"Learning To" vs. "How To"

As a novice skateboarder and a developing snowboarder I'm in a useful position as there are loads of tricks that I can't do, a lot of them pretty basic. Read on...

In my opinion the "how to" trick tips in magazines don't really help that much when it comes to learning new stuff as they tend to describe how a rider performs the trick. That's useful isn't it? I'm not sure. I do really enjoy reading the articles though.

You see, I think you get a description of how to do the trick from the perspective of a rider that can already land it in his sleep. To rub it in, they're always pulling the moves off huge kickers too :-)? I'm thinking that maybe a description of the steps a rider goes through when he already knows how to do it doesn't help with getting there yourself.

I could be totally wrong though!

Anyway, with this in mind I am going to try to do a couple of "learning tos" rather than "how tos". I'll pick a trick that Mike and I can't yet do (I haven't asked Mike yet) and document us learning the trick. The hope is that watching someone going through the learning process will help (and be fun) - see the things that work and the things that don't. If it turns out to be useful and/or we have fun doing it - I'll probably do some more.

I know that there's no substitute for actual practice - but let's see what we can produce.