Performing an Ollie

The ollie was invented by a man way back in 1977 by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand and it is the first trick that most skateboarders will most probably learn first of all. All flatland and park skateboarding tricks are founded on this one trick so getting it right is of extreme importance for your skateboarding career. Once you learn how to correctly ollie, you will be able to go on and learn all kinds of other skateboarding tricks, or even start inventing your own tricks from there on.

The correct stance

The first step of performing an ollie is to start of by placing your back foot so that the ball of your foot is directly on the tail end of your skateboard. Now what you have to do is place your front foot inbetween the middle and front trucks on the board. this is the position where you want your feet to be situated just before you begin to do the ollie. If having your feet shifted to other places on your skateboard makes it more comfortable to do this then go ahead.

You can either learn how to ollie whilst you are standing still, or whilst your skateboard is rolling forwards or backwards. If you olly while you are standing, it still works the same way as whilst rolling, but rolling ollies area much more simple task to perform than that of stationary ollies.

One way in order to learn how to ollie with your skateboard stationary, is to place your skateboard on some carpet or grass so that it does not roll. If you then prefer to learn to ollie whilst your skateboard is rolling, then make sure you don't go fast at the beginning. Either way you learn how to ollie, once you feel comfortable you should then try to ollie in the opposite direction as well.

The pop

When you are ready to perform an ollie, you should bend your knees deeply. The more you bend your knees, the much higher you are likely to go. The next step is to slam your back foot down on to tail end of your skateboard as hard as you can. Whilst you do this you want to also jump into the air, using your back foot to do this.

That step is the secret to doing it successfully and requires much practice. It is all about getting your timing just right. You want to be able to slap the skateboard tail end down and as it hits the ground, to then jump off of that foot right up into the air. Also make sure that you pull that back foot high into the air with a quick snapping action.

Importance of the front foot

When you jump up into the air, your front foot will need to roll inward and meanwhile with the outside of your foot, you will want to guide the skateboard as it flies up into the air. It is almost as if you are dragging the side of your front foot up the skateboard and that is near enough what is happening. What you are actually doing is using your shoe and the griptape on the board to pull the skateboard higher along with you and then guiding the skateboard into the direction where you want it go. Whilst you jump up into the air, you must pull your knees as high as you possibly can. This is to try to hit your chest with your knees. The more downwards that you crouch down before you perform the ollie, and the higher you pull your feet upwards, the higher your ollie will definately be in relation to this.

Throughout the entire ollie, you must try and keep your shoulders and body level with one another, as in do not lean towards the tail end of the nose of your skateboard. This will make performing the ollie a lot easier to do and it will make landing easier on your skateboard afterwards. When you reach the very top of your jump, so when you are as high in the air as you are to go, you must flatten out the skateboard underneath you. Also make sure that both of your feet are level on the top of the skateboard.

Land and roll away

When you come to fall back downwards towards the ground and land the skateboard, you must now bend your knees once again. You MUST remember to do this as this is very important, as your knees will then help to absorb and take in the shock that is inflicted when landing on your skateboard and will keep your knees from taking to much from the impact and being damaged. Doing this will also mean you are in more control of skateboard. The last part is to just roll away and that's basically all there is to the ollie and of course that and to practice it! Remember some people learn how to ollie within a day and some considerably longer than that, maybe months or a whole year.

Practicing methods

Ollie next to a curb - To begin this method of practising the ollie, you must first of all place your skateboard beside a curb, right up against it. This will then help keep your board from rolling away. The next step is to do everything that was described earlier, but not to worry about what your board does and just get on with doing it. When you do it land up on top of the curb, on the sidewalk. You do not have to worry yourself about doing it correctly or whether the skateboard will be there or not, or even if you will get hurt. Just go step by step through the motions of ollying up the curb. If you do it correctly, the skateboard will of course be there. On the other hand if you are to do it wrong, you will probably just land on your feet on the sidewalk.

Ollie on the carpet or in grass - This method will help keep your skateboard from rolling away. It is a common thought that people have, that ollying standing still is a lot harder than whilst you are rolling, but practicing like this can help your body learn how to do it. If you are worried about the skateboard from flying from underneath you, practicing on the carpet or grass will prevent this and make you feel safer.


Problems you may run into:


Chickenfoot - This occurs when you pop up into the air on youre skateboard, but when you land, one of your feet always seems to land on the ground instead of back on the board. The most common reason for this is that you do not feel safe enough, and you are pulling one foot out to catch yourself. The method to stop this problem is to simply just focus on keeping that offending foot on the board and to build that confidence, of not stacking it, up.

Low Ollies - The biggest cause of this happening is that you may not be going down low enough before you begin to ollie and that you are not not pulling your feet up high enough after you jump. Also another hting to remeber is that when you crouch down, try touching the ground. On the other hand when you jump up, try to hit yourself in the chest with both knees. Do not about worry about falling as this will no doubt happen sometimes a few times.

Losing board in midair - Another thing that is bound to happen now and again to you is that you will tend to lose your skateboard in mid air whilst performing an ollie. If this happens to you, it may be caused by you kicking the board away with your feet while you are still in the air, or perhaps because you are taking your feet off of your board. To correct this problem try and make sure to keep yourself and your feet above the skateboard at all times.