Nollie BS Shove-it - How to spin forward

Why does the board spin forward?

Just like I said in the previous content, I personally think Nollie BS Shove-its are one of the easiest tricks in skateboarding. Plus it is a kind of trick that consumes the least amount of energy thanks to the law of inertia.

In Nollie backside Shove-its, as you push down the nose, the front wheels turn sideways. Then, they can no longer move forward and cause friction against the ground. At the same time though, since the center of gravity of the board tries to maintain its original movement, the board spins by itself.

How do we do that?

Now the question is "How do we rotate the board when our legs don't bend forward?" To do this, we have two options:

1. #1 kicking out the front foot when you pop like when we kick a soccer ball.
2. #2 jumping up with your weight on the heel side by shifting your weight on the heel side and applying force downward, you'd naturally be pushing your board forward.

Both of them allow us to spin our boards. Let's compare what these options are good at using the following table.

Strength of horizontal push

Starting from the strength of horizontal push. Instinctively thinking, isn't the first option more natural when you want to move an object forward?

But think about it: does it really need so much energy to spin a skateboard? All we need is a little bit of nudge on the nose so that we can utilize the law of inertia.

So while option #1 may generate strong momentum, we don't need it in the first place. and the same thing can be said in tricks with comes with more rotations. As for option #2, however, although it does generate much smaller amount of horizontal energy, it is enough to spin a board.

Ease of staying above the board

Regardless of the way you do it, when you apply force forward, since the center of gravity of your board goes behind relative to the fulcrum, your board lands behind you.

If you simply kick forward, you can't land back on your board with your weight at the same place. Whereas, in option #2, you'd be shifting your weight over a place where your board will be. So by simply pushing down your board, you can both spin your board forward and stay above it.

Ease of securing height

no matter how low your shove-it is, you have to lift up your body while your board spins. While option #1 would probably not generate any downward momentum to bring your weight upward, option #2 allows you to both spin your board forward and jump upward.

Due to these reasons, option #2 is much more suitable in nollie backside shove-its

Approach and body axis

Let's summarize how to do this trick.

When you approach, make sure to keep your body axis straight upward all the time. If you lean backward, you may jump too far backward or lose your balance.

Bend down

Try to bend down slightly to the heel side.

This tiny difference between the center of gravity of your body and your board will become bigger as you pop and allow you to spin your board much more effectively.

Pop

After that, all it takes is to jump upward.

You don't even think about spinning your board. If your weight is properly distributed to the heel side, it happens naturally.

Back foot

It may seem like I'm sending my backfoot in the opposite direction. But this is just a by-product of sending my front foot forward and I’m not intentionally doing this. So don't worry too much about it.