How to Rock N Roll: Upgrade from Beginner into Advanced

What this video teaches

Skatepark Lessons splits the rock n roll into a beginner version and an advanced version and coaches a student up through progressively bigger ramps. In the beginner version the shoulders stay perpendicular to the coping, you rock in the middle of the board, lean back, and start the kick turn as the back wheels touch. In the advanced version the shoulders are pre-wound and parallel with the coping the instant the front wheels smack down, the chest faces the bottom of the ramp, and you work the back wheels closer and closer to the coping until the truck baseplate touches. Throughout, the recurring cues are to stay crouched with your head over the back foot for leverage, lean the head into the ramp because the body follows the head, and hit the top hard enough that the front wheels make noise. The video also teaches the bail deliberately, dropping to the knees and leaning back into the ramp, and starts on a bank ramp before moving to transition.

Key tips

• 1Beginner version: keep shoulders perpendicular to the coping, rock in the middle of the board, lean back and start the kick turn as the back wheels touch
• 2Advanced version: have the shoulders pre-wound parallel with the coping with your chest facing the bottom of the ramp the moment the front wheels land
• 3Smack the front wheels down hard on the deck; the noise means you got far enough up to have time to swing the shoulders
• 4Stay crouched with your head close to your back foot; that is where the leverage for the kick turn comes from
• 5Lean your head into the ramp and land with your head over your front foot, because the body goes where the head goes
• 6Practise the bail first: commit the shoulders, go limp on the legs, drop to the knees and lean back into the ramp
• 7Bigger ramps need more speed, which buys more time up top to rotate; work up incrementally, inching the back wheels closer to the coping

Summarized from the video transcript.