Skateboarding - Finding Your Stance

How you stand on your skateboard is called your skating stance. Most people skate with their left foot to the front of the board. This is known as the regular stance or being regular footed. If you stand with your right foot forward then you skate goofy.

There is no best stance, it just depends which you are most comfortable with. As a very general rule of thumb, if you are right handed you will probably skate regular and vice versa.

Some skaters are known as switch footers as they are able to skate equally comfortably switching between regular and goofy stances.

But before you worry about being goofy or regular let's just try standing on the board. Set the board down somewhere safe so you don't roll all over the place. Nice soft grass is good for this.

Now hop onto the board and just move your feet around to get a feel for it. Try balancing on one foot at a time but make sure you don't put your weight over the nose or the tail as you may tip the board and fall off.

Finding Out if Regular Stance or Goofy Stance is Right For You.

Probably the easiest way to find out is to just step onto your board and see which stance feels best. It might take a while for any stance to feel comfortable until you get used to having a rather unstable platform under your feet.

Another way is to run up to a football and kick it. Usually the foot you kick with will be your back foot on your skateboard.

Finally you could get a friend to come up behind you and give you a gentle shove, preferably when your not expecting it. The foot you put forward to stop yourself falling flat on your face will most likely be the front foot on your board.

There is no foolproof way to tell until you get up and skate. Just play around a bit at first and you'll very quickly develop a preference. If both ways work for you that's great.

Being able to comfortably switch stances is a gift.

By: Gary A

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Know How To Skateboard is a website for skaters who are just starting out or, who already skate but are looking to improve their skills. With a Beginners' Diary written by a beginner who understands the pitfalls and frustrations of learning, you are sure to find something to help you on your skating journey.