Flicking Upward Won't Cause A Flip
Mechanism / Why It Happens
The common advice to “flick your front foot upward” contains a major pitfall that is easy to overlook.
Since the nose rises toward you when you pop the tail, it may seem that kicking your foot downward is the easiest way to make the board rotate. However, doing so would cause your foot to hit the ground. As a solution to this problem, you will often hear the advice to flick your foot upward. However, as shown in the video, even if you slide your foot diagonally upward, your foot merely brushes across the board’s surface and generates no force whatsoever to make the board rotate.
What to Do
Rather than flicking your front foot upward, the correct approach is to “use the muscles that lift your toes to move your foot in the direction that promotes board rotation.”
Although lifting your foot straight upward will not cause the board to rotate, using the muscles tha
