The ollie is without a doubt, the most important skateboard trick and the base for many other tricks. You may already know how to do a ollie and be looking to improve or you might be saying, I can’t ollie, is there an easy way some secret to doing ollies that I just don’t get? Good news and bad news, there is no secret to how to do a ollie, but it is also a skate trick that will require a lot of practice. The following ollie tutorial will help you fly.
This is definitely a trick you will want to practice first standing still as this will force you to fine tune your coordination, timing and weight balance.
Stand on your skateboard, back foot near the back edge of the tail and front foot in the middle of the deck. Crouch down, leaning slightly forward towards the nose of the deck. Kick your back foot down on the tail while at the same time jumping into the air. Lift your knees up towards your chest, use your front foot to guide the board up, sliding it up from the middle of the deck towards the nose. The contact by your front foot with the board should be light, just enough to catch the griptape, but not so much as to push the board away from you. Your back foot should not be in contact with the board during this stage. Continue guiding your front foot up to the nose of the board. When you have reached maximum height, use your front foot to level out the board and bring your back foot to the back bolts. Land the ollie with both feet firmly on the board and over the bolts. If you are too far over the nose or the tail of the board when you land, you will cause one end of the deck to hit the ground which will throw you off balance.
Once you have the technique down, begin to practice the ollie while riding. Landing your first ollie will give you great satisfaction.
To improve, teach your friends how to do a ollie then try stacking decks with your friends to see who can do the highest ollie. Start with one deck, placed on its side, 2 wheels touching the ground. After everyone has ollied over the first deck, add another deck to the stack by sliding it down in between the first deck and wheels so that the wheels of the second deck face the opposite direction of the first. Alternate stack in this way until a winner is declared.
If you are still having problems with doing a high ollie pay extra attention to your timing. Try crouching lower before doing an ollie, jumping higher and pulling your legs up as high as possible.
More like this:
- Pop Shove It Trick Tip - How to do a Pop Shove it on a Skateboard
- Shove It Trick Tip - How to do a Shuvit on a Skateboard
- Nose Stall Trick Tip - How to do a Nose Stall on a Skateboard
November 1st, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Definitely the most important trick in the books. Good work on the tutorial well written!