Top 4 beginner skateboarder mistakes
The biggest barrier to entry to skateboarding is getting a fit for purpose board, that is the right size and is setup correctly for you, but once you have a board, what next? What are the top 4 mistakes that will slow your progress?
- Stance is not wide enough
- Learning to push first
- Switching stance
- Not learning to carve
1. Stance is not wide enough
- This is by far the biggest mistake we see, with learners putting their back foot on just behind their front foot.
We’ve got a tutorial on this so go check it out. We draw footprints on our boards to show new learners where to put their feet. A good rule of thumb however, is to put your feet on the bolts. If you are struggling with this one, practice on the grass, or somewhere the board isn’t going to move around.
Takeaway – put your back foot as far back as possible, the tail is a good place to aim for, so if it ends up on the bolts, it’s all good.
2. Focusing on learning to push
- Pushing is hard.
We see this often when we teach toddlers. Pushing is difficult and can be a frustrating experience. So frustrating that some kids lose interest. So, what do we do? We pull them along, and keep the focus on fun, instead of work.
What we’re doing when we’re learning is, we are learning to keep our centre of gravity over the centre line of the board, so we don’t fall over. We need motion to be able to steer the skateboard, and move it back under our centre of gravity, maintaining our balance. Getting enough speed to do this is a challenge in itself.
OK, so what can you do as an adult or older learner instead of being pulled along? Well, we can use our old friend gravity. Find a gentle slope to practice on. As your skills improve, find a steeper slope.
Choosing the place to learn is key. We’ve written a short post on finding the best place to learn.
Takeaway, if you’re struggling with pushing, get comfortable balancing first, by using a slight incline to roll along, learn to correct your centre of gravity, and stay on your board, then come back to pushing.
3. Switching stance
This is unlikely to be an issue for older learners who have a definite preference, but we often see when teaching the kids, that they keep swapping their pushing foot over.
If you keep changing the foot you are pushing with, it’s going to take longer to learn and feel comfortable.
Most of us have a left/right preference, we write with our right or left hand. This generally translates to skateboarding, pushing with the stronger side; when we push, we kick. Push, kick, push, kick. At Skate School we teach you that you should be using your kicking foot to push with.
Takeaway – put your favoured foot on the floor, making a note of your stance, Regular (right foot pusher) or Goofy (left foot pusher) in our learning system, and learn to push with it. If you’re the parent of a learner, watch out for them swapping over, and have them choose a side.
4. Not learning to Carve
Most of us want to progress as quickly as we can. What this can mean however, is skipping over fundamentals. The fundamental we see overlooked mostly is carving.
You can spot a rider who needs to work on their carve – they will use micro-kickturns to change direction as they are riding. This can mean one of a few things:
- Their skateboard is junk
- Their trucks are too tight
- They haven’t practiced carving sufficiently.
Once the student has learnt the basics of pushing, the next skill to work on is carving. Put some cones out, and carve around them. It’s usually at this point that we find out if a skateboard is:
- fit for purpose
- set up for you correctly
The first thing to do if someone is struggling is to try and loosen the trucks. If this doesn’t work, the skateboard may need attention, new softer bushings may be required for smaller children.
If you are successful, move the cones closer to give yourself more of a challenge. Check out our tutorial on Carving.
Takeaway – Carving is the most important way to work out if your board is fit-for-purpose & set up correctly
