Learn the nose manual: prerequisites, five stages from the balance point standing to a rolling line, typical mistakes and protection against falls forward.
In the nose manual you roll a stretch on the front wheels, tail in the air, head calm. You learn it in five stages, and the honest answer is: it is not about strength, but about finding the balance point and holding it with small corrections in the foot.
The nose manual is the manual on the other side of the board. If you can do the normal manual, you know the game from the tail-heavy side. Here the centre of mass is at the front, and the direction of failure changes: you fall forwards, not backwards.
That balance is the currency is shown by a model with 45 skaters: static and dynamic balance, leg strength and endurance were the most important factors a model used to separate better from weaker skaters, with about 90 percent accuracy [1]. A nose manual is balance training with wheels.
In competitions, flow also counts: in the Olympic formats, five judges rate difficulty, variety, flow and consistency and quality of execution, among other things [2]. A clean manual connection turns single tricks into a line.
How long it takes is experience: the balance point is often found after a few sessions, three metres of holding take weeks.
Hold the board against a wall or your hand and tip it onto the front wheels. Feel where your weight must be: over the front foot, the back foot meters pressure on the tail. Milestone: you hold the board at the balance point by hand for 5 seconds.
Roll at walking pace and tip the board briefly onto the front wheels, let it down again. That is the feeling. Milestone: you lift the tail briefly 10 of 10 times and come back cleanly.
Lift the tail slightly and hold the point. The back foot presses down a little to correct. Milestone: hold one metre, 6 of 10 times.
Extend the distance. Eyes straight ahead, shoulders calm, knees soft. Milestone: hold three metres, 5 of 10 times.
Roll in, go into the nose manual, come out with a small hop of the tail. Milestone: 3 clean lines in a row.
Film check: Film yourself from the side doing the nose manual. Check whether hips and shoulders are over the front foot and whether the tail floats calmly without twitching. If the tail twitches, you correct too hard with the back foot. Count the seconds in the clip: the guide in this article is three metres or three seconds stable.
In the nose manual the board tips away forwards, and the hands are your airbag. In an Australian ten-year review of 5,026 injuries, 44 percent were fractures and 57 percent of the arm injuries involved wrist and hand [3]. A review on new Olympic sports states for skateboarding that wrist and forearm make up more than half of all injuries because skaters fall on the outstretched arm [4].
The head is at risk in a fall forwards: head injuries make up to 75 percent of all injuries in the literature, and helmet use is below 35 percent [5]; across 17 studies it was 0 to 41.7 percent [6]. Wear a helmet and wrist guards. The guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training.
Find the balance point on grass or carpet before you practise it on concrete: on a soft surface you fall without fear, and the feel for the tail becomes clear. Film yourself from the side. If the front wheels hold the line and the tail floats still, you have it.
A nose manual is balancing on the front wheels of the skateboard, tail in the air, without the board touching the ground. It is the counterpart of the normal manual and a basis for nose tricks in lines.
In five stages: balance point standing, tipping while rolling, hold one metre, hold three metres, in and out. A secure manual is the prerequisite. Wear protection, because you can fall forwards.
For many yes, because the direction of failure points forwards and the hands have to take the impact. There are no scientific comparisons. Experience: the balance point is further forward, with weight on the front foot.
It connects tricks into lines, trains balance and is a prerequisite for the nosegrind and nose tricks. In competitions, judges also rate flow and consistency.
As a guide in this article, three metres or three seconds stable. More is style, not a requirement. What counts is that you find the balance point reproducibly and exit under control, rather than pushing for length.
Learning the Noseslide: Sliding on the Nose Along the Edge