How to Heelflip

If you are proficient at skateboarding and basic tricks, then maybe it is time to learn to heelflip. In this article, we tell you how to do a heelflip, without learning how to kickflip.
Skateboarding is one of those sports that is extremely popular amongst teenagers. While considered a hobby earlier on, today skateboarding is a legitimate sport that receives a lot of attention for the many tricks that are key to the sport. The ollie, railstand, manual and the kickflip are some of the most popular tricks in the world of skateboarding. Similar to the kickflip, the heelflip is a natural progression from the trick mentioned before. It is though, definitely possible to learn to heelflip without knowing the kickflip. Slightly harder than the kickflip, while learning a heelflip, a skateboarder is expected to ollie into the air and then flick the skateboard with his heel making it spin in the air along the nose-tail axis of the skateboard. While spinning, the heel edge, the skateboard is supposed to come up first and the skateboard is supposed to stay aligned parallel to the ground. This skateboarding trick also includes the spinning of the board before the skater lands on his feet on the skateboard and can continue to ride away or perform other tricks.

While performing the heelflip, it is important that you know to ollie on a skateboard as without knowledge of this basic trick, it may be difficult for you to perform an intricate trick like the heelflip.

Heelflip on a Skateboard

It is important that you learn how to kickflip the easy way, before moving on to a heelflip. While not essential, it will make your work of learning the heelflip a lot simpler. Many people debate between doing the heelflip vs kickflip, but the fact remains that there is a certain charm to both tricks. Now, let us take a look at how you can learn to do the heelflip.
  • While starting off on a heelflip, you first position yourself on the skateboard as you would while doing an ollie, with your back foot across the tail and your front foot (dominant foot), placed on the center of the skateboard. Your front foot should be placed in such a manner that your toe region slightly tangles from the skateboard.
  • While doing the pop for the heelflip, the difference between the heelflip and the ollie arises. While popping the skateboard into the air for the heelflip, you will need to kick the heel of the foot in the front, forwards. Once your front foot is off the skateboard, you point your toes up to the air and kick your front foot outwards completely in front of you, while flicking the skateboard with your heel.
  • The next step is important as you need to ensure that as your flick the board with your heel, you get your feet out of the way so that the skateboard spins without any difficulty. As it spins, you need to get the front foot back in position, so that you are ready to catch the skateboard under your feet.
  • One of the heelflip tips that you need to keep in mind is to never lean too forward. Keep yourself at level as much as possible. This will help you balance your weight on the skateboard. It is also important that you keep your eyes on the skateboard so that you are able to catch it in time.
  • Another important thing to keep in mind while learning to heelflip is to remember to land with your knees bend, as this will allow to absorb the shock of landing better, and also help prevent injuries. Once you land on your skateboard, all you need to do is roll away.
Mastering the heelflip can take you some time and practice. Persevere with the skateboard trick and you should be able to do it well. While performing a heelflip, there are some important things to keep in mind. You need to ensure that you start off with a good pop and flick the skateboard properly. Learning how to inward heelflip can be a lot more difficult as you need to spin the skateboard between your feet. With practice though it is possible to learn how to do that. If you want to learn to heelflip on a tech deck, remember the basics remain the same, except that you replace your feet with your fingers. This is just one of the many skateboarding tricks that you can learn. Once you have mastered these tricks, you can always think about maybe becoming more serious about the hobby.
By
Published: 1/17/2011
Like This Article?
Follow:
Post Comment
Your Comments:
Your Name: