the Practical Skateboarder

Getting better isn’t only about doing the right things. We must also avoid doing the wrong things–the things that undermine our progress or waste our finite resources on things that are not important.

We get caught up in trying to do more, and we fail to ask, “what am I doing that is holding me back–that if I stop doing it, then getting better will be easier?”

Here are a few of the things I’ve noticed that can keep anyone from getting better despite doing everything else right.

1. Not getting enough rest. This could be as simple as time off the board for recovery and as serious as not getting enough sleep on average. Periods of rest are critical for recovery and for facilitating the development of “muscle memory”–the patterns in your brain that make the trick you’re trying easier to do next time.
2. Inappropriate use of intoxicating substances. I’ll acknowledge that there can be a time and place to appreciate these things, but while you’re skating isn’t one of them. And, when it interferes with your ability to skate, you’ve gone too far. Furthermore, the effects of substances can interfere with proper rest and recovery, leading to compounding negative effects that accumulate over time and will be harder to undo later on. For more on this, I recommend listening to the advice from Neen Williams, Andrew Reynolds, and Dakota Servold and their stories about why they stopped.
3. Pushing yourself past the breaking point. If you’re injured, you can’t skate. So, stop before you do serious damage. Now, I recognize this is controversial for skateboarders since we’re almost always willing to push ourselves to breaking for the sake of the trick. And, I recognize sudden accidents can happen that will be unavoidable when taking risks. I do not mean to avoid taking risks, since this is part of how we improve. I’m referring to the moments when you’re trying a trick and you take a minor injury that could become worse if you keep going. The minor injury like a sprained ankle or wrist might take a few days of rest to recover. Continuing to try to go harder once you’ve sustained the minor injury will only make matters worse, leading to more serious injury and more serious recovery time. So, unless the moment really is a once in a lifetime opportunity that deserves everything you have to give (which it rarely is), quit while you’re ahead and take time to rest and recover. That trick you’re trying will still be there for you when you feel better. The more time you’re injured, the less time you’re skating your best, and the more slowly you will make progress. The best way to consistently improve is to avoid getting hurt so badly that it keeps you from skateboarding.
4. Not focusing on mastering the basics or a few key tricks. Time and energy are finite resources that need to be managed. When you realize that, you’ll realize that you cannot do everything–you can only do a few things. While it’s tempting to try the more technical tricks, and while it can be more fun to try to learn new tricks than to master the tricks you already know how to do, you must avoid falling into this trap. One way you might manage this is to counterbalance between periods of mastering the basics and periods of learning new tricks. For example, you might dedicate certain days of the week to exploring new tricks and other days of the week to mastering the basics. Or follow a process like that of martial arts where you master the tricks at one level before moving on to the next level. Whatever you do, you must dedicate most of your time to mastery if you wish to get better rather than spreading your time and energy too thin on too many things in an unfocused, unintentional way.

The avoidable behaviors here are not comprehensive. So, ask yourself the question, “what are the things I’m doing that I can stop doing that get in the way of my skateboarding?” Then, reflect on times where your behaviors have kept you from focusing on getting better. And, share your insights in the comments. Thank you.