I had never landed a Shuvit in my life that I could remember. I simply never tried them. But after about 8 hours of focused practice and 800ish attempts, I was landing them consistently.
I’ll go over my process of learning the Shuvit, how I collected my data, and tips for anyone learning as well.
Let’s dive into it.
How Long Does It Take to Learn a Shuvit
So, weirdly enough, before I started learning Shuvits, I had already landed a few Pop-Shuvits. Other than that though, I started completely from scratch. I had never landed a Shuvit in my life that I could remember. I simply never tried them.
Remember though, learning any trick requires a lot of time and commitment.
Learning a Shuvit well takes about 8 to 10 hours of dedicated practice or 800 attempts of the trick. After putting in this practice, you should be able to land your Shuvits about 70+% of the time. Other factors can help you learn faster such as frequency of practice, skating a quality board, and having someone giving you advice on your form.
Specifically, it took me about 8 hours and 800 attempts to be able to land a Shuvit at least 70% of the time. I averaged about .8 of an hour of focused practice for each session over about 12 sessions. Now it feels like I land it almost every time.
Also, note some people simply learn faster or slower than others. This data was collected directly from my experience and that’s only a sample size of only one person. There are other factors at play here to consider:
- I couldn’t skate more than 2 or 3 times a week and even had to take a couple of weeks off for work
- I usually only had time to skate an hour to an hour and a half each session
- My skate spot wasn’t ideal. The ground isn’t totally smooth and not exactly flat either
- I suck
So yea, this is just to give you a general idea of how long it took me, an adult with not a lot of time, to learn how to Shuvit. Compared to learning Frontside 180s, you can see that this is definitely an easier trick as it took about half the time to learn for me.
How I Collected My Data
To collect all of my data, I would go skate and spend either all of the session or part of the session focusing on learning Shuvits. I would then attempt the trick in sets of 10 and count the number of attempts that I landed as I did. I would then write how many I landed into my phone like “3/10” if I landed 3 out of 10 attempts.
I would also record the day that I skated and how long I spent focusing on that trick. I did this until I felt I had Shuvits on lock enough.
How Long It Took to Progress
Learning any trick in skating takes time.
Learning to do a Shuvit consistently took a total of about 8 to 10 hours over 12 different skate sessions to land the trick over 70% of the time for two sessions. This was done mostly over about a month and a half. I don’t have a lot of time that I am able to dedicate to skateboarding so you can absolutely do this quicker. I think skating infrequently made this whole process longer for me.
Regardless, a Shuvit is something that you can land literally the same afternoon you try it. This was the case for me and this is why it is considered maybe the easiest trick you can learn on a skateboard. Getting your Shuvits consistent and with some speed takes time though. Skateboarding is hard and seriously is a big-time commitment to progress at all.
If you want to see how long it takes to learn to do an ollie, check out my guide with data here. It probably takes longer than you think.
Shuvit Progression
Below are three gifs. The first one when I started trying Shuvits, the second is about halfway into progressing and the last gif is the most recent one. Yes, I wear the same clothes a lot when I skate.
My form still isn’t perfect and Shuvits with speed are still hard for me (actually Pop-Shuvits with speed are way easier). I intend to work on this trick, but decided to stop recording percentage landed because I land it often enough and want to focus on something else.
You can see that I definitely got more comfortable doing this trick with speed and am a bit cleaner, but I’m still not as smooth as I’d like to be. As always, I have actually landed much better ones than in this final clip, but just didn’t get those on camera. I’ll keep throwing them in little lines until they look smooth though.
Tips to Learn a Shuvit
Practice While Moving Slowly First
Most tricks don’t really become harder as you go faster, but just require more commitment. It usually is only a mental block or a sloppy form that stops you from landing a trick with speed.
With Shuvits though, I really felt like this trick got much more difficult with speed. In fact, I honestly wouldn’t try to do this trick at higher speeds when you could do something like a Pop-Shuvit instead (which somehow is easier with speed even though I haven’t practiced them).
So definitely start off slow with your Shuvits. I never recommend learning a trick while standing still, but moving at a snail’s pace is ok. Pick up speed slowly or you’re likely to get some nasty shinners. I hit my shins by far the worst while trying this trick at higher speeds.
Flick Your Back Foot
This was the difference for me whenever I seemingly couldn’t land this trick for my life.
I would sometimes just push backward with my entire leg, but not flick my back foot to spin the board. I’m so used to flicking my foot when I do an Ollie or Pop-Shuvit that I unconsciously took out the flick part when I took out the Ollie part. This was a mistake.
Definitely practice a nice, easy flick back with your back foot to get the smooth and fast Shuvits you want. I also would sometimes almost curl the toes of my back foot over the edge of the board to help get an easy flick back. This is unnecessary though.
Move on to Pop-Shuvits Quickly
A Shuvit is a nice quick beginner trick to learn, but it’s extremely limited. You will never do a Shuvit into a grind or over an obstacle. You pretty much can only do it on flat ground and banks. Additionally, I think it is a trick that gets harder to control with speed (at least for me).
I would get this trick down while you’re still learning to Ollie and then instantly move on to Pop-Shuvits. Still learn the Shuvit because they are fun sometimes and you don’t want to get a letter in SKATE from a trick this easy.
What to Learn After the Shuvit
After learning a Shuvit, it can be difficult to decide what to learn next. Personally, I’m going straight for the Pop-Shuvit, but I already learned how to Ollie.
After the Shuvit it is best to learn the Ollie. This is because an Ollie is necessary to learn other basic street skateboarding tricks. An Ollie will also give you much more bang for your buck when you skate around and cruise. If you already have learned the Ollie, then there are many tricks you can choose to learn next.
Honestly, I love Braille’s breakdown of the order of tricks that you should learn. They really do have a great methodology of learning tricks in a simplistic order so that you don’t challenge yourself too much too early. You’ll also get a great foundation by following their trick order.
For basic tricks, the order is generally as follows:
- Shuvits
- Front Shove
- Ollie
- Frontside 180
- Backside 180 (this one is something I skipped)
- Pop Shove It
- Kickflip
- Heel Flip
Though keep in mind there are great other tricks to learn early on. For instance, the Revert and normal Shuvits are easy and great to learn to add some quick style to your skating.
If you’ve already learned an Ollie and don’t know what to learn next, check out my guide to choosing the next trick after an Ollie here.
Conclusion
So that’s it.
I hope this helps you get a sense of exactly how long it can take to learn Shuvits well. Remember that this will vary a bit from person to person. Also skateboarding is hard so be patient with yourself and enjoy the process.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and look out for more content from Board and Wheels.
Sources
Below are sources that helped me learn to do a Shuvit. I usually watch a few different guides and I think you should too. There isn’t one perfect trick guide and it often takes a few perspectives to make things click for a new trick.