The #1 Kickflip Problem and How to Fix It

Are you having trouble landing a kickflip? The kickflip is one of the coolest, and funnest tricks, that is somewhat basic. It’s the gateway to all flip tricks in skateboarding, and if you can do one people think you’re good. I’m going to tell you the #1 problem that people have with landing kickflips and how to fix it. Hopefully you already know them, but first lets look at the basics of the kickflip.

First we’ll start with the foot placement for the kickflip. You want the ball of your back

foot on the end of the tail, just like an ollie. Your front foot goes just below the bolts, at around a 45° angle. If you prefer, you can hang your heel off the side of the board. First, you pop the tail, again, just like an ollie, but instead, you slide the toe of your foot at an angle, so that you flick the top right or left (depending on stance) corner of the nose to make it flip. Then you land on it, sounds easy right? But if you’ve been trying for a while, you can agree with me that it’s not that easy. There are many problems that you can run into and this is what I think is the most common, and the hardest to fix.

The problem is getting the right flick with your foot. Do NOT flick down. This is the worst, because it gives you a false sense of hope. You see the board spin all the way, perfectly. But since you flick your front foot down, there’s no way you can get it back on the board. Most people who do this can only get their back foot on. It’s called a KICKflip for a reason, you have to kick your foot out and up, so you can keep both feet above the board as it flips. If you’ve been flicking your foot down for the whole time you’ve been learning kickflips, you’ve trained yourself to do it wrong. The best way to fix it is by just practicing a good flick, and just putting your back foot down, so you can train yourself to keep that front foot above the board. Once you get that down, you just gotta jump high, tuck your knees in, and eventually, it just clicks mentally.

 

 

Hope this helps, because this is the same problem I had. If you’re still learning kickflips, don’t give up! With hard work and staying at it, there’s no doubt you’ll do it.