10/8/20
Alright, I felt some progression this morning and that felt, well, like progression… good. I was getting pretty close with 50-50s yesterday, and wanted to keep that rolling this morning.
One thing I was getting hung up on was dropping back into the ramp. I’d get my trucks sliding on the coping, but just couldn’t get my shoulders to turn back into the ramp. This is going backside, that is.
After walking the dog and trying (failing) to keep her from instigating a gigantic husky, I went back to the Newington park to tackle that same quarter pipe. While sitting alone in the parking lot, I pulled up a Chad Caruso YouTube tutorial.
The most helpful thing I pulled out of it was which tricks to get down before going for the 50-50. Kinda funny how this works, but I like it. Yesterday, I watched another skater do a realllllllly sick 5-0 stall. I asked him if he had any tips, like a kook.
He started giving me some tidbits and the best tip was when he asked if I had 50-50s down. When I told him no he said to definitely go for those first. And in learning 50-50s, I found out that I should get a backside “slash grind” down first. When I saw that I thought, damn, that’s what will help with the shoulder thing.
So that is what I dedicated my session to this morning. I continued breaking down the progression ladder and started climbing where I’m at. I can do kickturns, so the next step is the slash grind.
And I started getting the hang of it! It’s definitely not automatic yet, but that’s the goal. If I keep practicing those to the point where it’s second nature, I feel like the 50-50 will come through naturally.
MikeFundaro.com 