What am I doing wrong?

I’ve been trying to learn flat ground manuals for a good part of my life and now I’m really trying to make myself practice consistently. I’ve been holding them for about a second after initiating them but can’t seem to figure out what to do right when I find the balance point.

The things I’m concentrating on:

•looking forward at where I’m going, not at my front tire
•try to push bike away from me rather than yanking up with my arms to initiate
•rocking back to try to steady myself over rear axle, point heel down

I still feel like 90% of the time I can’t even make it to the balance point even though I feel like I’m fully committing and ready to loop out if I have to. Any pointers would be awesome!

What am I doing wrong?
byu/themercilessbanana inMTB

by themercilessbanana