From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kickflip
Kickflip
flip"[citation needed]. He first would use his relatively new
flatground ollie to leave the ground, then, instead of lift-
ing an edge with a toe, he initiated the flip by sliding his
front foot off the top of the board.
Mullen’s kickflip technique gave him more control
in several areas: the height of the clearance, the initia-
tion time and speed of the flip, and the board’s direction
during the flip. This technique was quickly adopted by
freestylers and later by street skaters, introducing skate-
boarding to the era of flip tricks, many of which Mullen
also created.
Execution
To perform a kickflip, the rider ollies into the air, and
lifts the back foot from the board while simultaneously
sliding the front foot off the skateboard diagonally for-
ward and towards the heel of the foot. This front foot
motion, sometimes called "the flick"[citation needed], spins
the board, flipping it completely over. Before landing, the
rider stops the spin by returning the feet to the board as
it nears its original position.
The board revolves around its longitudinal axis, like
an aileron roll. To understand this motion and the di-
rection of rotation, imagine stepping backwards off of a
skateboard, leaving it in front of you, then rolling it over
on the ground toward you; during the kickflip, the board
Kickflip spins similarly, but in mid-air beneath the rider. During a
heelflip, a similar trick, the board rotates in the opposite
The Kickflip is a skateboarding trick where the rider direction.
ollies and kicks his/her foot out and flips the board 360
degrees along its long axis with his/her toes, allows the Variations
board to spin all of the way around, and then catches it
and lands. Once a skateboarder masters the kickflip, many varia-
It was the first of many modern flip tricks to be in- tions are possible:
vented by Rodney Mullen in the early 1980s. • Using a faster "flick" motion, the rider can spin the
board multiple revolutions before landing. These
tricks are named with respect to the number of
Origin revolutions: Double Kickflip (or "Double Flip"), Triple
In the 1970s, freestyle skateboarders learned to flip the Flip, etc.
board over beneath them by lifting an edge of the board • Many tricks combine the kickflip with a revolution
with the top of one toe. While the board flipped com- of the board on the z axis in multiples of 180 degrees,
pletely over, it did not gain much clearance from the as happens during a pop shove-it. Backside rotations
ground, and the setup required the rider to stand more form the Varial Flip (180 degrees), 360 Flip, 540 Flip,
parallel to the direction of motion with both feet facing etc. Frontside rotations form the Hardflip (180
the nose. Very known and performed today, the kickflip degrees) and 360 Hardflip.
is a very basic trick but still used a lot by professionals. It • During a kickflip the board and rider may both
is usually the first trick a beginner learns after the ollie. rotate together frontside or backside. These tricks
In 1983[citation needed], Brian Brown invented the mod- are generally named using the number of degrees
ern form of the trick[1], initially naming it the "magic rotated and the direction of the spin--e.g. Backside
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kickflip
180 Kickflip (or "Backside Flip")--but may have ground, the rider must initiate it with a downward
special names for 360 rotations. tap of the foot rather than sliding a foot off an edge.
• The rider may rotate backside or frontside in the air • The Double Kickflip is often combined with other
while the board does not. The most common types of kickflips. Examples include the Varial
variation is the Kickflip Sex-change (or "Body Double Flip (180 degree backside rotation), Double
Varial"), where the rider spin frontside 180 degrees, Hardflip (180 degree frontside rotation), and the
landing on the board in switch stance. Double 360 Flip (360 degree backside rotation).
• The rider and board may rotate in opposite • During the flip of the board, the rider may use the
directions. These rarer tricks have less-established top of the front foot to alter the trick. In a Kickflip
names. Some skater’s have coined "Mother Flip" to Underflip, the rider reverses the direction of the spin
describe a 360 Flip (rotating backside) combined after the board has flipped once. In a Hospital Flip,
with a 360 frontside body varial. the rider stops the rotation half-way, then flips the
• During the board’s spin, the rider may catch it with board 180 degrees on the axis pointing in the
his/her hand(s) before landing. These tricks are direction of the rider’s feet so it lands right side up
often named according to the type of grab used. E.g. in the opposite direction.
Kickflip Indy, Kickflip Melon.
• The rider may initiate the board’s flip later in the
ollie (after the ascent), or with the foot used to pop
References
the board off the ground (the back foot in an ollie or [1] "Rodney Mullen - From the Ground Up". ON Video
front foot in a nollie). E.g., the most common is a Magazine (Winter, 2002). 2002.
Nollie Lateflip (or "Frontfoot Lateflip"), where the
rider initiates the "flick" of a kickflip in the middle of
a nollie. The Backfoot Lateflip (or "Late Backfoot
External links
Flip") has the rider using the back foot to initiate the • Ollie Kickflip Tricktips
flip during an ollie. Generally in "late" flips, since the • How to kickflip
flip occurs when the board is more parallel to the
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kickflip&oldid=467501643"
Categories:
• Skateboarding tricks
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