How To Tailwhip a BMX Bike


Dan's Comp How To Series: How to tailwhip.

The tailwhip has become a pretty common trick these days but it is certainly one of the most difficult tricks to learn. There is so much going on with a tailwhip and it takes a lot of effort and finesse to get around and land properly. Here, we break down this complex trick step by step and provide some very helpful pro tips to help you get this trick dialed.



Where to learn?

Where you decide to learn this trick is personal preference. Some people feel better trying it flying out of a transition, such as a box jump or a quarter pipe, while others prefer a flat bank/wedge ramp, and some stick with flat ground. We recommend trying a few on each type of area to see which you feel more comfortable on and stick with that. Once you learn the trick you can then work on it on the other types of ramp.


The type of ramp you choose does slightly change how the trick is done. When flying out of a transition, the ramp gives you your air time which can make it a bit easier. The drawback to this is you come out of the ramp front-end high, so you have to level out a lot while executing the tailwhip. We go in to this in more detail a bit later.


Tailwhipping out of a bank or on flat ground requires you to generate your air time from a bunny hop-like move. While this takes a lot more effort and energy, it also sets you up in a bit better position than out of a steep transition.


In my opinion, a bank to bank hip is the ideal place to learn them. It gives you a bit more pop than flat ground while keeping you a bit more level than a transition. Doing it on a hip for some reason seems to work better from my experience teaching others. I may be a bit biased since this is the type of ramp I learned them on.



The Three Steps of a Tailwhip

The tailwhip can be broken down in to 3 steps; the kick, the whip, and the catch. While most people just hucka tailwhip and try to learn it all at once, we recommend taking it step by step. Remember, BMX is all muscle memory. So get your body familiar with step one, this will make step two much easier to focus on, and the same with step three.



Step One: The Kick

Kicking the tailwhip is a common term, however, there is very minimal kicking actually going on, if any. I've watched slow-mo videos of myself doing double tailwhips and while my foot does the kicking motion, there is actually no contact made. The movement of the bike all comes from the whip, which is step two.


Well then, what's the point of this step? The kick is all about initiating the movement in the proper direction. While you can tailwhip either direction, there is a "normal" direction based on your riding stance. Much like spinning, if you ride right foot forward you want the bike to rotate counter-clockwise. Conversely, if you ride left foot forward, you want the bike to rotate clockwise. This helps with catching the tailwhip and helps once you advance to adding tailwhips in to spins.


Regardless of the direction, you want to "kick" the tailwhip with your back foot. Since I am right foot forward, my left foot kicks the bike around counter-clockwise.


Showing the proper direction to kick a tailwhip.

Step Two: The Whip

As mentioned, the kick is not what gets the bike around. It's all in the whip that comes from the movement from the arms. This is something that you just have to feel out and get familiar with. You can practice this by whipping the bike around while standing. It's all about moving the bars in a perfectly timed small circle to get the frame to rotate around. It's not a large movement, in fact, keeping it close and tight is the goal. We recoomend getting familiar with this before actually trying the trick.


Gif showing how to practice whipping the bike around while standing on the ground.

Step Three: The Catch

Catching and landing the tailwhip is what usually takes the longest but, if you take it step by step as we recommend, you will have it dialed in no time.


If you are doing the tailwhip in the proper direction we mentioned before, you will be kicking it with your back foot and now catching it with your front foot. So many riders just reach to get over the bike but never find the pedals. We recommend taking a step back and focus on catching that front foot first. Land beside the bike with that front foot on the pedal. After you get dialed with that, catch that front foot and allow your other foot to go over the bike. After a few of those, that back foot will find the pedal and you will have landed it!


The three stages of catching / landing a tailwhip.

Pro Tip:

Most riders, especially those trying tailwhips out of a steep transition ramp, struggle getting their bike leveled out. Since they come out of the ramp with their front wheel higher than the rear wheel, the whip goes around but the bike is still in that steep angle. You cannot land like this and if by some wild chance you do find the pedals you are sure to loop out. Do not recommend.


Something that really helped me was the though of kick the bike down rather than out/around. Kicking / whipping the bike down allowed me to get my body over the bars and level the bike out as the whip came around. Staying over the bars is crucial. In fact, when learning, you need to feel like you're much further over the bars than you need to be. It will feel strange and scary at first but you have to be over the bars, not have them out in front of you.


And of course...HAVE FUN!


Pro tip: kicking the bike down during a tailwhip.

For a more in-depth break down, including more pro tips, how brakes help with tailwhips, how to catch the whip without brakes, and more, check out the video below.