the Practical Skateboarder

Once you understand the basics, it will be very tempting to focus in on some complicated trick.

In my own case, I spent years focusing in on a few technical tricks. Even after a few years, those tricks are still difficult for me and, some days, it feels like I haven’t made progress on them.

So, I stopped trying them. Instead, I went back to exploring possibilities. What does this mean?

To start, I created a list of the basic tricks (180s, kickflip, tre-flip, etc.) and all possible variations of those tricks (about 112 tricks by my count). Then, when I’d go skate, instead of doing the same handful of tricks (an arbitrary selection, by the way), I would try many of the tricks on the list. I’d give each one 10 or 20 tries and see how it feels to me. If the trick felt intuitive or natural, then I’d highlight it. If a trick felt awkward or unnatural, then I’d move on from it.

What I was looking for were those handful of tricks, maybe 20 or 30 in total, that felt natural for me. I figured once I found these tricks, then I could spend an uncommon amount of time on these, and because they felt natural for me, I’d see quicker improvement and consistency when learning these tricks. In other words, they’d be easier for me to master in a shorter amount of time.

To stand out in skateboarding, you don’t need to know all the tricks. You only need to know a few tricks, and to do them consistently well. Optimizing too early on before you’ve found the tricks that you’re made for makes improving more difficult then it has to be. You’ll be learning against the grain rather than with it.

If you’re going to put in an uncommon amount of hours learning how to get better, make sure you’re getting better at the things you’re already uncommonly good at.