How to Do a Kick Flip on a Skateboard

This is a guide that I have made to help beginner skateboarders learn about the kick flip and hopefully learn how to correctly perform one. Some things you'll need are a skateboard, some pads for your safety, somewhere to skateboard, and a lot of time to practice.

This trick is heavily based around being able to ollie correctly and consistently. If you don't already know how to ollie correctly, you can check out my article about how to ollie on a skateboard for beginners.

The kick flip is a more advanced trick and it is going to take you anywhere from a week to a couple months to learn how to do this trick. There are many signature variations of the kick flip, but I will teach you the easiest way to perform the trick.

How to Kick flip

Start off as you normally would when you are attempting an ollie. Stand as you normally do on your skateboard, front foot on the bolts and back foot on the tail. Slam your tail on the ground as you normally would but you are going to drag your front foot off to the side of the board. Now this is the most important part; THE FLICK. You want to flip the board so it does a complete three hundred and sixty degree motion flip. Please note that when you drag your foot off the side of the board, do it as you would with an ollie, but go off the side and flick with your toes. Don't try to ollie and just immediately bring your front foot off the side of the board, you need to drag it up the board as well as off the side of the board. The timing is crucial as you don't want to flick it too early or too late (unless performing a late kick flip). I'd recommend flicking the board when you have just nearly reached the peak of your ollie. This ability to properly flick the board is all in the ankle, not in your leg, please remember this. As I always emphasize, you want to make sure your shoulders are over the board at all times so you don't completely lose your board in the street and get it run over by a car. This has happened to me and it is a horrible experience.

I'd also like to state that you shouldn't push down on the board when you are on your up. If you do this the board is just going to land awkward because it's not going to be able to flip all the way around. This is a common problem and I used to do it all the time when I was first learning how to skateboard.

Next, you want to catch the skateboard with your back foot after it has completed one full flip. This is not as hard as it sounds, the board will naturally be caught by your back foot if you are positioned correctly. Your front foot comes in to catch the skateboard as well almost immediately after the back foot does. Try to land with your front foot on the bolts and your back foot over the trucks. This is essentially all there is to the kick flip.

Some common mistakes include doing varial kick flips by accident. This is where your board does a rotation along with flipping. This happens because you are pushing to the sides with your back foot, this is a bad habit and you should work on stopping that as soon as possible to prevent you from doing it all the time. Another common mistake, like I previously stated, is not allowing the board to rise to its full potential due to pushing it back down on to the ground. Focus on allowing the board to do its flip before you try to catch it again. I recommend practicing as much as possible, this is a really hard trick and I still mess them up sometimes. Don't be discouraged though because even pros are known to fudge their kick flips once in a while. I hope you learned something and I wish you the best of luck with learning how to do a kick flip on a skateboard.