Skateboarding is one of the hardest athletic things to do, period – if it were easy, they’d call it football! All jokes aside, most new skaters struggle at some point with the sheer amount of practice and blood, sweat, and tears that go into improving. While some of these developmental hurdles are unavoidable, there are many ways to accelerate the learning process of skateboarding. Here are five top tips to keep in mind as you practice!
#1: Fall Well:
Skaters inevitably fall off of their boards when they practice: it’s not a question of if, but when it occurs during their session. The old adage “if you haven’t failed, you aren’t trying hard enough” rings particularly true in the skateboarding world – skaters must fall to improve their abilities.
If falling is inescapable, then it makes sense to learn how to fall off of a skateboard. By doing so, skaters condition themselves to embrace fear and reduce potential injuries. Newcomers who acclimate to falling quickly put themselves in the best position to improve their abilities fast.
When I’m struggling with a trick, I will often allow myself to fall to show myself that it’s not that bad to do so. The more afraid you are of falling, the more likely you are to actually hurt yourself when you do, because your body is constricted and tense from fear. Continue to practice falling and you will become more confident in your failures, setting yourself up for long-term success in your skating practice.
#2: Experiment to Understand:
To the casual observer, skateboarding can seem like a sport dominated by dynamic and dramatic movements. In reality, skating is an exercise in subtlety — tiny adjustments can either make or break whether a skater lands the trick they are trying to perform. Mastering the nuances of these movements requires a lot of practice, but novice skaters can improve by experimenting with drastic changes in their body positioning. This advice seems counterintuitive at first, but makes sense when applied.
If you’re practicing a trick and not landing on the board, change some component of the trick by a large degree. The next time you perform the movement, you’ll notice how this adjustment affects your balance, or the trajectory of your board underneath your feet. Learn from these observations! Once you notice how large movements affect your coordination, you can reduce the degree of these adjustments so that you can land your trick. It’s kind of like “guess and check” math. This methodology will prevent you from getting into a rut on how you might practice a trick, and improve your coordination at the same time.
#3: Switch it Up:
All movements in skateboarding feed off each other. Like other sports, it’s essential to build a strong foundation with the basics of skating before moving onto more difficult techniques. However, skateboarders do not need to follow a strict linear path in their progression.
If one trick is hard, try another — the same coordination fundamentals (balance, foot-eye control, timing) apply to almost every move, so learning one trick will likely help you learn another. There are limits to this principle, of course: focusing on a handful of tricks will be more effective than trying dozens at the same time. Still, working on “adjacent” movements while skateboarding will help you build consistent muscle memory that you can apply to many areas of your skating repertoire.
#4: Playing as Practice:
Unlike many other sports, skateboarding doesn’t rely on an organized schedule or coaches to dictate when and how you should practice – it’s completely up to each skater to decide what they would like to learn! While this freedom allows skateboarders to develop their own unique styles in skating, it also can be daunting for newcomers who don’t know where or how to start practicing.
Most skaters view skateboarding as a lifestyle rather than a sport. Ironically, this view makes them great at practicing! Devoted skateboarders often skate every day, even if just for a short amount of time. This habit pays off: studies show that the concept of distributed practice produces noticeable learning improvements for people at both the cognitive and physical level.
Make practice “play” in your daily routine, and you’ll experience significant progress in your skateboarding abilities. It’s better to practice for 30 minutes every day, rather than skate for 2 hours twice a week. Find ways to make the process fun — listen to music, play games of S-K-A-T-E with friends, or practice stationary tricks as you watch TV. Skate to have fun, and skate often!
#5: With a Little Help from your Friends:
The joy of skateboarding is best when shared with others, so go skate with your friends! This piece of advice seems obvious, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. Groups push each other to improve in skateboarding just as they do in the classroom or on the playing field; our friends and peers inspire us to do our best when we are with them. Additionally, everyone brings something different to the session when skating — you and your friends can teach each other!
Try, Try Again
I hope that these tips help you become the best skateboarder you can be. As much as it’s exciting to improve, it can be a slow process with skating, even if you put these tips into practice. Don’t get discouraged! Everyone learns at their own pace, and the most important thing (always) is to have fun. Now, get out there and practice something new!
