I've tried following video instructions. But each time, after 10 mins I felt like I was making zero progress. Perhaps I just need to keep trying and eventually it will click?
Or perhaps I should ask one of the neighbourhood kids?
If you insist on skateboarding, larger diameter wheels go a long way to not crashing on every crack/pebble/uneven surface. A long-board is easier than a street/short-board, and will usually have larger wheels by default.
Beyond that I have no advice for learning in your 40s. I learned to skate street in my childhood and can still effectively get around on one in my 40s. But it's no joke to crash on pavement at our age. Be prepared for some slow-healing fractures and irreparably damaged laptop/phone if you're commuting with a tech job.
Having said all that though, skateboarding is awesome and should get way more respect than it tends to. Super challenging and rewarding, more kids should learn it, character building.
Depending on where you live, sidewalk construction may be an issue. E.g., paved areas in the UK can be shitty due to inconsistent height between paving stones. The slightest thing and the newb is gonna go flying.
The thing to remember with skateboarding is that for every several minute video showing cool tricks, you aren't seeing the hours of bails. The Tony Hawk games always included bails videos to show that there's a lot of perseverance and pain that goes into making it look effortless.
I did myself some horrible injuries over the years, including slashing the palm of my hand wide open on a pebble-dashed wall whilst learning just to coast. Also gave myself a horrendous groin injury at one point whilst casually riding around.
On a relatively firm surface (ie: carpet) this provides some practice for the balancing act. How foot placement and the contours in the board impact things too
Similarly, on something with a little more flex (grass), it's a decent way to start trying some flip tricks :)
As for rolling around, I think it's mostly finding really smooth/flat surfaces... and just doing it a lot.
Depending on your wheels/weight placement, anything thicker than a quarter can stop you almost immediately.
It takes a little while to get the 'feel' and speed to deal with rougher surfaces particularly well
You could try a hub driven electric board, supposedly they can be freewheeled without the motor like a heavy passive skateboard to increase your practice time, which musicians and gamers call shed time or seat time
Can you watch a dance or a trick or something and feel what it would be like to do it yourself? Do you see this stuff in your head as a sequence of frames? Or a movie? Or do you somehow have access to the whole thing at once like you're thinking in 4 dimensions?
When I watch any kind of instructional video for even something very simple it looks like a total blur, one of those "Wow that's impressive, I can't even tell what happened" things, and I usually don't see or feel anything in my head at all, I'm just saying "Ok he moves his arm up at the same time as his foot goes back away from the camera towards the hand with the stick" and trying (And failing) to copy things one piece at a time.
I remember thinking it was ridiculous, but it was somewhat effective (I was never a great hitter, but I think that was due more to the lack of a batting cage in my backyard than it was to the poor teaching skills of some mustached guy from the 70s). It's "good enough" for beginning instruction because it gives you a way to break a complex process into smaller discrete steps that you can practice in isolation. Are professionals thinking about their swing in three parts? No, definitely not, but you've got to start somewhere...
My piano teacher had a similar way of teaching, breaking each song into small pieces and making me practice a few notes dozens of times, then gradually growing the size of the pieces, and then putting them all together. He was an expert, so you could put a sheet of music in front of him and he'd play the whole thing on the first try. But I couldn't do that, so I needed to learn step by step.
There is something to be said for this technique, at least until you become an expert at something, to the point that it's second nature to swing the bat or play a full sheet of music. At that point you probably have more effective ways of teaching yourself. But you've got to start somewhere.
It doesn't translate to other things at all for me, but this was the most active thing I ever did...
I can watch Rodney Mullen do things I could never physically do, but 'feel' things you wouldn't expect. Examples would be where I'd put my weight, where the board would be pushing back, and how much I should lean forward/back to not slip
It's kind of like when zoning out while driving, in some ways. You go through the motions because you've done all the various pieces before. A kickflip is an ollie with a slide to the side, for example
But, because this process is new, it does take a lot of trial/focus. You get a good idea, but... theory/practice
someone learning from this is paying attention to detail on body and foot positioning that someone who doesn’t skate wouldn’t see.
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4826257/
3. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysio...
The last one was cool, and new to me.
Watching Troy Grady's closeups of leading guitar players picking hands from a few inches away didn't do much for me, but watching lots of telemark skiers vids helped pinpoint variables like pole length and pole plant reach that I would not have thought of.
So, like learning piano or violin or sports/kinematic skills, read and watch vids a little and practice a lot.
https://techxplore.com/news/2020-08-ai-player-strikingly-rea...
