Tips for Beginner Skateboarders to Figure Out the Best Stance

When you are just starting out with skateboarding, one of the first problems you face is figuring out how to put your best foot forward. In skateboarding terminology, that means you have to determine if you are a regular- or goofy-footed skateboarder.

There are two different ways to stand on your skateboard. These are called stances. The goofy stance means you skate with your right foot forward, while the regular stance is when you are skating with your left foot forward.

There are three ways to figure out how you will most likely feel comfortable standing on your board. Try one of these three tricks:

1. The Ball Trick. Get a ball and set it on the ground in front of you. Then kick it. Whichever foot you kicked it with should be your back foot on your skateboard. You want the balancing foot in the front and the kicking foot in the back.
2. The Step Trick. Go to a staircase, and walk up it. Notice which foot you used to step up onto the first step. Whichever one you chose should be your back foot on the skateboard.
3. The Friend Trick. Stand with both your feet close together. Then ask a friend to lightly, and safely, shove you from behind. The foot you used to catch yourself and prevent yourself from falling is the foot you should put in back when standing on your skateboard.

Just like most people are right-handed, most people are regular-footed. That’s why it’s called regular. Keep in mind that there’s no right or wrong way to stand on your board. If all of these tricks tell you that you are regular-footed, but you just like riding goofy, then ride goofy.

Some skaters have a hard time figuring out if they should skate regular or goofy. For example, it might feel more natural to cruise and push regular, but to ollie goofy. This is not all that rare of a situation and not necessarily a problem, either. Some people are ambidextrous, meaning they can use either their right or left hand just as well as the other. Perhaps you are the same, but with your feet.

Keep skating whichever way you want to. Once you get fairly good at skating, you are going to want to ride switch, which means that you are going to want to try riding the opposite from whatever stance you normally use. Even before you get that good, you are going to want to ride fakie, for example, which is when you ride up a ramp and then ride back down backward.

Either way, you might still be bugged by the question of which skateboarding stance you want to pick as your “usual” stance. Change it up until, eventually, one feels better. If not, then do both. If nothing else, it will be nice for when you are cruising, because you won’t tire out just one leg.

If you find that skating with one stance is comfortable, but ollying with the other stance is good, then give the nollie a try. There’s no rulebook for skateboarding, so you can learn tricks in whatever order you feel like.