getting better
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Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, and Andy Anderson: Making good choices, avoiding bad ones, and the right motivations.
Tony Hawk and Jason Ellis sit down with Andy Anderson and Rodney Mullen and ask them “What it Takes to Become a Great Skateboarder.” Andy kicks things off. Andy Anderson: “Feed the good wolf.” I think this comes from a Native American fable that each of us has two wolves–a good wolf and a bad Continue reading
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It’s fun because it’s hard.
A friend of mine recently described a realization he had about skateboarding. The feeling he gets from learning a new trick or landing a difficult one is probably the same one that Tony Hawk experienced when he landed the first 900 (while admitting that his trick was by no measure equal in difficulty or significance Continue reading
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Skateboarding by the numbers
How knowing the odds can improve your skateboarding. Composing lines–a combination of tricks in sequence–is an essential part of skateboarding. The ability to put together lines that flow and make it looks effortless is a skill all it’s own that not every skateboarder learns how to do well. While the putting together a line that Continue reading
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Get better by avoiding avoidable mistakes.
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 Continue reading
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What looks easy is merely the result of consistent focus.
I met a young skateboarder who really impressed me with the technical difficulty his tricks and the consistency with which he executed those tricks. When I asked when he’d learned those tricks, and if he’d learned them recently, his answer surprised me. “I’ve been doing these tricks since I was 12 years old.” He had Continue reading
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Become better on purpose.
Unlike traditional sports and athletics that are highly systematized, skateboarding lacks a structure that a beginner (or even advanced) skateboarder can follow to consistently improve. So, I’d like to introduce another concept to skateboarding as a component of a framework for getting better faster. Objectives and Key Results. (For more on this, see What Matters) Continue reading
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Get better faster by doing fewer tricks.
Here, I want to introduce to skateboarders a useful concept that I’ve come across in my own life and noticed in skateboarding that can help them become better faster. The 80/20 Principle: most of the rewards come from only a few things you do very well. In other words, you do not need to master Continue reading
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A simple system to become a professional skateboarder.
Skateboard every day. Experiment with different tricks. Practice the tricks that feel best for you. Stop doing the tricks that you’re not getting better at. Track your progress. How many times you tried a trick today. How many times you landed the trick. Tracking your progress will give you insights into which tricks you’re getting Continue reading
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Exploration before optimization.
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. Continue reading
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Focus first on mastering the basics.
I’ve started to notice now how often new skateboarders want to jump right to a more technical trick. Barely getting the basics, someone quickly decides to move on to the more complicated thing, usually before they can understand what it is they’re trying to do. And it’s a waste. They’ll land a boardslide once or Continue reading
the Practical Skateboarder 