Do you want to become exceptional at skateboarding? Does it feel like you’re in a standstill with a particular trick? Are you feeling a lack of motivation that makes it difficult to try new tricks?
If you find yourself nodding your head, you are in the right place. Skateboarding is by no means an easy activity to learn. Regardless of how athletic or coordinated you are, it can take hours upon hours of practice to learn a single trick. There may be some tips and tricks you can learn to expedite this process, but keep in mind that practice is oftentimes the key factor in progression.
First off, it is important to acknowledge that, like in any sport, encountering a plateau in your progression happens to everyone at some point in time. Plateaus are frustrating and can deter you from wanting to practice. It’s beneficial to have a positive mindset and to look at failures and setbacks as milestones of progression.
The first way to deal with little to no change in progression is to analyze your technique. Even a slight adjustment to your foot position, the way you flick your front foot, or how you scoop your back foot can significantly change the way the board flips and rotates. I personally find that watching YouTube tutorials dedicated to a specific trick is extremely helpful to understanding how to properly execute it. To help analyze my technique, I like to record myself with a slow motion camera to better understand how I am moving my feet and what I may be doing wrong. You can also get a friend or someone at the skatepark to look at your form and give you feedback.
If you have issues with consistency, it can help to develop a routine of tricks you start with at the skatepark. For example, you could do ten repetitions of every flatground trick you know. This helps build muscle memory and further refines the technique of your flatground tricks. Additionally, you could challenge yourself to incorporate more advanced tricks after mastering the ones you already know.
If you’re having trouble with motivation to learn new tricks or are unable to think of new tricks you desire to try, watching street skate parts is a good way to find inspiration. Street parts showcase a wide variety of locations and obstacles that can influence you to try skating different obstacles, or even the same obstacles but in a different way. Street parts also typically contain numerous unique tricks that push the boundaries of what is possible, contributing to the evolution of skateboarding as a sport. Setting a goal for each skate session can also be motivating when trying to progress quickly. Even something as simple as doing a trick three times in a row to get it more consistent can be monumental when building your foundation of skills.
Although it may seem trivial, I believe that stretching, warming up with easier tricks, or even cruising around for a minute at the beginning of a skate session is important and helps avoid getting injured. Getting injured can be a big roadblock in terms of progress, especially if it requires that you stay off of your skateboard for a while. Stretching also improves your mobility, making it easier to maneuver your legs and torso when performing tricks.
Furthermore, it is important to listen to your body when you start to feel tired near the end of the skate session. As you approach the point of exhaustion, you begin to make significantly more mistakes and put yourself at a much higher risk of getting injured. If you feel fatigued and like you are moving backwards in terms of progress, don’t hesitate to call it for the day and get a good night’s rest so you’re ready to skate the next day.
Additionally, referring back to my initial statement that practice is the key to progression, it is essential to understand that putting in time and effort will almost always produce results. Making an effort to go skateboarding every day or at least once a week, even if it means simply riding it from point A to point B, can seriously impact how fast you progress and greatly improve your boardfeel and control.
All in all, Skateboarding is an extremely difficult hobby that can become frustrating at times. All the frustration that comes with countless attempts and fails before the eventual completion of the trick makes the success of completing a trick feel that much more special and fulfilling. This success alone serves as the primary motivation for me and many other skaters to continue pushing themselves to new heights. Although people do progress at different paces, the keys to speeding up the learning process are: consistent practice, rest and stretching, getting help from the community, staying positive, and seeking inspiration from other skaters.
