Skateboarding skills
19 skills, beginner to advanced. 17 of them you can film on a phone and get measured. No fake scores.
Skills by level
You can film17 of 19 skills
Beginner 5
- Regular vs Goofy StanceBefore anything else, you need to know which way you naturally stand on a board. REGULAR means you ride with your LEFT foot forward and push with your right; GOOFY means RIGHT foot forward, pushing with your left.
- Balance & Riding PostureGood riding posture is the athletic base that everything else grows from. You stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width across the board, knees SOFTLY BENT, weight centered over the board, shoulders relaxed, and eyes looking ahead where you're going — not down at your feet.
- PushingPUSHING is how you actually move — the skill that separates skating from standing still. You place your front foot on the board angled forward over the bolts, then use your back foot to push against the ground and propel yourself, bringing it back onto the tail once you're rolling.
- Turning (Leaning)The first way to turn is by LEANING — shifting your weight onto your heels or toes to tilt the board and steer it in a smooth arc, without lifting any wheels off the ground. Lean toward your toes (toe-side) or your heels (heel-side) and the trucks pivot, curving your path.
- Foot-Brake StoppingKnowing how to STOP reliably is a safety essential — it's the difference between rolling to a calm halt and bailing into something. The most reliable beginner method is the FOOT BRAKE: keep your weight balanced over your front foot on the board, then lower your back foot to the ground and drag the sole flat against…
Intermediate 5
- The KickturnThe KICKTURN is a sharper, more active turn where you lightly lift the front wheels by pressing the tail, then pivot the board in the air and set it back down pointing a new direction. It's essential for tight direction changes and a building block for ollie-180s and ramp skating.
- Tic-TacsTIC-TACS are small, rhythmic side-to-side nose swings — a series of tiny kickturns alternating left and right — that both propel you forward without pushing and sharpen your kickturn control and balance. You lightly lift the nose and swing it a little to one side, set down, then swing it the other way, building…
- Rolling & CarvingCARVING is linking smooth, flowing heel-side and toe-side turns into continuous S-shaped arcs while rolling — the pleasurable, controlled riding that also builds the edge control and pumping that transfer to bowls and ramps. Unlike a single lean-turn, carving is a rhythmic, connected series of deep turns where you…
- Riding FakieRiding FAKIE means rolling BACKWARDS in your normal stance (the board moving toward your tail, your feet in their usual positions) — a crucial skill because a huge number of tricks land or roll away fakie, and being comfortable riding backward removes a major barrier to progression. It feels disorienting at first…
- The ManualThe MANUAL is a wheelie on a skateboard — balancing and rolling on just the back two wheels with the nose lifted, without letting the tail scrape. It's a pure balance skill (no board flip involved), a favorite for linking tricks, and one of the best pose-analyzable skills in skating because it's all about body…
Advanced 5
- The OllieThe OLLIE is the foundational trick of street skating — popping the board into the air with no hands, level, so you can jump obstacles and set up nearly every other trick. It combines a crouch, a sharp POP of the tail, a front-foot SLIDE up the grip tape to level the board, and a soft landing.
- Pop Shove-ItThe POP SHOVE-IT builds on the ollie: the board pops up AND spins 180 degrees horizontally beneath you (scooping with the back foot) while you jump and let it rotate, then land back on it. Unlike the ollie, the board rotates flat rather than just rising level.
- Ollie the Nose ManualThis skill links two fundamentals: you OLLIE up onto a ledge or box and land directly into a NOSE MANUAL (balancing on the FRONT two wheels with the tail lifted) — a combination that shows real board control and is a gateway to longer manual lines. The nose manual is the mirror of a regular manual: you balance over…
- Frontside 180The FRONTSIDE 180 is an ollie combined with a 180-degree body-and-board rotation, turning to face the new direction and landing rolling fakie. Unlike a shove-it (where only the board spins), here YOU and the board rotate together.
- Dropping InDROPPING IN is how you enter a ramp, bowl, or quarterpipe from the top — one of skating's biggest psychological hurdles because the instinct to lean back is exactly what makes you slam. You set the tail on the coping (the top edge) with your back foot, stand over the board, then commit by leaning your shoulders and…
Insane 4
- The KickflipThe KICKFLIP is the iconic street trick — an ollie where you also FLICK the board so it spins a full flip along its length before you catch it under your feet and land. It layers a precise front-foot flick onto a solid ollie.
- Ollie Up Curbs & ObstaclesTaking your ollie to REAL obstacles — ollieing up onto curbs, ledges, and boxes — is the bridge from flatground tricks to street skating, and it demands more height, precise timing to clear the edge, and the nerve to commit at speed toward an object. The mechanics are the ollie's, scaled up: you need a bigger pop…
- 50-50 GrindThe 50-50 GRIND is a foundational grind: you ollie onto a rail or ledge so BOTH trucks land on the edge, then slide (grind) along it on the trucks before ollieing off the end and rolling away. It's the entry point to street grinding and demands a solid ollie, precise placement, balance while sliding, and commitment.
- Fall Safely & Protect YourselfFalling is an unavoidable part of skateboarding, and knowing HOW to fall — plus wearing the right protective gear — is what lets you push your limits for years without serious injury. This isn't a trick; it's the durability and safety knowledge every skater needs.