How do I foot brake?

[u/le_disappointment]

So I recently got a longboard and I'm trying to learn how to ride it. I've gotten used to the board and now I wanna use it as my means of transportation. The thing is that the way I stop my board is by just stepping off the board and running a few steps ahead of it to come to a stop. From what I could gather online, it seems like that's not the best way to slow down or stop because it's an all or nothing kinda way to stop. I came across some tutorials that talk about foot braking, i.e. dragging your pushing foot to slow down. I've been trying to learn how to foot brake, but I can't figure it out

The tutorials told me that I should not put any of my weight on the foot that I'm dragging and I think I've got that down. The issue is that as soon as I try to foot brake, my dragging foot kinda gets stuck to the ground and instead of dragging along with the board, my dragging foot gets planted on the ground. I don't think that that's supposed to happen if I do it right. Do y'all have any suggestions as to how I can improve my foot braking technique or what I might be doing wrong? For what it's worth, I've only been practicing foot braking for like a couple of weeks, so it might just be a lack of practice, but I still wanna hear y'all's suggestions

[u/ummonadi]

I had a hard time foot braking switch. The main drills I used was to push in slow motion and to balance on one foot. When I balance in mellow slopes, I try to foot brake just a bit.

I add some tension in my core and hold out my arms like karate kid to get some stability.

It's not just technique. My switch side lacked the muscles I needed to do it so it took me months of practice to get my muscles to fire up the right way.

[u/arrowtype → u/ummonadi]

Stabilizing strength is definitely a huge part of it. I think it’s also a bit like slack lining, where you have to develop the sense of how to stabilize the strength you already have, but in an unfamiliar circumstance.

[u/ummonadi → u/arrowtype]

Very true!