If you’re new to skateboarding, one of the first trick’s you’ll be learning and practicing is the ollie.
Its simple enough and actually a very beautiful trick in its own right, but it takes a fair amount of time to develop your own style and a good feel for it.
This is a 5 step tutorial, bare-to-the-bone basics. But no matter what, keep practicing, because one thing we can tell you for sure is that skateboarding is one of many wonderful doors in this life that can definitely lead to magic.
5 LEARNING STEPS
STEP1. Leaning Basics to Get Used to the Stance
First, to gain the necessary level of comfort to attempt to ollie you should learn how to mount and dismount your skateboard, how to push yourself forward while keeping your momentum, and how to do a simple maneuver called the tick-tack.
TUTORIAL FOR GETTING ON AND OFF SKATEBOARD
Tick-tacking is when you gain a forward momentum by swinging the nose of your skateboard back and forth from left to right then right to left and so on.
It might take a few days to get comfortable learning these basics but it’s essentially necessary, so take your time and get comfortable. Now presuming you have taken the time to do so, the first specific challenge of learning to ollie is getting used to the ollie stance. That would be to put your front foot behind the front bolts and to put your toes of back foot on the edge of the tail.
STEP2: Popping Tail
Once you feel comfortable being on your skateboard, let’s take a look at the next step, which is popping the tail.
Start practicing this step from a stationary position, maybe find a small groove in a sidewalk for your back wheels that will help stabilize the board, and assume your ollie-ing stance.
Make sure your back foot is on the edge of the tail but not hanging over it.
Apply a strong burst of pressure with your back foot to the tail, but try to do this while keeping the weight of your body still centered over your board. Focus on overcoming the instinct to jump backward off the board when you pop down on the tail.
Don’t hold back. Make sure the tail of your skateboard smacks the ground pretty hard. If you do it correctly there should be a distinct ‘thwack’ or ‘popping’ sound.
Keep practicing until you can make this noise repeatedly without falling off the skateboard too often.
At this stage you won’t quite feel like your soaring on your skateboard but the board is actually achieving a small level of lift, and if you’re starting to develop a sense of comfort popping down on your board that wasn’t there in the earlier stages, you’re well on your way.
STEP3: Popping Tail while Jumping
When you’ve gotten used to step2, it’s time to start jumping up as you pop the tail.
Apply the burst of pressure and pop down on the tail like you’ve been practicing while this time jumping simultaneously upwards off that same back foot.
Don’t mind too much what you should be doing with your front foot. Focus your attention instead on how to properly use your back foot. If you are able to make your back foot properly pop down on the tail, and if you’re able to jump properly upward off your back foot immediately after popping down, your front foot should quite naturally find ITself making the proper movements to facilitate a well done olley.
Adding this element of the jump is likely to make your motions and the results of your efforts a little awkward at first, but there are a few things to focus on that will help you develop a confident ollie. Keep your head in a relatively static position and focus on jumping straight upwards off the same back foot that you’re popping down with on the tail. Focus on keeping the weight of your body OVER the board, and avoid the instinct to jump up and off to the back or to the sides. The idea of landing on a small object with four wheels is instinctively scary but soon enough you should get used to it with practice and experience.
STEP4: Ollie while Moving Forward
That would be doing an ollie while you’re moving forward, and the amount of fun that you can have after you nail this part is hard to describe. Forward momentum on your skateboard will force you to shift your body weight back ever so slightly for the sake of balance, so you’ll have to be prepared to jump slightly forward while you’re moving, in addition to upwards. A few things to keep in mind.
Maintaining enough momentum to keep a straight trajectory on your skateboard is an important factor in ollie-ing straight. Its fine to go slow and practice popping the tail with or without jumping at first, then you can gradually increase your speed and jump higher.
STEP5: Ollie Over Objects
Soon enough your ollie should be coming to you pretty naturally and pretty dependably, and you’ll probably want to ollie further and higher and up and down and over things both big and small. To best gauge the increase in your ability to ollie higher, challenge yourself with higher and higher objects to ollie over. Start from low movable object which you don’t need to worry about getting stacked. Once you can easily over your object, make them higher and higher until you get satisfied.
TUTORIAL OF OLLIE OVER OBJECTS
Having Fun Learning
It may take some time, but if you stick with it pretty much you’ll get it. It is already going to be so much one when back wheels goes off from the ground even an inch. So have fun, and enjoy the process no matter what!