Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Trick Tips

The page of trick tips that will help your blading skills get a little bit better but remember these tips won't make you a proffesional so don't count on it. My theory in blading is if you don't have confidence and right before you bust out a trick you think to your self that your going to fall then of course your going to fall but on the other hand if you think that your going to make it and have 100% confidence then most likely your going to bust it out, so have full confidence and always think to yourself that your going succeed. I am not responsible for your actions so blade at your own risk and for all you new comers out there don't go breakin your bones on my frontside tutorial.


Moves:

Frontsides
Backside
Royal
Backslide and Fastlide
Unity
Soul
Mizou
Makio
Fishbrain
Pornstar
Sidewalk



_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Frontside

This trick is performed almost exactly the same as the curb grind is. However there are a few things that should be stressed and explained that should make this easier to learn. To make learning this trick as painless as possible, you should have a solid foundation of stalls under your belt. After all, it is easier to learn on a small curb than it is a rail or grinding bar. A good way to practice this is to randomly skate up to objects (both high and low) and try to stall on them. As you get more practice, your body begins to learn what it needs to do to that high and stall in the proper position. With that knowledge, frontsides are a piece of cake! Find (or get) yourself a low and shallow bar to practice on. Things like the barricades in front of car dealerships, metal bars around walkways, and bike racks are good places to start. Approach the bar slowly, taking care to run perfectly parallel to it, and be slightly to one side. As you near the bar, jump up nice and high and turn 90 degrees while watching your landing spot. Much like a batter in baseball, watching where you will be landing is essential to success. Spread your legs about shoulder width apart, and absorb the impact in your knees. Skate back around and try again..and again.. and again! (Repetition is the key) A couple of key things to remember are your landing, your stance, and your commitment. When you land, you must be sure to land between your tiny middle wheels. Otherwise you will catch on your wheels and you will go flying. (You cant grind with big wheels) Your stance is also very important. Think of yourself as trying to stand on a tightrope- Its hard, but possible. Try and stand erect, with your arms stuck out for balance. When you try to correct a mistake, adjust using your hips and arms, and not your knees. Also be sure not to overcorrect, as myself and many others tend to do. As for commitment, not enough can be said about it. If go up to a rail and only give 50%, you WILL fall and hurt. Commit and TRUST YOURSELF. If you think you can do it, you are halfway to doing it. After all, stalls arent that much different than frontsides.. Skate hard, skate safe, and practice a lot!

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Backside

Doing backsides is almost as easy as doing frontsides. The one catch is that you are landing with your back to the rail so it is much more difficult to see where you are landing. (and to land properly) Obviously you will need to practice backside stalls on curbs and planters before you work up to rails and slider bars.. And after practicing there for a while your body should learn how to twist and land correctly, and so rail slides will come naturally for you. Assuming you already can do a backside stall, the slides will be easy to do. First, you need to find a low and not-too-steep bar to practice sliding on. Just about anything will do. Once you are ready, start out by approaching the bar slowly, and at a fairly slight angle. As you near the front of the bar, jump high, and pull your legs up. Keep an eye on your landing spot as you rotate through the 90 degrees and as you are coming back down, unwind and drop your legs onto the bar. The only hard part in doing backsides is getting your legs onto the bar properly. (Duh!) Always watch where you are landing, otherwise you will fall. Also be aware that you may have to jump higher and harder to get on properly. Once you are on, your legs should be about shoulder width apart or so, and you should be grinding in the space between your middle two wheels. As with any trick, the key to having a successful backside in your bag of moves is practice. Just keep at it, and dont expect to learn it in 10 minutes, a hour, or maybe even a week. So to sum up, concentrate on your landing, your stance, and commiting to the rail. Just as in frontsides, once you are on you just glide it out-- but getting on is the hard part! And to reiterate the commitment issue, if you go up to a rail and only give it 50%, you will fall and possibly get hurt. Trust your skills, and know that you are giving it your all-- but even then you still may fall. Once you get over this mental block, it will all start coming to you..

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Royal

Royales are a new school trick that has changed the sport. From this trick come others like the unity grind, the backslide, the soyle, the meow, the cowboy, and Im sure many others. A Royale is a grind in which you are grinding an object frontside like normal, but your trailing (back) foot is grinding on the outside edge. To accomplish this, you need to bring your back foot in, and push your ankle over so that you are on the outside (and hopefully touching the boot to the rail). Now that you have the stance, lets describe how to do it. First off, unless you want to learn this the slow way you need to start off right- Try and land in the royale position. When I started I landed frontside and would go over to a royale, and believe me it was no fun trying to relearn it! So skate up to the rail (flat for the purpose of this tutorial) like you are going to do a normal frontside. When you jump up to land on the surface, try and imagine your back foot under you as if you were going to do a soul grind. But since you arent going to do a soul grind, turn it normal!! You should have the same crouched stance as a soul, and most of the weight should be on the back foot like a soul. You need to make sure that you are sliding between the middle two wheels on both skates (duh!), but the back skate should be sliding on the outside of the frame and the boot. Ie- you have 2 points of contact with the bar. You grind it out and hop off like normal.. BUT, there are 2 main problems when doing them. Balance and balance.. Before you go and try doing it on a rail, just stand in place in your skates and try to assume the royale position. Its tricky because you reaaalllly have to bend that ankle out so that the boot touches. Some people will unbuckle their boot to make it easier, but its really not necessary. Crank over the foot as much as possible, then bend your knees as if you were going to take a dump (heh). Both together should make it possible to get down to the boot. So now you should be squatting down and have your ankle bent over so that both the boot and frame of your skate is touching. Good. But now comes the hard part- foot position. Since you dont want your feet to wash out from under you when you grind, you need to keep the royale foot no further under you than your shoulder. You may be tempted to bring it in closer, but DONT DO IT! Okie, so you are grinding with most of your weight on your back foot. But wait, whats to keep your feet from washing out?! Well to offset the balance of your back foot in close, you will need to lean forwards slightly. Now I guess you are ready to actually try it. Just remember to try and land in the royale position, and keep the weight distrobution much like a soul grind. Keep your ankles and knees bent down so that you are crouching, and it'll easier to grind. Since you are good enough to be thinking about this, you should be able to do it. Its not much harder than a frontside! As you get comfortable with royales, doing a backslide is a natural extension. Since your back foot is under you, most of your weight is on that foot. Just like in a soul grind, its not too much trouble to pick up that front foot once you have the stance down. So after you have it down, practice your royales and lift up your foot a bit off of the rail/curb. Its not too hard, so try and lift it up a foot. thats a bit tougher. Now try and land with your foot a bit off of the rail. Thats a backslide! A few weeks of good practice is typical when learning this, so dont stress if you cant get it down!

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Backslide

Note: If you are looking to learn backslides the proper way, check the royale tutorial. That will teach you the proper balanceneeded for a true backslide. Described here is the stylish looking backslides as seen in The Hoax 2, and not how to really grind things. Contrary to what you might think, one footed fast slides are actually easier than grinding a rail- Assuming you do them on the right rail. The first step is to find a nice short rail, preferably down 3 to 5 steps. Then, skate straight towards it and jump as high as you can to see if you can make it above the rail. Don't try and jump over the rail your first time, just jump next to it so you can't catch your feet on it. If you're having problems getting high enough, try going faster. The faster you go, the farther out you'll jump and the farther down the rail you'll be when you peak. If you still can jump high enough to clear it, you probably need to work on jumping things normally. After all, if you can jump to get on top of the rail, how do you expect to grind it?! Before you go any further, let me define a few terms for skate of clarity. A fast slide is a grind in which the lead foot (the one furthest down the rail) is sliding along the rail, and the trailing foot isn't on. A back slide is the opposite, with the trailing foot being slid upon and with the lead foot being lifted/grabbed. A soul slide is a soul grind in which the lead foot is lifted off and you are grinding only on the soul of your soul foot. With that out of the way on to the how-to... Once you can jump high enough, you should be ready to give fast slides a shot. One key is to approach from a slight angle so that you'll just cross over the bottom of the rail. Get some speed up, jump and turn so that you are parallel to the rail. Stick your leg out, tap the rail, pull it in, and you are done. In reality you are not grinding, but sliding. Though a few top skaters can actually grind in this fashion, the vast majority simply do a slide. So remember to jump high enough and with your body straight enough that you can stick your leg down and toe tap the rail. Back slides are found to be easier to do than fast slides be most. To do a back slide you approach the rail just like you were going to do a normal grind, except you want to hit the rail with just the outside edge of your back foot. Remember, the key is that you don't want to put any weight on the sliding foot or it will slide out from under you and you will jack your ribs. A few key things to remember when doing fast (and back) slides are speed, spin, and control. If you are doing a long rail, or a shallow rail, you will need tons of speed to be able to fast slide it and not have to put any weight on the foot. If you are used to just frontsiding the rail, its a big mental jump to do these, but its quite possible. Remember that you are basically just jumping over the rail and throwing in what looks like a grind. The next two important things to remember- spin and control- go hand in hand. Because you are going so fast and the rails are smaller than normal, you will need to spin very fast to be able to make the grind and make the landing. You need to be in total control of your body when it is in the air, and hopefully it'll be possible to pull it out.. Once you're done with that, all that's left is variations, bigger rails, and actually grinding it.. As you get comfortable with the sliding and getting into the correct position, you should be able to actually start grinding the rail instead of toe tapping it. This will make it more stylish, and also able to do longer rails. If you are ready to try the real thing, read up on royales first, as they are as close to it as you can get.

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Unity

Unity grinds are yet another variation on the royale grind. Put simply, learn these after you learn a royale grind for best success. A unity grind (also called an LA grind or a Buddah, depending on location) is a grind in which you slide down the object with your legs crossed, grinding on both outside edges. There are a few key tips in getting a unity down, other than just learn a royale. If you can royale on the boot with ease, unities should take you an hour or two to get down to a reasonable level. Anyway, the first thing you want to do is make sure you land in unity position. Approach the object like you are going to royale it, and jump into the air. Lock in your strong royale foot solid on the object, and throw the other foot behind Technically you should do both at the same time, but while you are learning it's ok to stagger it a bit. Just like in miszous where the back foot will naturally lock in, the same is true with unities- your back foot will just glide on if your front is in proper position. Foot position is also crucial. Before you even try these, stand still on the ground cross-legged so that you can get a feel for the proper stance. Your feet should be at least a foot apart when you land. This is harder than it sounds, because most people tend to jump on very erect with their feet literally touching each other. You need to squat down just like in a royale and make sure you are grinding on the boot. While grinding in this position you have to keep your feet very firm and locked in, other wise you will end up sitting cross legged on the object. There isn't much else to it, other than going out and getting hurt trying it... There are a few problem solving tips that I can give to help speed things along, though. Most people tend to grind too much on top of the object, thus riding up it and having to step out on top of the planter. To solve this, just remember to keep your weight back just like in a royale. If you are jumping on and immediately locking up, then you are not landing in the proper position. Remember to put that royale foot on and use it as the main foot. The back foot is on just like a guide. Also make sure to squat down nice and low so that you are on both skates' boots. This grind is a technical one, but it is not very difficult to learn. I go for a week or 2 without doing them and pick them up in 15 minutes again. So just concentrate and think of it just like a royale. One final note-- You should be facing at the object just like in frontside. If you face down the rail like a soul (and like you will want to do), then it looks ugly. The same goes for standing up straight like a board. Shred it up!



Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Soul

Below are some basic tips to get you started on soul grinding. Dont be afraid to let it all hang out- If you don't commit to the trick, the chance for injury goes up. Commit to grinding the bar and trust your skills- After all, its just a little grind! To start down the road to effortless souls, you must first work on the foundation- stalls. Practice doing soul stalls on everything from planters to the edges of stairs, so that your body will become accustomed to the odd contortions that you are trying to put it in. A good way to practice is by hopping up a flight of stairs in he soul position. Ie- Do a soul stall on the bottom step, hop up to the next step in a soul stall, rinse, repeat. But I guess this is getting ahead of things, especially if you are not sure what the proper position for a soul is.. First skate up to a curb and bring up your lead foot. (For arguments sake, lets say the left is the lead and the right is the soul) Step on the curb just like you are doing a fronside with your left, and point the toe of the skate in the direction you want to travel about 30-45 degrees. Next step up with your soul foot (right) and plant it firmly on the edge of the curb. The curb should be located between the bottom of the boot of the skate (the sole), and the wheels. If you have a large soled boot like the TRS or Roces, you should be able to easily stand in this position. However, if you cannot, you need to push in (or bone in) your knee so that it is over the curb. This allows your weight to be centered more on top of the curb, and not leaning out as much. Once you are in positoin you should be facing parallel (or looking down) the curb. This is not like a fronside stall where you are looking across the object- In a soul you are going with it.. Now on to the grind... Since you can now stall with ease, grinding is but a tiny step away. Skate up to your bar (a curb can work, but is harder to learn on because you need more speed for it to work) and stall in soul position. Easy enough.. Now come at it at an ever-so-slight angle. This way, you will go up to a soul stall, but slide an inch or two. Gradually work your way till you are approaching the bar at 45 degrees, and then you are ready to give it a shot.. Skate up to the rail at normal speed (the same speed used for front sides). Make sure you are running perfectly parallel to it, and are centered slightly to the side of the bar. As you are readying for your jump you need to keep a few points in mind: 1. It is not much different than the stalls. 2. Dont be afraid of it- try and jump higher than normal. and 3. Watch the bar careful y, and watch your landing. With these points in mind you should be able to easily jump, lock on, and slide a bit. Keep in mind that soul grinding is much slower than frontsiding- After all you are grinding away on your skate and not sliding on some grind plates! So if you want to go further, make sure to crank up the speed. Diagnosing problems is pretty easy for souls.. If you keep falling off towards the side you came from, you are not over the bar enough. Make sure to bone your knee over the bar more. It feels awkward, but it is necessary. If you keep falling off away from the side you came from, you are either leaning too far over the bar, or aren't coming at it straight. If your body turns as you grind and you end up coming off backwards, most likely the problem is you aren't keeping your soul foot locked onto the bar very well. Make sure you keep both the front and the back part of the soul foot on the bar. If you keep getting caught up when you jump on, make sure you have enough speed. Also make sure you are landing your front skate on the grind plates and not between the wheels... Give these tips a shot and you should be souling in no time! Good luck!

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mizou

How to Mizu a curb/ledge: Approach and jump just like you are going to pull a backside grind, but instead turn your front foot so that it's on the soul and is pointing where you want to go. As you gain experience, you will become more fluid with the trick and won't have to think about doing a backside, but simply jump up, bend your front knee and land soul on your front foot. But until then, try and keep a few key points in mind. Make sure to keep your body facing the direction you are going. Also keep your front knee bent(boned) so it's leaning into the thing you are grinding and keep your weight centered on top of the ledge. Play around with your weight distrobution until you feel comforable, but most of your weight should be forward, and on your front foot. How to Mizu a rail: A Mizu on a rail is very similar to doing a mizu on a curb, but on a rail you can bone your leg over more, but ALWAYS keep DIRECTLY on top of the rail or you will lean off the rail (or fall). I think it is easier doing farsides mizus on rails, but that is just my preference. Either way, you MUST make yourself get on top of the rail or you will fall. Notes: Make sure whatever you are grinding slides decent or you will pull a superman and/or bust a nut. I think mizus are easier than souls to learn. On a Mizu it is easier because you can watch your soul foot since it is in the front of you. (And that is where all your weight goes). Advanced Mizu Tricks on Planters/Rails: Farside Mizu-jump like you are frontsiding, but turn your front foot so it lands soul. Halfcab 2 Mizu- This is a hard trick to learn, but once you get it, it'll be one of your favorite tricks. Approach the planter/rail backwards, jump 180 and land in mizu stance on the planter/rail. You can either jump into/or out. Jumping in requires more spinning and jumping out you simply turn your outside foot 180 and your inside 90 and land the trick. Other rad mizu tricks: Alley-oop mizu, sweatstance(top side mizu), kind grind, halfcab to farside mizu, disaster mizu, etc.

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Makio

A makio is pretty much the same as the back slide, with two minor differences. The first, and obvious one, is that your sliding foot is doing a soul slide on the rail. The second difference is that you don't need to turn your body perpendicular to the rail to soul. You can just keep going straight ahead and it'll work fine. Being able to do soul grinds is of great assistance when trying to learn this trick because being able to lock in the soul foot is a skill that takes a bit of practice to acquire. In any case, you approach the rail just like you are going to do a soul grind. Make sure you jump up high and get your weight on top of the rail. Lock in the soul foot and away you go. The free foot can be doing any number of things, but a typical action is for it to be either grabbed by a free hand or placed next to the souling foot. Soul like normal and hop off of the rail. The beauty of this trick is that it is an easy extension to soul grinds because a proper soul grind has almost no weight on the lead foot. And since little weight is placed on the lead foot, it is easy to take it off. The only hard adjustment to make is balance. For many, the lead foot acts as a rudder and guides you down the rail. However after a bit of practice it becomes easier. So remember to jump high, get your weight over the rail, lock in the soul foot solid, and ride it out.. Good luck, and remember no rail is too long!

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fishbrain

To do a fishbrain you must have full confidence, of course, and you also have to concentrate, so look at the rail say to yourself that your going to make it. Once you approach the rail at moderate speed you must lock on topside, when your frame is lying flat on the rail, right when you lock on topside you must kick your leg out and grab but don't look down or else you will tend to point down and your fishbrains won't look as good. After that then put all weight and when I say all weight I mean 100% all weight on that foot, so you will stay on longer and you won't come off as easily. If you want when you start sliding try to sit down on your topside foot it gives more style and plus when you sit down on it it will help you put weight on the foot preventing it from coming off. I suggest you learn the topside- acid and topside-soul first before you start to do fishbrains, Good luck! and skate hard!!!

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pornstar

To do a porn star you need to learn how to soul and may be learn how to unity. First approach the rail/curb as you would any other trick. Do a 180 and and cross your legs. When you land try to land soul foot first then they other foot. When sliding look over your shoulder so you can see were the end is. Then jump off.

Click here for a picture.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sidewalk

This trick is really easy to learn, especially if you know how to do an acid miszou (some call it a porn star). So if you dont know how to do those, learn those first before progressing to this.. The only difference between this and the porn star is that your back foot is on its laces when you do this grind. To get down on your laces, you have to squat down very low (almost like you are kneeling) and tweak that back foot over. And just like a porn star, more weight should be on the soul foot than the back foot. However when you do a sidewalk, you need to crouch down low and put a bit dont fall. more of your weight on that back foot. As you crouch, you need to try and sit down on it, but try and keep centered over the rail so you I guess the fastest and safest way to learn this is to start with the stall. The lower you can be when you land the stall, the easier the grind will be. So work up from a porn star stall to doing a full sidewalk stall. After you are comfortable with them, then you need to take the next step and do it on a rail. Thats it.. Just go do it!

Click here for a picture.

Email: asfualt@yahoo.com