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There is really nothing hard to do in landing a 360. You just have
to spin fast enough to pull it out before you hit the ground. To accomplish
this you can spin slowly and jump high, or spin fast, and stay low. For
the purposes of this page, assume you want a normal jump with a fairly
fast spin. The first step in doing a 360 is the approach. Get on your favorite flat stretch of pavement, and roll at a fairly slow speed. Crouch down at your knees and waist as if you are going to jump, and put your arms on one side of you. Next explode upwards and throw your arms to the other side. Spot your landing point and direction, unwind, and land. A couple of keys to this are head position, and body control. If you are going to spin clockwise, and you are looking over your left shoulder, your head has to turn 180 degrees before you start spinning. So make sure to look ahead over the shoulder that you are turning towords. The second key to making a 360 is keeping your body tight. Most beginners tend to jump and spin fine, but they let their body seperate, with their legs and arms flailing about. This |
is bad because it not only slows down your rotation,
but it also puts you in an off balance position, and makes it quite difficult
to land. Pull your arms in close to your body, and try to keep your legs
together to avoid this. You may want to practice on grass first, or even without your skates on. It shouldn't be a problem either way. So just jump hard, spin harder, keep a tight body, and spot your landing. It is one of the easiest tricks to learn, so keep at it! To do this trick fakie, or backwards, is a bit tougher. The spinning part is just the same as a forwards 360, but the jumping part is a bit harder. Just concentrate on using the whole foot to jump with, instead of just the toes. Spotting your landing is probably more important in a fakie 360, because you will still be going backwards when you land. But if you can do a 360, a fakie 360 is a natural extension, and after a bit of practice, is easy to pick up. So for a fakie 360, spin hard, jump with the whole foot, and spot your landing spot carefully. |
