Kickflip key tips: 1. Straighten the front leg 2. Flick through the board!

I kinda went through the same confusion. What is the flick?? I found out that the flick is in fact dragging hard (to the point that I visualise a kungfu kick) horizontally as if kicking THROUGH the side of the nose. The key is to realise the direction of kick is horizontal (not up along the plane of the popped deck). In most videos the foot may look like it is kicking upwards but that happens only after the foot is no longer in contact with the deck, because the knee is a hinge afterall. The apparent ankle flick is incidental, as a consequence of your foot leaving your deck nose suddenly. There is no need to consciously do anything with the ankle. Maybe the pros can add ankle power but I found it unnecessary as a start. The timing is like in an Ollie. I made this video to save the results of my painstaking research. [VIDEO] hope it helps you.

Here [VIDEO] is a video that u/controlledslide compiled

It is a horizontal kick by straightening the knee followed seamlessly by an ankle rotation outwards (which is what most ppl recognise as the "flick" but they omit to mention there is an actual kick before that) The ankle can flick outwards because, just like in an ollie, when you drag your foot up, you flex the foot inwards, primed for the outward flick. When i was lost and confused previously, I made this clip to collect key notes and tips which helped: [VIDEO] hope it helps you. The other thing to note is this: [LINK]