How To Tailwhip

I'm going to show you how to do a tailwhip on a BMX bike. This is a really good move and it is used in a lot of aspects in BMX as well. It's not necessarily a flat land trick, it can be used in ramps, it can be used in parks, it can be incorporated in jump, and today we're going to look at flatland version which is the basic version of a tailwhip and all the other variations come from that.

So basically a tailwhip is basically what it says it is, the tail end of your bike is going to come around and you're going to land on it again and pedal away. The firs t section of this trick is you're going to kick the frame around basically but you need get into position to allow yourself to do that, so you will be riding along a normal angle and you pick a side which you're going to go to and you can almost do like a little can-can. You're going to step your free foot over the frame to the side, so you will either be on the peg or the pedal, you can kick the frame around with either, it doesn't really matter.

That's where you want to be, you're going to go on this side to this side. So almost you're going to ride along like that or on the back peg like that. That is your first stage, once you are comfortable with rolling around in that position without the bike tipping that way or this way.

Keep yourself steady and you will find that it is easy to roll. Before that you can learn your stances, once you have learned your stances which are the very basics of moves, back, sides, all these will become easier. So you're going to ride along, you're going to step over into a can-can position, I'm going to do it on the back peg because I find it easier that way and when you are ready you're going to be putting your foot in the tire and on the forks, your foot is going to jam in here so realistically your foot is going to act as a brake, you can use your brake as well which I like to do just as a backup but you can do it without brakes it doesn't have to be necessarily a trick for only people with brakes, you can do it brakeless.

Now, what you're going to do is you're going to be riding along with your foot on the pedal or the peg and the opposite foot that you put over the frame is going to stand on the tire, so basically you want to be in that position, now you're going to put your foot on the tire sideways, you don't want to jam it in like that because that will force the bike to go up high and you might get stuck if you have a large gap in your fork so it is best to go sideways, that covers all aspects, you're right on the tire and you're right in the fork of the bike and that is really not going to go anywhere. You're pretty safe there, especially if you've got the brake as well, it give you more of a standing surface as well, a bit more of an area. The stage after that which is the hard bit is actually kicking the frame around, now to do that you have to remember that this foot is going to be in there, this foot is going to be on the peg and so what we will do is pull the brake slightly not a lot, just so the bike leaves the ground.

When I am in that position as soon as I feel the back wheel come off, this leg I'm going to kick the frame around, actually you are going to be doing that's o even if you practice this on the flat ground it is quite nice to do it this way to get a feel of the trick. So stay quite close to the tire put the brake on and kick the frame around. That's basically what a tailwhip is going to look like.

So once you have mastered that on the ground the next section is actually landing the trick. Now to do that, when the frame is swinging around, you want to take your body weight and your foot is already going to be on the wheel and you're going to stand up slightly. You don't want this foot to be touching the ground.

The whole idea is to this whole trick without anything touching the ground so when the bike gets to around about a 180 degrees you're going to want to be in that position on the