This is SnowboardAddiction.com riding with Nev Lapwood, Jesse Millen and the Junkie. This
video exposes the techniques behind tame-dogs which are cart-wheel styled frontflips. Tamedogs
are a good intro to getting inverted. It's normal to be hesitant on the whole upside
down concept however they tend to be less intimidating then backflips. It's also a trick
that you can perform on small features at relatively low speed.
The name Tamedog developed as the opposite of a wildcat, a cartwheel-style backflip made
famous by the legendary wildcats crew. We show how to wildcat in our backflips tutorial.
The tamedog is the only popular style of frontflip. Some people also call it a nollie frontflip.Nollie:
A nollie is a nose ollie, the opposite of an ollie.
Start with a little weight over your back foot. Shift to the nose of your board causing
it to flex. When you feel the resistance build, spring from the nose bringing both feet up
and landing evenly on the centre of your board. A strong nollie is definitely one of the most
important aspects for doing tamedogs, as this is what pops you into the air. Make sure you're
really good at nollies first and are able to do them anywhere on the mountain.
Tripod: Practicing this tripod movement will help
teach you how to get flex and pop out of the nose of your board and also projects your
board into the motion of a tame-dog. Get low, turn to your nose, place your hands
on the ground and push to extend your front leg creating pop. Balance on your tail then
roll back to both feet. Do the same movement all in one motion and
feel the pop coming from your nose. The harder and quicker you push back with your front
foot, the more pop you'll get. See how high you can get your tail off the ground and come
right back down onto 2 feet.
Roll: From here you can take this pop and project
it into a roll which uses the exact same motion as a tame-dog.
Get low to the ground, look back and try to place your hips and back right onto the nose
of your board. As your body connects with the ground push back with your front leg similar
to the tripod motion. This will pop your board from the ground flipping it up over you. Your
tail should dig back into the snow on the opposite side.
It's important to get as low to the ground as possible. otherwise you'll fall down to
your body which hurts. The roll won't hurt at all if you get low enough.
Once you've got the movement, try it over a small jump, roller or off a cat track. It's
actually easier when moving just remember to get as low as possible so your body gently
connects to the ground with no impact. You'll most likely roll right over back to your feet
and ride away. This is perfect practice for the alignment
of your tame-dogs so don't miss this step.
Pool and Tramp: (pool hasn't been filmed yet) Learning frontflips off diving boards and
on trampolines is a great way to increase your upside down awareness and control. On
a tramp do some frontflips first then try cartwheel style flips like a tamedog. This
will introduce you to the same aerial movement. Use you head and look in the direction you
ride while taking off and spotting the landing.
Doing tamedog style flips on a trampoline or into a pool will not help you simulate
the feeling of nollieing into a flip however it will help you get the feeling of popping
up, before beginning your rotation. Pay attention to this motion as it's a common mistake to
throw your weight down which will ruin your pop when trying them on the snow.
Putting it together: Cat tracks make a firm flat surface to pop
from and they drop away off the side, giving you more time to bring the flip around to
your feet. The safest way is to learn on a powder day which will dramatically increase
your confidence and soften the blow of any falls as.
Once you've found the perfect cat track to tame-dog from, warm up by doing a bunch of
nollies and also try the roll motion off it. Visualize what it will feel like to nollie
and then front-flip. Make sure you can keep a flat base as you
approach. Keep a little weight on your back foot. Rock your weight forward, spring from
your nose and try to nollie up and out in a 45 degree direction. After a strong nollie,
bring your legs in compact to your body and dip your head. Your back leg comes up and
over performing the cart-wheel flip. It's hard to understand how this works until your
try it, so find a nice powdery landing where you're not gonna hurt yourself. You may fall
on your back or butt on your first few tries. If you get it all the way around to your feet
straight away then you're doing awesome. The important part is still the nollie. Normally
you try to bring both feet up and land evenly in the centre of your board however with a
tamedog you nollie out at a 45 degree angle then bring your back leg over top. It's very
common to nollie and flip downwards while trying to learn this which doesn't work. you
need to nollie up and out to get the pop required. Don't try to flip too early.
Alignment: While flipping it's important to keep your
body aligned with your board. This will help make your tame-dog smooth and stylish. It's
common to dip your back shoulder forward while learning which will cork it into more of a
frontflip and usually put you off balance. Imagine your shoulders are connected to the
nose and tail of your snowboard and unable to twist when performing this trick. Grabbing
your knees can help keep you in alignment. Side flipping on the tramp and rolls on the
snow will also help to smoothen out your alignment for tamedogs.
Landing: Spotting your landing on this trick is difficult
as you're learning. The flip happens very quickly and it's easy to get disorientated.
You can usually feel when the landing is coming. After more practice, you'll be able to see
the landing from start to finish by looking down throughout the flip. Practicing cart
wheel style-flips on the tramp will also help you to spot and stomp your landings.
Try to land evenly on both feet and absorb your impact. If you're landing into pow then
you'll need to re-position your weight to your back foot immediately after landing to
prevent rag-dolling.
Summary: Tamedogs are a fun, impressive looking trick.
If you're having trouble with them then work on nollies all over the mountain. It's important
to be able to pop up and out with confidence. The spring from your board is what makes this
trick happen so practice both the tripod and roll movements until you feel it pop.
As you get them mastered you'll be able to do them from the knuckles of park jumps or
off various park features. It's not a trick that you normally take to big jumps as it's
easy to over rotate. However you can definitely slow the flip down and go bigger as you feel
comfortable.
This is SnowboardAddiction.com riding with Nev Lapwood, Jesse Millen and the Junkie.
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