Your Problem Could Be Mental
Strate-age-y
A ge 10-20. Advice for young skatersConserve energy, even though you don't have to
Skate
Mental
Cross Academy
Cruise Power
Waves
Drop Knee
Gear
Surf
History
Non Google Sponsors
Young skateboarders have some advantages over older ones, especially in the area of reflexes, quickness, and daring. For this reason you will find that the very best competitors in surface motion sports such as skateboarding, surfing, skating, snowboarding, etc, are pretty young.
The trait that most young athletes have, which is tremendous reserves of energy, is also the resource that they least control. If there's one thing in common with all the really exceptionally good young athletes I've known, whether in surface motion sports or in team or "jock" sports, it's that they all have lots of energy, but they rarely use it all. This is a skill that I believe is mental, and therefore could be learned, and has nothing to do with genes or natural talent.
They seem to be on cruise control, their fundamentals being so solid that they don't seem to work very hard for much of the game, and then suddenly when the pressure is on or when it's just time to make a tough play, they suddenly pull out all this energy, like pulling out the stops, and explode into some super human burst of athletecism.
To rephrase this point and orient it to skateboarding, what you want to do is be able to skate in a very reserved way, using a minimum amount of energy, and at certain points punctuate your skating with tremendous, explosive bursts of energy.
This is something the old skater can't really do. Someone like me who is older, but really well trained and conditioned, is forced to keep energy in reserve just to keep in the game. When I release my reserves of energy, it may be somewhat impressive what I can do, but it's not gonna set the world on fire, and it's not gonna win the olympics.
On the other hand, young skaters rarely see the point of holding a lot of their power in reserve. When you got it, use it, they figure. Or it's just too much fun to let it all hang out, going 100% all the time. It takes a lot of will power to skate in a controlled way and wait for just the right moment to really go for it, and the average young person is not going to have the discipline to hold his/her energy back when it's so tempting to just go, and go.
Top level skaters may not really be that much more athletic or talented than the pack that keeps flubbing away without getting any better. They just utilize their abilities in a more efficient way. Try not to think of the pros as being so much "better" than you, try to see if they are skating smarter than you, and see if you can pick up on their routine.
I watch talented skaters frittering away their energy, trying moves and tricks over and over, and they just seem to be trying to get some aggression out. It seems so frantic, the way they skate, as if they're spraying their energy all over the place, like watering a lawn.
Once in a while some young skater comes along who seems to be channeling his/her energy properly. One afternoon I was at the banks and there was a young guy ollieing the stairs. After a while he came over to the bank where I was and started looking for acid drops to do. He wasn't in any hurry, and worked in a controlled, smooth way, building up systematically to higher and higher drops. The first couple of drops he got right up on a short wall and jumped right off. As he worked over the wall, where the drops got longer, he seemed to slow down, but it wasn't slowing down out of nervousness. He was just slowing down his rhythm, because the difficulty was increasing. He would hold the nose of his board and look for the target down a few feet and on the banked landing spot. He would leap off in a very calm and controlled way, and while airborne and dropping would draw the board first up, then level, and then down-angled with his feet without any wasted movement. He would land half way down the bank and roll away at high speed, under pressure but still very calm. I had a lot of respect for his methods, and the guy was probably around 20 years old or less. After working up to a 6 foot drop he left and went and ollied the stairs. It probably made perfect sense, because the acid drop was about the same distance as the eight or ten step staircase, but was a more makeable drop because the landing was banked.
If some of you would adopt these methods, or just simply get the idea of being calm 90% of the time and explosive when it counts, you might find yourself in the elite instead of in the crowd.
If you can get this concept, you'll be way ahead of the pack. Just get your fundamentals really strong, and be able to do them without using up too much energy. Avoid all temptation to fidget or make extra body motion that might use up any extra energy. Although you may be dying to just blow off some of that energy that's all pent up inside you, try to tame that urge. Then when the time is right, focus all that power on one short, explosive burst of effort. This is the key to excelling, and being a cut above the pack.
