Cross Academy bricks
P op, Catch, Jump
Exercise to develop back foot control
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The pop, catch, jump is a brick to work on your back foot snap and drag control. You don't use your front foot at all, you snap the tail and lift the board with your back foot so you can grab it with your hand. As a landing you can jump on the board, like an acid drop.
The pop catch brick is similar to a no comply and a one foot ollie, two tricks that are kind of old school. They aren't performed much in modern street skating, but they apply to longboarding pretty well.
Pop
I stand on one foot on the ground and place my back foot on the tail, right where I'd put it if I were on the board. My back foot is flexed or wound up to get ready to snap.
I snap the tail down with my back foot. My front hand is placed where I can grab the board as it pops up.
Catch
As the board comes up to vertical and bounces up off the ground, I help the board action by dragging my back foot up the board. The foot is rolled onto the arch and the arch side of the foot is dragged. When you buy shoes, make sure there is a good ollie guard or grip surface on the inside part of the shoe, not just on the outside edge.
I'm in the process of grabbing the board. My fingers are spread to target the board at my palm and not my fingers. If you control the board well with your back foot, it's really easy to grab it. If you don't use your back foot right, the board will fly at you hard and not upwards, and you will hurt your hand as you grab. If you find your hand is getting beat up, wear wrist guard gloves like the Harbingers shown on the gear page or regular wrist guards like the Triple Eights that I use in Cruise Power.
I hold the board on the heelside nose in a Lien grab. I drag the back foot up to the middle of the board. Now the board is completely in control between my back foot and front hand.
Here I'm up on tiptoe, but I don't jump yet. In a standing no comply I would jump, but here it's broken down into two parts. I actually pushed the board past vertical on this exercise. In an ollie, when you get the board vertical, it's really easy to lift it into the air, because it's glued to your feet.
Jump
The next part of this brick is a sort of mini acid drop, where I'm going to jump onto the board. I lower the board and bend my front foot, to prepare to jump. I dragged my back foot down a few inches to a spot in front of the tail. I keep the side of my back foot in contact.
I jump off my front foot into the air, holding onto the board with my front hand.
I let go of the board and bring my front foot up off the ground. In this frame my front foot is off to the side and I'm bringing it over to its regular position on the board behind the front trucks.
I get my front foot onto the board and it helps control the landing. The landing is on the back wheels first.
I touch down on the front wheels to complete the brick.
The idea of the jump and acid drop second part of the brick is to work on your ollie or boneless landings. As a variation, you can level the board and try to hit the ground on the front wheels first, or all wheels at the same time.
