Ive heard heaps of people give advice saying to not practice mongo and just learn switch for longdistance and I honeslty dissagree so much.
1st mongo is easier to learn significantly because if you loose balance and need to get into a stable positon you just end up in your regular position so its alot less sketchy if you need to ride around people or cars where it matters, alowing you to practice your non domanant foot more.
2nd its quicker and more seemless to switch between mongo and regluar making it still a necesary skill to learn.
3rd its super transferable and so you can practice mongo for most of the time and then practice switch and learning how to carve and turn etc, and in my eperience mongo will get you most of the way to switch and youll get there quicker cause again, its less sketchy so you can practice more.
also learning mongo allows you to push with both legs waaaaaay qicker then trying to learn switch allowing beguinners to go for more intense and longer rides quicker, building the strength in both legs earlier on as well.
Am i missing something? because why are so many people against it (excluding skaterboarders and downhill riders because theres very different a real benifits to switch).
The mongo push has historically been one of those things around which a culture of rejection has been created for no solid reason, like the mallgrab (grabbing the board by the truck). I would say it's true that controlling the board this way is harder, especially on an LDP which tend to have asymmetrical trucks, but if you go straight or just have good technique it doesn't have to be bad. I sometimes push mongo or switch from one foot to the other like in dance because I like it.
I wouldn't give it too much thought, if it works for you, go for it. But it's true that you'll never change the general perspective of the skate community regarding this.
Mallgrab, pushing mongo and lifting/leaving your board gracefully on the ground with both hands are things that will always be hated. 🤷♂️🤷♂️
@Sun If you are taking cars etc into the equation I'd say that is a argument for learning switch real well ideally, since there is more potential control. If you arn't going to put the effort into that tho mongo better.
@Matt Wrongboarding o yea sorry I mean like somewhat quiet residential roads where being able to comfortably footbreak and move to the shoulder (which where I live at least there all super rough) but not in a city with cars and pedestirans everywhere. And fully agree though learning to ride switch and being able to do it really well is super important.
@F Llabata thanks for the imput man and i agree :) I just thought id get some imput from people more experienced in case there was a good reason not to reccomend it for beginners
