Skateboard Manual
If you are new to skateboarding, you may know the manual as a wheelie. In this article we will be walking you through how to manual on a skateboard. The manual is when you are riding your skateboard on just 2 wheels. You can perform this as a regular manual, lifting up your front trucks and riding only on the back wheels of you skateboard, or as a nose manual where you lift up your back trucks, riding only on your front two wheels. When learning how to skateboard, the techniques used to perform a manual are foundational to several other movements on the skateboard such as the kickturn or even the ollie. That is because the manual is all about shifting weight from your front foot, to your back foot on the tail of your skateboard.
How To Manual On A Skateboard
In this video, you will learn how to manual on a skateboard:
@howtoskateboards How to manual on a skateboard: Lean back a bit, press down on the tail with your ankle and hold it #howtoskateboards #howtoskateboard #skateboarding #skateboard #skate #howtomanual #goskate #skatepark ♬ Storytelling - Adriel
Learning how to manual is all about feeling out the movement and doing so in a controlled environment. When first starting out, you may feel unsteady lifting up the front trucks of your skateboard, applying pressure on the tail. You can play around with this at first by holding on to a stable object to feel out the balance it takes to perform a manual. Then in place, try shifting your weight quickly from front foot to back, pressing down on your tail, lifting up your front trucks and then stomping down quickly so you are balancing on 2 wheels for about half a second before going back to all 4. A lot of the movement is done using your ankles and I find it easier to hold them out standing up straight and leaned slightly back. Once you feel comfortable lifting up your front trucks and bringing them back to the ground in place, you can do so rolling, but be careful as to not lean too far back. That is why you will see in the video that when I do a manual, I am standing relatively straight up on my skateboard as a lot of the motion is initiated from the ankles and knees.
Holding Out Manuals On A Skateboard
Holding out long manuals on a skateboard is all about getting a good amount of speed and trying not to move your legs once the manual is initiated. When holding a manual, you may need to adjust the way at which your spine is angled and leaning throughout, but try to make an effort not to move your upper body around at all if you can. Stability and stubbornly holding your ground is the key to holding out long manuals. You need to maintain the exact way you set up your feet and weight position when you locked into the manual for as long as you can before stomping back down with your front truck.