The heelflip is a very hard trick until you get it down. However, making the effort to get it down in the end is so satisfying!
Likke most other tricks, the foot positioning is among the most important parts of the trick. Don't try and not concentrate on the foot positioning because you would be missing out greatly!
FOOT POSITIONING
FRONT FOOT – You will want your front foot to have your toes hanging slightly off the edge of the board. If yo uare regular your toes should be hanging off the right side of the board and if you are goofy, they sohuld be hanging off the left side. A good way to judge how much of your toes should be hanging off would be that the ball of your foot should be touch the edge of the board.
BACK FOOT – Your back foot will be set up just like an ollie. Fairly in the middle of the tail because your back foot plays no major roll in the flip and as you will see, it mainly just pops the board up.
So, now that we have the foot positioning down we can move onto the flipping.
THE FLIP:
FRONT FOOT – With your front foot, you are going to want to slide it diagonally off the board to give it the heelflipping motion. You MUST, and that is a MUST remember to slide your foot off diagonally and not straight off or the board won't move with you. You will keep going forward and your board will stop! That is not fun over a gap!
AT THE SAME TIME AS THIS
BACK FOOT: With your back foot all you have to do is just pop. Just so that the heelflip isn't on the ground, you pop with your back foot to get it up! Simple isn't it?
So right now, you have spun the heel flip and it is underneath you.
THE CATCH
The catch for the heelflip is different than alot of tricks. With most tricks, you catch the board with your front or back foot but with the heelflip, both of your feet will be catching the board simultaneously. Before you catch the board, you need to remember tho that you have to suck your legs up high before catching because the heelflip will get caught up in your legs.
Once you have caught the heelflip, stomp to the ground to avoid it from spinning any further and there you go, you have a heelflip.
Now that you know how to do the heelflip, you may run into some troubles. Here's some trouble shooting!
TROUBLE SHOOTING:
PROBLEM: The board always goes vertical and smashes my ballsack
Solution: You may be putting too much force into the flip of the board. Try putting a little ease on that. The last thing you want is a ballsack that is bleeding.
Problem: I can only get half the flip.
Solution: This is sometimes caused by not following through on the slide off. Always follow through after you slide your front foot off the board and keep your foot there until the heelflip is ready to be caught.
Problem: The board lands beside me!
Solution : Well,. theres really only one solution to this. You must jump with the board.
HOPE THIS HELPS YOU! ENJOY!
Kristian.
– The heelflip is an ollie combined with the board spinning opposite to a kickflip. (Clockwise when looking behind) The stance of a heelflip greatly varies on rider. I consider there to be 2 main styles for this trick. The opposite-kickflip style, and the heelflip style. The opposite-kickflip style is when you drag your toe just like a kickflip, but on the opposite side, so it spins the opposite way of a kickflip. This is a really consistant method and to most people looks better, while the heelflip style, is where you actually drag with your heel or kick down with your heel. And in that style, it is almost necessary to keep your toes hanging off.
If you have learned the kickflip this is not much harder. There are two ways to place your feet, 1: Back foot on tail ready to pop, and front foot: toes must hang off the board so only your heel is on. 2: This is the way I do it, place your feet exactly the way you do to Ollie. Now you have your position pop up and kind of slide up and push your front but at the same time (For number 2 you need to kick your foot forward and as soon as your toes are off the board point your foot up). Number two maybe harder for some, but it sure does spin faster. When doing position number one watch out and try to spin the board parallel to the ground because you can Popsicle yourself. If the board is spinning too slow all I can say is practice practice or if your using number 1 position then try number 2 because that spins faster. If your still not landing to well then listen to some \"phat beats\" (Music) to pump you up and think big before you leave your room to go out and skate! I find that position number 2 is a lot easier because the board spins faster and parallel to the ground but which ever way your more comfortable that is the way to go!
Common Problems
– Inconsistent – Board often goes straight up without hitting my front foot (popsicle)
In a kickflip, this does not happen, because in a kickflip a person only uses the ball of their foot and the side of their foot closer to their toes. In a heelflip, you're toes are hanging off (for most people) and so common instinct is to use your toes which does not really work.
So, to overcome this you need to focus on placing the weight that is on your front foot on the heel of your foot, not the toe. Then flipping the board off the side of your foot closer to the heel.
– Can't catch the board clean
First off, you need to pop the board hard, really hard. To even out the board you need to have a good balance when you flick the board to do the flip. If the board is always flipping with your tail close to the ground, get that pop hard and then put more weight on your front foot to push the nose down more to the ground. This will even out the board more. You will also want to extend your front foot when flipping as much as possible.
A final note, a common thing with heelflips, is catching the board with the balls of your feet only and then landing. What you need to do is in the air, flatting our your feet quite a bit more. The reason you may be catching the board with your toes only is that the board is too far below your body, get it up higher by popping harder.
– Board goes behind me
Another sort of funny thing – this does not happen in kickflips… See you need to have your body weight overtop of the board to make it not land behind you and so what you are doing is leaning to much forward (not nose-forward, but toe-side forward). In kickflips its by instict that this problem doesn't occur, but in a heelflip, your front foot is on the far side and your weight gets placed odly.
You will need to focus on leaning back (to your heel-side) to have your weight overtop of the board when taking off. This will always keep the board underneath your body. (Keep your back shoulder overtop of your back foot.)
Good Luck!
By: Tom-E
Click Here to View the Video – Logan
