Emma Radebaugh One of the most significant apprehensions regarding skateboarding or longboarding is the potential to take a hard fall. That unknown keeps many boarders from reaching their full potential and performing amazing tricks. Knowing how to overcome your fear of doing board tricks helps you put the negativity behind you and do incredible things.
Start on a Safe Surface
A major contributor to our fear of performing tricks is the possible crash landing if it doesn’t go according to plan. One way to help your mental state is to put on a pair of virtual training wheels and practice the trick on grass or another softer surface. This allows you to focus on the nature of the trick rather than having a dark cloud in the back of your mind of falling on the pavement. By mastering the trick in safe quarters, you can seamlessly perform it when you’re ready to do the real thing.
Take It Slow
Most tricks need a handful of moves with multiple stages. Find a technique that is similar but simpler to learn, then go back and attempt it again. If you can’t seem to accomplish it, don’t devote too much time to it. Concentrate on something else before returning to it. Grasping a trick takes time and plenty of practice, so don’t lose your patience if it seems you’re taking things too slowly.
Embrace Your Fear
As FDR said in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” It’s perfectly normal to acknowledge that you have a sense of trepidation about doing the trick but use that uneasy feeling as motivation, then embrace and learn from it.
If you could do a simple pintail trick on a longboard in the grass and still have this overwhelming sense of dread, maybe it’s wise to wait until you are 100 percent confident you mastered it. That sense of thinking is how you can learn from your fears. Or you could have a carpe diem mindset and face your fear head-on. There is no right or wrong way to take it as long as it benefits you.
Build Your Confidence
It’s amazing what confidence in yourself allows you to do. Take a good look in the mirror and give yourself a pep talk. Reassuring yourself that you’re capable of doing anything makes you feel you can take on the world, whether doing the trick on your skateboard or something more integral in your life.
Protective equipment may help you gain confidence, but don’t feel like the gear makes you unbreakable. Protective equipment’s purpose is to minimize the damage of a fall or spill, not entirely rid yourself of the consequences.
Learning the methods to overcome your fear of doing board tricks helps you find your groove on your board. Before you know it, you’ll be doing things you could only dream of the months prior.
