Learn the inward heelflip: prerequisites, five stages from separate scoop and heel flick to catching, typical mistakes and safety for shin and ankle.
The inward heelflip is a backside shove-it combined with a heelflip: the board spins around the vertical axis and flips at the same time with the heel of the front foot around the long axis. The honest answer: it is a combination trick of two things you already can, and if you master pop shove-it and heelflip securely, you still need weeks until the two movements fit together.
The inward heelflip feels at first as if you were giving two commands at once. The back foot pushes the tail sideways, the front one kicks out with the heel. The trick works when the pop is clean and both feet work in the right order.
For perspective: in the ollie, kickflip and 360 flip the muscles share a common jumping pattern [1]. There is no measurement of its own for the inward heelflip; the numbers do not apply to it. But the hint holds here too: without a clean pop no flip works.
How long it takes is experience: plan weeks.
Ten pop shove-its and ten heelflips in a row. Both must sit. According to a survey of 91 skaters, skaters learn mainly through demonstration, drills and the evaluation of errors [2]. Milestone: pop shove-it 9 of 10, heelflip 8 of 10.
Place the back foot as in the pop shove-it (scoop) and the front as in the heelflip. Jump without kicking and let only the spin come. Milestone: 8 of 10 landed cleanly.
In the position with the scoop foot, the front foot now kicks out with the heel, the back does not push. The board flips but barely turns. Milestone: 8 of 10 landed cleanly.
Pop, scoop, heel flick. The feet work one after another in quick succession: first the pop, then the scoop, then the flick. You wait until the grip appears. Milestone: 3 of 10 times caught, even if the landing wobbles.
Both feet over the bolts, knees bent, gaze ahead. An attempt counts only when you are standing. Milestone: 5 of 10 inward heelflips landed and rolled away.
Film check: Film yourself from the side and from behind. Does the board flip before the spin or at the same time? If the board spins too much and flips too little, you see it in the clip.
Session structure (experience): Warm up with pop shove-its and heelflips, then stage by stage. At most three sets of five attempts, then a break.
If it stalls: If the board spins too much and barely flips, take more force out of the scoop in stage 2 and concentrate on the flick. If it flips without turning, repeat stage 2 in sets of ten. Mistakes are information here: skaters use them as the most important feedback [2]. Write a keyword after every attempt, for example "too much scoop" or "flick too late", and start the next session exactly there.
Check with numbers: Count in sets of ten how often the board fully flips and turns in the air. Only when that happens 7 of 10 times do you care about the landing. Until then every attempt is training for the pop, not for catching.
In the inward heelflip the heel kicks out, and the board likes to hit the shin or ankle. In a survey of 197 skaters in Spain, ligament sprains were the most common injury type at 39.6 percent, especially of the ankle (39.3 percent) [3]. Professionals had a smaller ankle inversion angle than amateurs in one measurement [4].
Wrist and forearm account for more than half of skaters' injuries because people fall onto the outstretched arm [5]. In an Australian analysis of 5,026 injuries, ankle injuries made up 45 percent of the injuries of the lower limb [6]. Practise only on flat, free ground and never over stairs or gaps. This guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training.
Imagine two separate commands: first the back heel down and sideways, then the front heel outward. If you separate the two movements in time in your head, they fit together better in the jump. Film yourself from behind and check whether the scoop comes before the flick.
An inward heelflip is a backside shove-it combined with a heelflip: the board spins and flips at the same time with the heel of the front foot.
In five stages: check the foundation, heelflip with scoop foot position, heel flick alone, both together, catch. A secure pop shove-it and heelflip are the prerequisite.
The varial heelflip spins in the other direction. In the inward heelflip the spin is a backside shove-it.
That is experience: often several weeks if pop shove-it and heelflip sit. There is no study on this.
Because the heel kicks out and the board flies up. Shin guards and a controlled flick help. A pop that is too high is rarely the problem.
Learning the Hardflip: Frontside Shove-it and Kickflip, Vertical Through the Legs