Why You Can't Gain Speed with Tic Tac? Explained from a Physics Standpoint

Let's see what happens in Tic Tac. Slightly lower your hips and stand up to push your body forward over the board. Your shoulders may rotate, but focus on the movement of your center of gravity.

Let's look from above. You can see that your center of gravity shifts toward the toes. In this state, since all the wheels are still in contact with the ground, the board does not move.

Next, do the same motion while lifting the nose. Now, the board—which previously didn't move—begins to rotate because the front wheels are lifted.

It's important to keep pressurizing your back foot. You should kick straight down. Not vertically down. Straight down from your center of gravity.

If you look from above again, you'll notice you are kicking the back foot diagonally backward from your center of gravity. In reaction, your body is pushed diagonally forward. All this happens because wheels don't easily slide sideways. They stay in place, generating enough friction to push your body back.

Because the front wheels are lifted and only the rear wheels are in contact with the ground, pressing down on the tail makes the board rotate and slide back underneath your body, creating a path for your body to move forward.

Based on all of this, if you want to gain more speed, you should shift your center of gravity further off the board and use your entire body to push down on the ground more forcefully.

If you only swing your shoulders while keeping your body weight over your board, you'll be just turning on the spot. Swinging your shoulders is not the main reason you can move forward. Instead, use the shoulder motion to shift your body weight off the board, so you can push the ground horizontally, which pushes you forward in reaction.

As you continue practicing, you can apply the same concept to the Space Walk, where you move forward while keeping the front wheels lifted—give it a try!