Activities Sports & Athletics How to Footbrake on a Skateboard or Longboard Share PINTEREST Email Print Sports & Athletics Skateboarding Tutorials Basics Gear Famous Skaters Baseball Basketball Bicycling Billiards Bodybuilding Bowling Boxing Car Racing Cheerleading Cricket Extreme Sports Football Golf Gymnastics Ice Hockey Martial Arts Professional Wrestling Skating Paintball Soccer Swimming & Diving Table Tennis Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Other Activities Learn More By Adam Squared Updated April 10, 2019 01 of 07 How to Footbrake on a Skateboard or Longboard Hinterhaus Productions/Digital Vision/Getty Images You are cruising down your street and you are going a bit too fast or a car pulls out. Either way, it is very important to know how to footbrake so you don't crash and burn. These footbraking instructions are good for skateboarding, longboarding, and any other boarding you come up with. 02 of 07 Turn your Toes Adam Squared Take your front foot and turn your toes so they face the nose of the board. Your chest should also turn and face forward as well. 03 of 07 Weight Transfer Adam Squared Now go ahead and transfer all your weight on your front foot as you swing out your back leg and lower it to the ground. It is important to keep your back leg straight as you lower it to the ground. Also, keep all your weight centered on your front foot, do not lean back or forward. 04 of 07 Easy Pressure (Adam Squared) As you lower your back leg to the ground while keeping it straight, first apply light pressure to the ground with the sole of your shoe, and then continue to apply more pressure if you want to slow down faster. Remember: nice and easy. 05 of 07 Practice! Adam Squared Don't expect to get this your first time, it takes practice to learn how to footbrake. Please don't skip this step! Everyone needs to practice - there's no way around it. Practice! 06 of 07 Common Mistake Adam Squared A common first mistake is that when you apply your back foot to brake, it will want to skip off the ground. This is because you are applying too much weight on your back foot. Remember all your weight is basically on your front leg, and you are just dragging your back foot on the ground to slow down. 07 of 07 Learn Now! Thomas Barwick / Getty Images IMPORTANT: Don't go too fast because you will fall. Start learning how to footbrake at a comfortable speed, a speed where you would not normally need to brake at, then work your way up to faster speeds.