I am going to attempt to demonstrate neuroplasticity through two skateboarding concepts: switch stance and skate vision. Two concepts that go completely unnoticed to the untrained eye, yet add beautiful layers of complexity and sophistication to the world of skateboarding and street skating specifically. By the end of this article I imagine you will have unlocked your Sharingan, and may have developed a deeper understanding, if not love, for the art and sport.

1. Switch Stance
Skating switch refers to the act of riding or performing tricks in the stance opposite to your native, natural stance. In simple, non-blah terms, you’re doing it backwards. This is the equivalent to writing with your left hand if you’re right-handed, so you can imagine the degree of difficulty that gets added when attempting to do things that could, you know, potentially get you killed. Let’s use Tyshawn Jones’s switch ollie over the table as an example.

Now for the record, there are other variables in this clip that make this the NBD (never been done) trick that it is – for example the fact that he is ollieing over the length (not the width) of the table, but we are going to stick to the topic here. From an outside perspective, Tyshawn is doing something really cool: jumping over a table with a skateboard. This feat alone is objectively pretty awesome – the speed, the height, the way the board sticks to his feet, etc. But he is also DOING IT BACKWARDS aka switch. The reason I suspect that the subtlety of switch skating goes completely unnoticed to the general public is because you need a previous understanding of a skateboarder’s natural stance in order to understand they are skating switch. And since natural stances can come in 2 options, regular (left foot forward) or goofy (right foot forward), it would be impossible to instinctively know a skater’s natural stance and consequently whether he is riding switch or not. That is unless you’ve trained your eye enough to see what switch skating typically looks like (there are inconclusive hints through body positioning), seen enough footage of the skater, or just used Google. Oh hey Google, that’s so embarrassing I didn’t know you were reading this. I’m accepting donations to the site if you have any money just laying around. The fact this simple looking trick sparked such a wave in the skateboarding world (leading to criticisms and a detailed analysis by the likes of Gifted Hater) after originally being released in Tyshawn’s “The General” part is evidence of the degree of difficulty this one switch ollie carries. Perhaps this long but necessary, drawn-out explanation of switch skating starts to unveil some of the invisible layers of difficulty in skateboarding.

2. Skate Vision
Skate Vision is a somewhat made-up term to describe the ability to look at normal, man-made or natural structures in the world as skateable obstacles. Someone with skate vision will look at a handrail (originally designed to support those walking up or down stair sets) as an opportunity to front krook it. Someone with skate vision will look at the stairwell adjacent to the handrail (originally designed to provider a safer means to travel amongst varying heights within an environment) as an opportunity to do a nollie back heel for their ender. Hi Jerry Hsu. Those with skate vision will look at a curb (originally designed to differentiate between sidewalk and street and to help control water runoff) as a day full of slappys. Demonstrated below.

The way I like to define Skate Vision from a less skate-related perspective, is the ability to perceive the world and the reality that was handed to you in a completely different way. When I think of Skate Vision I think of Steve Jobs’s Apple ad “Think Different.” I think of all of the times I worked through a depression, changing my reality from a dark, lonely, suicidal one to a reality filled with love and understanding. I think of neuroplasticity. Skate Vision is simply one example of how skateboarding helped strengthen my awareness and ability to change my current perspective on life. My skateboard has also taught me many painful lessons in mindfulness – something I like to equate to a monk slapping another monk-in-training with a stick when he/she stopped meditating. I think I saw that in a movie once. Or I just made that up. But from my own personal experience, when I am not mindful (and focused) about every single motion while skating I usually end up painfully landing wrong. A great lesson in being aware of the thoughts that pop up and sifting through the ones you intentionally want to focus on and follow. After only three years of somewhat consistent skating, the art has become one of the most valuable things in my life.

Neuroplasticity in the words of Emma McAdam: