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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