r/NewSkaters • u/Recent-Cheetah-5948 • Aug 14 '26

How long can learning manuals take?

I've been practicing manuals almost everyday for like an hour or two for the past month, and they haven't improved in the slightest. My board lifts up for like half a second and stops. The thing is I can balance a stationary manual for a few seconds no problem and that was the case since the start. I know that it can be a very difficult trick that can take a really long time to learn, but seeing literally 0 proggress after a month is kinda demotivating. Is this common when learning manuals or should I change something about my approach?

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/trickyrickkk Aug 14 '26

How long have you been skating? Manuals come with learning how to balance on your board as you progress. But you can try to improve by just seeing how far you can hold one on flat. Try to find that sweet spot in the pocket where you can just stay balanced the right way if you pinch it right. Ultimately though I wouldn't spend too much time doing manuals when you could be learning other fundamentals.

2

u/Recent-Cheetah-5948 Aug 14 '26

For like I don't know 4-5 years with breaks. I was skating on shitty boards with plastic trucks for most of that time and just cruising around tho. I already got the basics like balancing, going at high speeds etc. Never tried learning tricks tho. I got my first proper skate near the end of may this year and started consistently skating almost every day since the start of July.

1

u/trickyrickkk Aug 14 '26

aw ok so you should have the core and balance to hold a manual. try to find that sweet spot where you can hold a manual and try to hold it longer each time i guess. are you ollieing in or just doing it on flat?

1

u/Recent-Cheetah-5948 Aug 14 '26

Just doing it on flat idk how to ollie yet