The Manual is where the skateboarder balances on his or her back wheels while rolling along (something like a wheelie on a bike) The Manual is a great skateboarding trick to learn – it’s different from all the regular technical flip tricks, and adds a good variety. Plus, learning to manual on your skateboard isn’t all that hard – it just takes balance and lots of practice. If you are brand new to skateboarding, you may want to take some time getting used to riding your skateboard before learning to manual. It will also help if you’ve already learned how to Ollie. Of course, it is totally up to you – if you are aggressive and want to learn to manual on your skateboard before learning how to actually ride, that’s up to you! Make sure you read all of these instructions and use skateboard safety gear while you try to manual.
Now remember – there is no right or wrong way to skateboard! But, right at the start, I recommend putting your feet in the following position. It works best for most people.
Foot placement to do manuals is important. You’ll want to have your back foot covering most of the tail of your skateboard, and the ball of your front foot right behind your front trucks.
For the manual, you shift your weight toward your back foot (slowly at first), while you lean a little forward (also slowly at first).
However, if you feel more comfortable with your front foot more towards the nose of your skateboard, or back more, or even over to the side – feel free. Do what works.
And now lets start to manual. You’ll need to be good enough at cruising around on your skateboard to be able to get up speed quickly, and keep it up for a little while without more pumping. Choose a line (a route you will go), get up some speed, and get ready to manual.
The basic maneuver of a manual is balance. Normally while skating, you have your weight spread out to about 50% on each foot, right? And if you are going downhill, you shift some of your weight to your front foot (perhaps making it 60% instead of 50%).
The manual is mostly about balance, and is performed on the back two wheels with most of your weight on your back wheels. During practice the skateboard tends to shoot forward and the skater to fall backward with a good chance of hitting your head hard. It would be very wise to wear a HELMET and WRIST BRACES (and maybe a little more padding on your butt).
You might not think that helmets look cool, but drooling out of the corner of your mouth for the rest of your life doesn’t look very cool either. Wear a helmet! You might also think about wearing wrist guards. Avoid using your arms/wrists when falling.
You’ll want to have plenty of flat ground to practice on. The skate park, sidewalk, parking garage or a large flat clean parking lot should do the trick. Just make sure it’s flat, and mostly smooth. Once you have your spot, get going at a pretty good speed.
Make sure you do NOT lean backward. Instead, lean the upper body (shoulders and head) toward the nose of your skateboard, while you shift your weight to the back foot.
This is pretty tricky stuff, and you will probably feel like you are loosing your balance. A balance trick is to hold your arms out and use them to catch your balance. Everyone does it – even pros!
Make sure you keep those shoulders forward, and when you are done performing the manual, just shift your weight back on that front foot and put the front wheels down. You should be able to ride away from a manual comfortably.
The Manual is just the beginning.
Once you feel comfortable with your manual, you can do all kinds of things to tweak it. Try to Manual on a sidewalk. See if you can manual from one thing to another. Try to manual off of a curb or if you really want to impress your friends, do a manual one footed (for more advanced/ confident skaters which takes a lot of practice and BALANCE).
Tags: Protec Helmet, Safety Gear, SKATEBOARD PARKS, skateboarder tricks
The Manual is where the skateboarder balances on his or her back wheels while rolling along (something like a wheelie on a bike) The Manual is a great skateboarding trick to learn – it’s different from all the regular technical flip tricks, and adds a good variety. Plus, learning to manual on your skateboard isn’t all that hard – it just takes balance and lots of practice. If you are brand new to skateboarding, you may want to take some time getting used to riding your skateboard before learning to manual. It will also help if you’ve already learned how to Ollie. Of course, it is totally up to you – if you are aggressive and want to learn to manual on your skateboard before learning how to actually ride, that’s up to you! Make sure you read all of these instructions and use skateboard safety gear while you try to manual.