Arcs
R otation for Slides
Slide Arc- itecture
Revised for 2007
Photography by J. Scott Klossner
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Methods of getting rotation and controlling it
Rotation is used in many skating maneuvers, including turns, slides, and airborne tricks. This feature will explain different rotation techniques in the context of performing standup slides. The techniques used to rotate the slides are exactly the same as used to rotate in the air and can be adapted to various aerial tricks.
Rotation is the key to good slides. Simply doing what comes naturally and spinning into a slide might work. But if you think about how rotation works and learn the various methods, you'll have a lot more control, and you'll see how versatile a few basic techniques can be. Mix in weighting technique, rotation's humble assistant, and you'll be able to vary your slide friction, using heavily scraping slides for speed control (and loud noises) and light scrapers for getting around.
I take the same techniques that other skaters use and try to get more out of them by increasing the range of motion and using windup and release to make them more efficient. It's important to do this if you are going to rotate bigger boards. You could get away with sloppy technique on the 46 inch board length range that I use in these pages, and moreso for smaller and lighter equipment. If you want to go on to my projects or develop your own tricks where heavier and longer boards are used, you must practice rotation technique until it is very consistent and powerful.
A note about the function of these slides and safety warnings
I am performing stand up slides which have a function for taking off speed while doing flatground, park, or street skating. They are also just plain fun as tricks. But by no means should these demonstrations be considered a downhill slide skateboarding how-to. For downhill skateboarders who rely on slides for speed control, you may wish to consult the sites or other resources for downhill slides such as the Coleman. The technique is different, involving hand dragging and laybacks. The gear is different, involving hand pads, full padding, and perhaps leather. I think these slides are pretty safe as I perform them. On the open downhill, they will be much more dangerous. Skate at your own risk and take responsibility, and wear protective gear. And since slides force you to swerve and have a big margin of error as a braking device, don't slide in traffic, use foot braking technique when not on an open road.
Sorry to bore you: physics of rotation in skateboarding
When you talk about the physics of skateboarding, the slide is a great maneuver to look at, because it's pretty simple. Basically, it's a turn. In skating, whether on skates or on a board, the turn is the simplest maneuver. Next in level of complexity is the pivot or spin on the ground. Then comes the jump, and things get very complicated, because you have trajectory, lean, rotation, and flipping, all happening at once. In the case of skateboarding, these movements can be done by both the skater and the board, apart from eachother and independently. All of these forces have to be controlled by the skater.
The five means of rotation that can be used in skateboarding are:
- Arc rotation: Using a turn or curve to gain rotation.
- Twist or late rotation: Twisting shoulders in the direction of rotation, then release.
- Torque or early rotation: Torquing shoulders in the direction of rotation, then check.
- Counter rotation: Windup, then rotating shoulders opposite the rotation of board and hips.
- Contracting rotation: Pulling in the arms or legs mid turn to accelerate rotation.
Arc rotation
Arc rotation is the tendency of the board to rotate with only the momentum of the curve that is being traced while skating. When you skateboard on an arc and deepen the turn, depending on the surface and wheel composition, at some depth in the turn the board will want to go into a slide. Arc rotation plays a part in many of my slides. Arc rotation is useful because it can be accelerated with shoulder rotation. I like to skate on a gentle curve before I break into a slide. It always makes it easier and more in control.
It's unusual to use pure arc rotation for a slide, but sometimes it's fun to see if you can break into a slide just by skating on an arc and going faster and faster until the board can't hold any longer. This is a good way to test the slide characteristics of the road and your wheels.
Frontside arch slide
Even though I mentioned arc rotation as being the most fundamental skating rotation, the arch body position adds a bit of extra difficulty to the trick. It's a stylish slide that uses the relativly simple arc rotation.
I start standing straight up, in a taller stance than my usual slide stance. This is kind of a classic style trick and calls for a more relaxed attitude.
Flexing my knees and back, I start to bend into an arch shape.
I gradually increase the arch, over several seconds. While arching backwards, I turn left, to heelside. The turn should come naturally from the lean on the board. The deeper the lean, the more the arc.
I make a deeper arch and add some twist. This puts pressure on the rear wheels, adding to the force on them from the skating arc.
Finally, the board can't hold the arc any more and breaks into a slide.
I end in the fakey stance. As I'm coming out of the slide and rolling fakey, I ease out of the arch body position and stand comfortably.
Twist or late rotation
Twisting rotation is generated by twisting your shoulders firmly but slowly in the direction of the rotation until the board gives and goes into a slide. It's interesting that the shoulders are rotated early and the board follows later. That's why I also call this rotation late rotation. Late rotation can also be performed by getting the board going around on the ground or in the air on an arc, then "tweaking" it farther around with the legs.
Twisting is the technique I use most to slide, because it's easy to start a slide that way, it's easy to control it, and it's unlikely to overshoot. I don't think it's the most common technique I see other skateboarders using by any means. It's not an obvious way to rotate into a slide, and it takes practice. It may also take some conditioning, because you have to develop a good twist that won't pull any of your side or back muscles. If you don't know about twisting, and learn it, I think you'll be really pleased with the ability it will give you to smoothly start and control a slide all the way through 180 degrees. As the slide comes around in its late move, you turn your shoulders back the opposite direction of rotation to stop the rotation of the board. I call this shoulder rebound ending a "check."
The idea of twist rotation is that you slowly twist your upper body into the direction you want to turn the board. By weighting forward a bit, eventually the rear wheels come under pressure from your slow rotation and have to break into a slide. It's pretty much a rear wheels only slide. Once underway the slide is controlled by untwisting the body against the board rotation.
Frontside twist slide
This slide is going to heelside, or in skateboarding jargon, it will be frontside, as I'm going to face forward when the board comes around. The stance I take is what I call the chair stance, where it looks like I'm seated. I like to lean my upper body toward the board, away from the lean of the turn. I try to keep my back straight to get more leverage. I skate on an arc to gain arc rotation, curving slightly to the left before sliding. It's not necessary to do this, but it makes it more smooth.
Thumb lead
I press back with my left arm and hand. I like to think of leading the twist with my back thumb. I find the thumb lead gives me a way to feel the pressure build in the twist. You can see I'm turning the left hand upside down and pointing the thumb in the direction of the twist. At the same time I press forward with my right hand. Since my right arm is my back arm, there is already some twist starting because of this motion. Remember, this initiation of the slide is supposed to be slow and not sudden.
The twist is getting very pronounced here and the board breaks into a slide. I transfer my weight forward to let the rear wheels loose, without taking too much weight off them. I want the speed control of that scrape. I keep my front foot behind the truck so there isn't too much pivoting. My back foot remains on the tail. The stance is pretty wide but not uncomfortable.
The motion of the shoulders started with a twist but ends with an untwist, all happening very slowly and smoothly. At the midpoint of the slide, at 90 degrees, I stop twisting and leave my shoulders in place. So it feels like I'm untwisting, but really the board keeps coming around underneath. This is why I call the rotation late, because I did so much work and took so much time before the board actually came around. My shoulders don't actually go back clockwise in this case, although in later slides you will see me do this, as a "check." I allow the board to come the rest of the 180 until it ends up fakey.
Frontside twist slide, view 2
In this view you can see how I set my arms to help my shoulder rotation. The two basic options are to mostly feel your shoulders turning into the twist and your arms following for balance, or to feel your hands more. For a "hands lead" feel you actually press forward and back with your hands and have them lead the rotation with lots of leverage. Usually I have one hand doing more work while the other is kind of balancing. On the frontside twist I lead with my right hand, which was my back hand but is twisted so far it becomes my front hand.
Here you can see my legs start to take over the job of getting the board around as my shoulders start to relax out of their twist.
The finish of the slide. The board is 180 around, and I have completely untwisted my shoulders. This ending is more active than the last, and is more of a check. This means that I wanted to be more firm about stopping the rotation. My shoulders untwist a little more firmly and I bring my left arm back across my body. So I have shoulder twisted against the rotation of the board, checking the board rotation. This twisting with and against the rotation is the technique you want to develop to get perfect control of your turns, whether they are slides, kickturns, carves, or rotations in the air.
After the check, I have stablized the board and take up a stance for the next maneuver. The slide is over, and now my next move will be to flip the board back around to my normal stance. I bring my right arm across my body now, winding up for the kickturn out. The kickturn will be to the left, or backside.
For this shoot I purposely wore a shirt with a white stripe on it, so you could see the twist line. In this series you can see it and I hope it helps.
Backside twist slide
The backside twist is similar in technique to the frontside twist, but I think it's a lot harder. When you practice, I might suggest you warm up for your work on the backside twist with a few torque backside slides, because they're easier. In fact, I would have put the torque slides first if I were trying to put them in order of difficulty. I didn't, because I'm trying to emphasize that twisting is a more in control way of sliding, and I'm trying to pass on that skill to other skateboarders, who may be skating more on instinct than training and are missing out on controlled technique.
Blind moves
The reason the backside twist is hard is because you have to do it blind, and the twist is hard to learn. When you twist slowly to backside, your head has to lead the rotation and there's no way you can keep looking forward normally over your left shoulder and get enough twist. I have no problem with not looking but I think you will be uncomfortable when you try this. The twist backwards may also seem awkward, because you're twisting so far that your left shoulder is right over your back (right) foot. The pictures should make this clear.
This whole thing about doing something blind-- it means that looking where you're going doesn't mean staring. If you've read my article on mental habits, you might have caught me ragging on skateboarders who are staring too hard at the board, or the target, or whatever their feet are doing. Here you see me put that into practice. I sacrifice being able to see for a few moments for what I know is right; that I need my head to go in the direction of rotation to get it around smoothly and in control, and having my head around will mean that I come out of the move in balance. In fact, I'll be able to see better once I'm around, because my head will already be right there, ready to look forward. So not looking, while intuitively insecure, is the most secure way to do it.
I start in the same stance as the frontside twist, only I skate a little on an arc to the right, or in the backside direction. This is my last chance to look forward where I'm going.
Now I've started to rotate my shoulders to the right, setting up a backside twist. The twist is slow at this point and there's no slide. I lead the rotation by pressing back with my right thumb.
In this frame my twist has gotten really strong, but the slide still hasn't broken. I bring my head to the right, my right arm back firmly to the right, and my shoulders to the right, everything to the right to get into that backhand twist. My right hand is pretty much pointed in the direction of the nose. My head is practically over my back foot. It's a very wound up position. It's like if you were about to swing a baseball bat, only you don't swing, you keep winding up more until you twist all the way around.
Once the board breaks onto a slide, the workload is lessened, and the untwisting begins. You can see the stripe on my shirt has gone from bent to straight. While the slide is going on, I am relaxed and making no effort to see where I'm going. Actually, I think of keeping my head slightly in the direction I'm turning. I look slightly to the right, and I don't move my head, because I don't want to check the rotation by moving my head around. "Spotting" which some skaters do, will slow the rotation. Don't spot, just let your head come around with the board.
The board is coming around and is almost all the way through the 180. There is some subtle checking going on. I'm not quite letting my head go around with the rotation, and my shoulders are staying in one spot as well, relative to the last frame. I allow the board to go under me along with my lower body. This makes a twist happen again, this time in the other direction. You can see the stripe starting to bend again. This twist is done to control and slow rotation, whereas the first twist was done to generate rotation.
Now I've straightened out into a fakey stance. My head has completed about 3/4 of a circle of rotation and now I can comfortably see forward from the other side.
I start to open up my shoulder stance to the right, in preparation for a kickturn out. The kickturn will go to the right, toeside, and will bring me back to my regular stance.
