that the board still ends up leveling out mad high

[Syllent_Deiity]

To the other’s comments, when I’m trying my kickflips, I’m fully committing, I don’t have the fear of landing them anymore, I get both of my feet over the board and I always end up landing on the board with my board upside down, and when I’m trying with full effort I’m jumping as high as possible and tucking my knees as high as possible,or at least that’s how it feels like because they feel similar to my highest ollies, I can land kickflips pretty consistently on grass due to the lack of pop I get on grass, allowing my board to fully rotate in mid air, under my feet instead of being stopped from the board hitting my back foot, and even if I were to try them down a set, it wouldn’t make a difference because my problem isn’t lack of air time, so even if I were to try them down something, they would still suck up to my feet too fast, My friend who has really low kickflips but has them dialed really consistently, he told me that I’m taking too long to flick my foot off the nose and that I should flick off earlier as I’m popping, but when I tried that, I the same things would happen as what I said happens when I try low kickflips, my muscle memory just has that super late flick timing too dialed and it’s hard to stray from it now, do I need to just get a stronger ankle for a stronger flick to get more rotation out of the board before it sucks up to my feet?

[Syllent_Deiity]

Here’s a better attempt at one of my kickflips for anyone that’s interested, it’s better because I caught it primo and even almost landed primo instead of the usual catching upside down and landing upside down…

https://youtube.com/shorts/k56ynrlwVDc?feature=share

[j....soy.....]

Just being all stiff and just trying all your tricks passively seems to the trick for me......never bend your knees....there.....that's all you need to know....

[S.]

I kind of get the idea. My kickflips are similar. I always pop the shit out of them as in I use way more force than necessary. I am not very consistent at them either, but when I land them they a fairly high for a flatground trick. I always wished I had them more consistently and with more control. I have always enjoyed the skating of people like Tom Penny or Nick Trapasso, who seem to be able to pop their flip tricks high or just do them relaxed with just enough pop. I love that lazy controlled style.

The (switch) flip by penny at 2:10 has always stuck in my mind as being really cool.

[Hubba Bo-Tep]

Here’s a better attempt at one of my kickflips for anyone that’s interested, it’s better because I caught it primo and even almost landed primo instead of the usual catching upside down and landing upside down…

https://youtube.com/shorts/k56ynrlwVDc?feature=share

Two things. 

One, you aren't kicking your front foot/leg out in front of you nearly far enough.  Forcing the front leg to extend fully (ninja style) will make the board flip faster (harder kick, faster rotation). 

Two, your lead arm is doing what my lead arm used to do (still does occasionally):  it's invisibly tied to your front foot. 

Watch your lead arm, see how it gets contorted and then flicks at the same time you flick your foot?  You need to break this habit as I'm convinced this is what was causing the backside rotation on my kickflips.  As far as I could tell, that little flick of the arm when flicking the foot caused an invisible but bad interaction with my foot and the board.  Watch any pro with a good kickflip, their lead arm does not do anything like what you are doing (and I did).  Get both arms behind you on the spring up, keep them there during the pop and then flick, do whatever the fuck you want with them after that.

It's still a battle and I'll forget to force my lead arm every once in a while but as soon as I do a kickflip that doesn't land perfectly straight I know I've forgotten to think about my arm.  Weird shit, I know.

BTW, your kickflip will go to absolute dog shit while correcting your lead arm (probably roll an ankle as well) but you will get it back eventually. 

[layzieyez]

Learn heelfips. I promise big ollies transfer to popped heelflips much easier once you figure them out. It's easier to go from heelflip to learning kickflips from my own experience.

[Uknowmyinsta]

Get fat. 

[tzhangdox]

Expand Quote

Here’s a better attempt at one of my kickflips for anyone that’s interested, it’s better because I caught it primo and even almost landed primo instead of the usual catching upside down and landing upside down…

https://youtube.com/shorts/k56ynrlwVDc?feature=share

[close]

Two, your lead arm is doing what my lead arm used to do (still does occasionally):  it's invisibly tied to your front foot. 

Watch your lead arm, see how it gets contorted and then flicks at the same time you flick your foot?  You need to break this habit as I'm convinced this is what was causing the backside rotation on my kickflips.  As far as I could tell, that little flick of the arm when flicking the foot caused an invisible but bad interaction with my foot and the board.  Watch any pro with a good kickflip, their lead arm does not do anything like what you are doing (and I did).  Get both arms behind you on the spring up, keep them there during the pop and then flick, do whatever the fuck you want with them after that.

It's still a battle and I'll forget to force my lead arm every once in a while but as soon as I do a kickflip that doesn't land perfectly straight I know I've forgotten to think about my arm.  Weird shit, I know.

BTW, your kickflip will go to absolute dog shit while correcting your lead arm (probably roll an ankle as well) but you will get it back eventually.

Damn, I have the same thing with my lead arm on both my regular and switch flips. How do you get rid of it?

For me, it doesn't cause any problems as far as I can tell, my kickflips are definitely proper, can do them up over down and into stuff but I just hate that aggressive jolt my lead arm does backwards. My overall style would just be way better without it.

Not sure if its even possible fighting almost ten years of muscle memory to get rid of.

[tzhangdox]

But in terms of popping it lower, looks like you need to do a few things:

Move your front foot way further forward. Its kinda far back right now and to get it off the nose from that far back youre going to have to drag more which delays the flick and lifts your board up higher.

You'll have to adjust your flick technique, will throw you off a lot at first but stick to it.

Try just tap the tail instead of popping it down really hard.

Practice doing very small gentle ollies up small ledges and curbs etc, and try to replicate a kickflip with that kind of mentality instead of a brute force ollie approach.

[Syllent_Deiity]

Expand Quote

Here’s a better attempt at one of my kickflips for anyone that’s interested, it’s better because I caught it primo and even almost landed primo instead of the usual catching upside down and landing upside down…

https://youtube.com/shorts/k56ynrlwVDc?feature=share

[close]

Two things. 

One, you aren't kicking your front foot/leg out in front of you nearly far enough.  Forcing the front leg to extend fully (ninja style) will make the board flip faster (harder kick, faster rotation). 

Two, your lead arm is doing what my lead arm used to do (still does occasionally):  it's invisibly tied to your front foot. 

Watch your lead arm, see how it gets contorted and then flicks at the same time you flick your foot?  You need to break this habit as I'm convinced this is what was causing the backside rotation on my kickflips.  As far as I could tell, that little flick of the arm when flicking the foot caused an invisible but bad interaction with my foot and the board.  Watch any pro with a good kickflip, their lead arm does not do anything like what you are doing (and I did).  Get both arms behind you on the spring up, keep them there during the pop and then flick, do whatever the fuck you want with them after that.

It's still a battle and I'll forget to force my lead arm every once in a while but as soon as I do a kickflip that doesn't land perfectly straight I know I've forgotten to think about my arm.  Weird shit, I know.

BTW, your kickflip will go to absolute dog shit while correcting your lead arm (probably roll an ankle as well) but you will get it back eventually. 

Well that’s the thing, I don’t know how to ninja kick my ollies in the first place, since I only tried to get higher ollies while I was learning them/getting them better, I would only practice to ollie over shit and if I couldn’t clear it, I would just think to go faster, so basically I learned to Ollie high but just tucking my knees straight up and now Idk how to tweak them forward like that, any advice on that would be appreciated too

Also about the kickflips, what am I doing wrong specifically with my arms, when I learned ollies, I learned to throw them up and straight to my sides like a snow angel which helped me get more height and keep my Ollie’s straight and I try to do that with my kickflips too but haven’t to think about so many different things makes me forget about my arms and shoulders before I pop, but I’m still confused as to what my arms are doing wrong, as sure they’re flailing about but I don’t see how that would affect my kickflips?

[Sativa Lung]

Soak your deck in the water fountain for a few minutes, mount it to some oversized and heavy stage 6 or 7 Indy's and 39mm wheels, then get some oversized jeans to weigh you down, some cut down Full Cabs (not half cabs), learn about axle slip and flip flop away.

We call that the stage 7 slip-flop round these parts. I recommend control boards, they even seem to come pre-soaked.

[lemonchicken91]

Get a 7.75

I have this problem when i kick the nose too much like an ollie and it brings it higher, wanna more graze the nose on the side

Also the arm stuff was mindblowing

[Hubba Bo-Tep]

Damn, I have the same thing with my lead arm on both my regular and switch flips. How do you get rid of it?

For me, it doesn't cause any problems as far as I can tell, my kickflips are definitely proper, can do them up over down and into stuff but I just hate that aggressive jolt my lead arm does backwards. My overall style would just be way better without it.

Not sure if its even possible fighting almost ten years of muscle memory to get rid of.

It's not impossible but it's tough going at first.  The more it happened when when I was trying to correct it the more I hated it.  I've been at it for over a year now and it still happens more than I'd like but consciously keeping my arms totally straight and aggressively pointing my index finger on the up swing has been what's worked best for me.

I just watched Louie Lopez's 100 kickflips last night and I must admit I watched his arms more than his feet

[scootmepls]

i think moving your lead foot up will make it all click in place
rn ur flicking like a micro sec too late and it is causing the board to not fully rotate when you reach your apex, thus the primo catches
with high ollies that makes sense since u want to level out at the last possible second

but by moving ur front foot up you will...
1 get a lower pop bc ur stance is widened and its harder to jump higher when ur feet are more wide apart
2 get ur foot to do the flick motion sooner bc ur front foot will reach ur nose sooner

the arm thing i think has some validity but i also believe everyone's body is different and u need to understand how ur body moves/balances and how it aligns with ur deck and the motion u want to come out of it, example of this is how some people will learn ollies with their lead foot super perpendicular to the deck and cant ollie but if they just open up their hips a lil and turn their front foot slightly 45 degrees suddenly they can ollie

also im almost 100% positive u can land a heelflip easy based on how high u jumped in that clip, heelflips are more brute force bc ur kick is going towards the front of ur body

[tzhangdox]

Expand Quote

Damn, I have the same thing with my lead arm on both my regular and switch flips. How do you get rid of it?

For me, it doesn't cause any problems as far as I can tell, my kickflips are definitely proper, can do them up over down and into stuff but I just hate that aggressive jolt my lead arm does backwards. My overall style would just be way better without it.

Not sure if its even possible fighting almost ten years of muscle memory to get rid of.

[close]

It's not impossible but it's tough going at first.  The more it happened when when I was trying to correct it the more I hated it.  I've been at it for over a year now and it still happens more than I'd like but consciously keeping my arms totally straight and aggressively pointing my index finger on the up swing has been what's worked best for me.

I just watched Louie Lopez's 100 kickflips last night and I must admit I watched his arms more than his feet

Will try put more thought into it. Have a similar problem with regular back smiths where my lead arm goes behind my back and it looks really stupid, but I can do the trick perfectly fine. Definitely would be a style upgrade to not have front arm do a weird jolt on some of these tricks.

[Skatebeard]

Front foot further up the board, covering the first two bolts is my usual placement but everyone varies a bit. That will mean you don't have to go full karate on the flick which will keep the board down a little more.

Bit less into the pop through the tail, flick earlier in the trick.

The way you are doing it in the vid is great for flipping over something, but you're running out of room to physically suck your legs up anymore, which is why your foot catches.

[Uncle Flea]

My kickflip flipping speed is controlled by my popping foot.

 I pop from the heel side of my tail unless backside flip or rotation.

If I want to land on a ledge I'm center of the tail. I don't do this much. Kick flip crooks have a high chance of folding me up now that I'm old. I have a tendency to land both wheels on top also I'm pushing into the ledge so I fold up.

I can flip my kickflip crazy fast if I line my toes up with the edge of my board. I think it's because when it pops the board starts to flip the other way giving me a harder flick.

All this might be bullshit idk.

I definitely know I prefer popping from center of heel side of the tail unless backside flips are the goal.