Learning how to kickflip can be hard.

Learning how to kickflip can be hard. It’s going to take time and practice just like any other trick in skateboarding. How long exactly I can’t say. I’ve seen people take six months to land their first one. I’ve also seen people land one after two months and any time in between. It took me about four or five months to land my first good one. And then I became a kickfliping machine.

I love this trick. It feels like magic when you do it right. I really think it's awesome that I can share an article on how to kickflip with you! I hope you find the magic in the trick the same way I did.

I will never have the ability to do a perfect kickflip every try, but it is one of my favorite tricks. Some people like it so much they now have contests to see who can land the most consecutive flips without messing one up.

So let’s get down to learning how to kickflip. There is not a lot you need to know before learning this, but you should be able to do a good solid ollie before attempting to learn how to kickflip.



Start by putting your feet in an ollie position. This is an area people spend too much time on. The position of your feet is not as important to learning the trick as some people think. Wherever you are comfortable with your feet for an ollie will be fine.

The height of your trick comes from two things. One is the compression of your legs. The other is from sliding your board up with your ollie. This should be the easy part if you can already ollie pretty well.

Now for the part which isn’t instinctive for most people. Getting your board to flip takes practice. Lots of practice.

Ok, look at your board now. See how it’s curved. You need to use this curve to flip the board. By pushing your front foot down and out (towards the outside of the nose of the board) the board will begin to flip. You can’t really be taught how much you need to push the board. You will find this in time and it can be different for everyone.

Generally though, if it only goes halfway around you need more strength. Bend your legs more before the trick or kick harder. If it over flips just use less on the next one.

It’s really a combination of everything together in the right proportion to get a good kickflip. So what is “everything” you need? I’m going to touch on two more points here. The use of your foot and spotting your landing.

Let’s talk about what part of your foot you need to use. This can differ slightly between people, but I use the tip of my foot. Mostly using my four little toes. Sometimes if I haven’t skateboarded in a while, my little toe will hurt at the end of the day from doing flip tricks.



Ok, now you’re ready to spot your landing. You will be looking for the grip on your board to come back on top. You want to land on the bolts of the board, but go for whatever you can get and just land it at first. You’ll need to catch the board from spinning over again. This is why you need to watch the board. When you see the grip tape, put your feet back on the board to level it out and get ready to land. Absorb the impact with your legs.

I know there’s a lot to understanding a kickflip. I’m going to run through all of the how to kickflip motions again for you here.

Crouch and bend your knees to get power built up.

Pop your board so the tail hits the ground.

Slide your foot up like an ollie to get some height.

Push down and out with the toes of your foot to flip the board.

Keep your legs up and look for the grip tape.

Try to land on the bolts and even out the board.

Your wheels will touch the ground.

Absorb the impact by bending your knees.


Follow these tips and you should be landing these sooner than you think. When you get discouraged just watch some skate videos and see how the pros land them. Remember though, everyone skateboards a little differently. Take a break when you need one and don’t overdo it. I hope you enjoyed my trick to on how to kickflip. Remember to have fun and skate on.

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