I’ve put together a guide for people learning to skateboard, to help you know what tricks to learn and when.
I started skating around 1999/2000 with mates from school, weekends at skateparks, nights in carparks, trying to ollie, kickflip, jump off anything. No real direction, just whatever tricks we'd seen in skate videos or whatever our friends were attempting. The occasional trick tip in Transworld Skateboarding, or the ‘First Step’ and ‘Next Step’ videos gave us our main lessons. That meandering approach is part of the fun, but sometimes it helps to have a roadmap. So I've put one together a skateboarding progression guide for you to follow, covering core tricks at different levels, split into Street and Transition so you can see what tricks to learn in what order.
Here's the progression I'd give any skater, from your very first push to tricks that take months to land.
When I’m coaching, it’s even more in-depth and there’s way more tricks and little manoeuvres I add in, and honestly…everyone is different and has different skills, but hopefully this gives you a good start, and an idea of where to take it. If you're already working on a trick and can't figure out what's going wrong, I also offer personalised online skate coaching, where you can send me your footage and get specific feedback on your technique.
I’ve also created a 6 step guide to help you breakdown and learn any trick, which you can grab for free with the button below!
Ok, enough yapping, let’s see the roadmap.
How To Skate: Skateboarding Roadmap
THE BASICS
Getting you started rolling with confidence
discover your stance: regular or goofy
Jump on and off the board on grass (get used to it without getting hurt!)
pushing and stopping (Slow and steady is best!)
manuals on flatground (lifting up the nose for a couple of seconds)
Tail Stops
Fakie 180 pivots
Hippie Jumps
Rolling down a bank
Kickturns on a bank
Rolling Fakie on a bank (rolling up and then back down it backwards)
Pssst…It’s worth jumping in here quickly to say, any of these with the orange text links have tutorials I’ve made on YouTube! Enjoy!
TRANSITION (RAMPS) LEVEL 1
Starting out in skateparks
Backside ollie’s on banks
tail stalls
rock and roll
Ollie fakie in transition
STREET LEVEL 1
The basics of flat ground, ledges and manuals
Ollie
Fakie Ollie
Fakie b/s 180 (Half Cab)
frontside 180
fakie shuvit (pop shuv it)
backside ollie
Frontside 50-50 grind block/ledge
Backside Boardslide
backside 50-50 grind
TRANSITION (RAMPS) LEVEL 2
Mastering the basics
rock n’ roll
backside pivot
frontside 5-0
backside 50-50 grind
frontside disaster
fakie rock/switch rock to fakie
ollie to fakie
frontside 180 ollie
kickflip fakie
drop in 5ft ramp
Backside pivot on quarter
STREET LEVEL 2
Deepening the bag
fakie kickflip
Frontside Boardslide
fakie 180 (half cab )kickflip
backside 180 kickflip
ollie over 1-2 decks
Switch Ollie
heelflip
frontside pop shuvit
Nollie
Nollie 180 (F/S and B/S)
TRANSITION (RAMPS) LEVEL 3
Levelling Up
frontside 5050 grind
frontside rock n’ roll
frontside smith grind
backside 5-0 grind
backside disaster
frontside tailslide
backside tailstall
backside 180 ollie
STREET LEVEL 3
Getting Technical
Frontside Flip
kickflip manual
Krooked Grind
frontside smith grind
backside tailslide
frontside tailslide
Frontside Nosegrind
fakie heelflip
backside bigspin
frontside board slide rail
backside feeble on a rail
360 flip
Know what trick you want to learn, but struggling to land it?
Sometimes knowing what to practise is just the start of the battle. We’ve all been there, endless tries, hours spent popping and falling. If you're stuck on a trick, send me a video of your attempts and I'll help you figure out what's going wrong.
Get personalised technique feedback, specific corrections demonstrated by me, and practical drills to help you make progress.
Online coaching from A$99 · Available worldwide
Just Starting Out? Follow a Step-by-Step Progression
I hope this roadmap is useful for you. Come back to it as you progress with each trick. If you’re brand new to skateboarding, thinking about getting your first board, or maybe it’s there staring at you and you’re unsure how to get going, then a roadmap designed for those first steps will help you get rolling with (hopefully) less time falling over.
The Beginner Progression Roadmap is a PDF guide with 7 micro skills that build confidence from day 1, and the first 10 tricks I get every beginner to learn. Complete with explanations for each trick/skill. Perfect for anyone jumping on a board for the first time, or getting back into it after a long break (fellow millennials, I see you).
Learn the first 10 tricks I recommend every beginner learns, along with 7 micro skills to build confidence and board awareness!
The roadmap is a PDF Plan with the 7 Micro-skills to give you confidence and improve your balance, and then the first 10 tricks I recommend learning before you start to Ollie. The Plan has a run down of how to do each one with images.
It also lists the next 20 tricks for you to learn once you’ve mastered the basics!
And remember: Progression Isn't Always Linear
This roadmap gives you an idea of what tricks to learn and in what order, but remember, everyone's progression is different.
You might find heelflips easier than kickflips, or feel more comfortable learning grinds than transition tricks. That's completely normal, and a lot of people find 180s easier in one direction than another.
My biggest advice? Don't get too caught up in ticking tricks off a list.
Spend time getting comfortable on your board, build consistency with the tricks you already know, and work on the skills that will help you progress to the next level.
And if you're struggling with something, try breaking it down into smaller steps. Sometimes the problem isn't the trick itself, but one particular movement or skill within it. (And a lot of skills translate across different tricks).
The goal isn't to learn every trick as quickly as possible. It's to build the skills and confidence to keep progressing.
Have fun with it!