What helped you get flip tricks?

Kook post alert. :rotating_light:

Have been skating for around 3 years now I think. Picked it up again in my (very) late 30’s after around 15 years off the board.

First time around I never had any tricks apart from ollies, so the modest progress I’ve made (mainly skating miniramp) has been really satisfying. But…

I’ve been trying for a decent amount of time now and I’m having real trouble getting to grips with any flip tricks. I can sometimes get a sketchy static heel flip after several attempts, but that’s about as far as it goes.

Tl;dr - I’d love to get at least one flip trick into my small bag of tricks. What helped you? Any tips?

Moving is easier than static, I believe so anyway.
Kickflips and heel flips are similar in that you make sure you pop the ollie properly first and instead of stopping your front foot passing the nose, the flick is just that little extra out of whichever side of the nose your trick demands.
Out of the nose, not off the side of the board, it won’t level your board out.
The starting position, I’d say should be about the same as a straight forward ollie.

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Lol mush said it all pretty much. 180 based flip tricks it helps if you try to learn them 90 degrees and then spin your shoulders more or wind into them more. Shove it based flip tricks I generally try to pop straight down and do the shove it and the flip with the front foot

A lot of flip tricks I find if I’m struggling to get consistent I learn a similar or like, opposite trick. Like fakie flips to improve kickflips etc

I’m talking out of my ass now aren’t I

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This is the only thing you need to learn for kickflips although it can work for loads of others. Basically, regardless of how your flip goes, you need to just make sure your feet get back to the position they started in. If you pop jump and put your feet back to where they were that is the hard part out of the way. Does not matter where your board goes, that will evolve the more you do it and work it out, and when it does, you’ll just land it because you’re used to jumping back to the right place.
If you don’t do this you’ll get stuck in the vortex of getting the flip round nicely but your feet will land at the sides of it and probably before the board.

This advice can get anyone kickflipping, as long as you have the necessary limbs.

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I was under the impression that heel flips involved a slight jump forward and kick flips involved a slight jump back. Is that wrong then?

That tends to happen when stationary.
It’s not something you should focus on and flicking through the nose will keep the board under you rather than being kicked to one side or the other.

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The key for me with flip tricks is to catch and slam down the board with one foot till you have that down, then work on getting the other foot back on.
Might just be me though

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nope, that is the way to get into bailing habits. got to aim those feet asap.
and yeah when you are moving no need to jump anywhere really, if you are doing the trick right then the board is under you, you will automatically jump right. it’s just fine tuning foot positions to get the right flicks for most tricks, that can be subjective and different for everyone, you find your own way.

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Another couple of things I’ve since thought about are:

A) make sure you have ollied first before flicking.

B) It doesn’t have to be rushed if you get that ollie snapped properly. I eventually found that the more delayed the flick, you get off the ground more first and you can flip higher and slower a la, more controlled.

C) Jump a bit higher than usual after the ollie and the flick to give the board some time to rotate and yourself more chance of coming back down to it once it has finished.
As soon as you pop, get your back leg up out of the way.
The best ones are caught with the back foot and get it right, you’ll get a nice timing of the board rotating and coming to meet your back foot at the highest point of the trick.

I got to a point where anything that I could ollie, I could probably kickflip it too.
Those days are sadly gone but hey ho.

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Cheers all. Going to have a crack at putting some of this into practice over the next few days.

Flip tricks are a product of technique. Adjusting foot positions, assessing how much pop is needed, timing of flick, coping with mistakes.
Getting a solid foundation of respectable ollies would be a great place to start.
Your body will feel better about jumping, your reflexes and techniques will improve, and it won’t be soul-destroyingly frustrating.
Bodies over 35 may need some conditioning to coax into youthful leaping again. Stretches and trampoline sessions could be a winner. worked for Kalis

Pop and wag.