my ollie project

on the new year trick list thread I wrote:

time for me to sign up on the 2007 trick list.

1. decent flatland ollies - mine are still pathetically low.

I've been through all of Twellsy's excellent I need to ollie thread. In particular Justin's suggestion to use the back of a chair to remain in the air longer has helped.

I've also read a number of the many online how to ollie articles.

a good one is here:

http://skateboard.about.com/od/tricktips/ss/HowToOllie.htm

however by far the best one in terms of getting results is by our resident SOS owner Unusual on the UKSA forum http://www.ukskate.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=549 . His method teaches how to learn the ollie in stages. In the photos here I'm not trying to get the board completely airborne just practising his method of learning to tap the tail and control the board. Still frames from some vid I took with my cam on a stand.

with unusual's permission I have pasted the Unusual ollie method here. My suggestion is do all of what he says exactly as he says and don't try and miss any of the steps out.

this how i taught my nephew. learn these two steps before even trying to olly. walk before you can run, right?

step 1. feet in olly position. back foot on tip of tail.front foot a couple of inches in behind the front truck bolts. without even trying to olly, jump a little from this position into the bolts position. getting both feet over your respective truck bolts. you can learn this without rolling. once you feel comfortable doing this, do it rolling. just roll around a car park or somewhere and repeat this till it becomes second nature. jumping back and forth on your board.

step 2. feet in olly position again. all you have to do is smack the tail on the floor. then let the front wheels make contact again. do it quick as possible like your trying to STAB or JAB at the floor with the tail. so it makes a "tat" sound. again dont try to olly.it helps if you do it stationary at first, then rolling.just roll about and do it till you feel comfortable. dont try and olly, just get the feel of it. till you can do it realy fast and in a straight line at a decent speed.

step 3. 1+2 together quickly. POP and BOLTS ! if your skating a modern board, remember that the whole board is designed to make this manouvre easy. a modern board is desighned for ollys(why its called a popsicle shape). again , stationary, maybe holding onto something, then rolling, repeat again and again until second nature.

there you go. thats basically it. once this is sussed, all you have to do is pop harder and jump with the board. harder you pop, higher the board will want to go, just let the board do what it wants whilst your doing step 1.

like with anything, playing guitar, skateboarding or whatever break it down into smaller , easier little bits. baby steps dude! baby steps.

i hope this has been some help to you. ive taught tons of kids how to olly using this technique. and it seems to work for pretty much everyone.

the only thing I have to add is that I actually say the word "BOLTS" in my head as I am approaching the landing to remind me to get my back foot over them. My front foot seems to behave itself on the landing without having to think about it.

I need to practice more and hopefully start to get some decent height.

Looking great there Mr .... I haven't been trying them, I confess!

Ok, will do from now on....

T

The two tips that have helped me most on Ollies - although I've not fully mastered the art yet - are both related to getting a feel for the trick whilst retaining a good degree of control over your body.

The first was either from this forum or Old Man Army and was quite simply to do the Ollie whilst holding onto a railing, work surface or similar, so that you only have to concentrate on your feet.

The second tip I picked up from Ash at Ramparts skatepark in Stourbridge on Sunday. Basically he suggested standing in the Ollie position, front foot fairly central (down the length of the board), back foot on the tail, on a stationary board. Then push down on the tail until it hits the floor so that you are in a motionless wheely. Once you have your balance simply jump up and land back on the board the front wheels of which will, of course, have dropped back to the floor once you leapt off. As it was put to me "if the back wheels come off the floor during this procedure then you've landed an ollie". If the rear wheels don't lift you've still practised the bulk of the trick. As you get better at this method, speed up the beginning until, instead of lowering the tail slowly, you're pushing down hard at the back and creating the POP. It helped me because it's a progressive method rather than an in at the deep end jobby.

How to.

1)Roll along and just jump up in the air landing back on the board. (hippy jump but not over anything)..
Do this until you can jump reasonably high and are happy doing it.

2)Try to ollie. http://members.aol.com/ifliped/how.html

3) If at first you don't succeed... Ollies can take months/years/forever.




Helpful ideas.

If it's your timing that's off stand on the floor next to the board and just work out how to make the board bounce (pop) by hitting the tail with your foot and release before the energy is absorbed into the floor.

Try it on carpet or grass.

Try holding onto a rail or someone's hand.

PUSH HARDER, JUMP HIGHER.

_________________________________________



Once you've got it ollie over a line in a capark..
Then over a small twig..
Then up a dropped kerb..
Then a small kerb..
Then a can on its side.
Then an upright can.
Work your way up.

Learn to ollie up kerbs fs and bs.

Come skate with me.

the only thing I have to add is that I actually say the word "BOLTS" in my head as I am approaching the landing to remind me to get my back foot over them. My front foot seems to behave itself on the landing without having to think about it.

thats the way..... when i taught my nephew, i rolled behind him, humming the rocky theme and shouting POP ! BOLTS !. hes getting 50 50's on 2ft blocks now. rad.

All those failed attempts and all I needed to do was say "BOLTS" as I did it? Why didn't I realise?

....
3) If at first you don't succeed... Ollies can take months/years/forever.

yes I've been encouraged by one of the skateboard instructors at my local who told me it took him 4 months to learn to ollie (and he is young and brilliant at them). another young ollie expert I know told me it took him a year.

....
If it's your timing that's off stand on the floor next to the board and just work out how to make the board bounce (pop) by hitting the tail with your foot and release before the energy is absorbed into the floor.

yes thats a good tip which I have been doing (and repeated again today indoors after I read your post). It also showed me how the nose of the board has to come up (and back) and teaches me how to get my front foot to accomodate this movement rather than hinder it like was previously happening.

Try it on carpet or grass.

Try holding onto a rail

yes I've been doing that

PUSH HARDER, JUMP HIGHER.

now thats where my experiences don't match, when my technique is wrong pushing harder sometimes ends up in me jumping off my board and getting tired quickly. That wil apply when I've got my technique better. What I like about the unusual method is that looking at the still frames above my knee bend is minimal because all i'm trying to do is learn ollie board control rather than height so I can practise lots of it without getting tired quickly.

All those failed attempts and all I needed to do was say "BOLTS" as I did it? Why didn't I realise?

it does help to say that!

Mr J,

From the stills it just looks like all you have to do is lift your back foot up after still no. 4.

post a vid and that'll give us a better idea of where you are.......

another good "how to ollie" guide:-

http://designdebris.co.uk/player/pages/ ... eature.php

about 3 or 4 good size bannanas, couple of cups of proper coffee, preferably espresso, realy helps with the nervous energy. make like a gazelle.........

Mr J follow Ifliped's advice and give yourself an obstacle. Twig , small kerb whatever. You need a target to get you to lift your legs up after gaining the initial technique.

Is this any help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSMy78BzZ9s

Mr J,
....post a vid and that'll give us a better idea of where you are.......

I'll post some vid for analysis when I get a chance, I've played your vid frame by frame some time ago and it confirms the timing described in the article posted by Rick H.

fakiestore's massive ollie

I've had a chance to try almost everything suggested when I went for my skate today. So far Justin's use a chair suggestion and Unusual's technique is working best for me.

although the skateboard.about.com article is a good one I have one big disagreement with their following statement.

"Here’s the key – just do it and expect it to work. Your body understands what you are trying to do, and the less you stress, the more it can kick in and fill in the blanks"

with me thats just not going to happen!
I really need to analyse my movements and conciously make adjustments.

I've got some softrucks now. They come in green or black. the green ones are good for showing up on the cam.

I took a walk to some under-cover sidewalk earlier this week and warmed up by aiding myself with an abandonded shopping trolley, then got some lo-fi vid of where I am at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW0tYWydsbg

I extracted some still frames from the highest one - the last but one ollie. All critical comments/suggestions of this one and the other ollies welcome.
frame 1

frame 2

frame 3

frame 4

frame 5

frame 6


learning to ollie is fecking tiring. I am expending energy in an inefficient manner, some of the lower effort ollies go higher than my high effort ones. I've also worn thru the shoe lace of my front foot in about 2 weeks and I don't even wear these shoes in the skatepark where I sometimes practice ollies.

Back foot, back foot, back foot, back foot!!!!!

get that back leg right up and you'll get so much higher.......at the minute you are barely lifting it so when the front foot slides up to level the board out you are limiting the height you get......

As soon as you pop you really need to get the back leg right up - think about getting your knees by your ears and you 'll get the picture.

Plus you might stand a chance of licking your own balls too - which is always going to be a bonus.

Back foot, back foot, back foot, back foot!!!!!

get that back leg right up and you'll get so much higher.......

cheers fakiestore, Rejji suggested this to me too. I'll work on that, of your 2 visualisation suggestions I think I'll use the knees up to the ears one

Ben practicing my ollies again as I've been doing a bit of outdoor street at my local skatepark. One good trick I usually employ is to try one of the either.

1) Try and 'catch' and push down the nose of the deck with your front foot as soon as you pop. Simply sliding your front foot up often results in the deck flying away from you. You need to push the nose down to level the deck out. It tends to help the deck lift off the ground as well.

2) If you are trying to ollie onto something to grind, try and land the deck in a nose wheelie. You rarely get the actual wheelie, but it seems to help get the deck get up, over and onto the curb. If you do land it in a nose wheelie, all the cooler.

3) Another good hint with any ollie or flip trick, is to keep your head over the front truck bolts. Again, it helps centre your body over the deck, stops the deck flying away in front of you, and really helps when you try and take these tricks onto flatbanks.

My ollies are both crap and inconsistant by the way.

even tho you say your ollies are inconsistent Chris, I value your ollie tips, sometimes those who learned the trick easily are unable to explain it. Pro skater Reese Forbes in my Transworld instructional DVD, says "hard to explain", "just get out there and do it" - not a lot of use although studying the slo-motion is useful.

since my last post I've made small incremental progress with my softrucks. I'm not getting any higher but getting more consistent at my "good" ones. Some of the stuff said here is helping a little. I warm up with the jumping excercises in Rick H's link, and although I can't roll and jump obstacles on my stationary ollie board, I'm finding I do better ollies if I try and make it hop forward. I think whats happening is that when I try and make it hop forward I'm having to apply pressure on the nose like what Chris explains to push it forward and also I notice from the vids that the legs of the experts seem to go thru a circular motion - first the shins angle with the feet trailing, then they push their feet in front of them, so trying to hop forward helps that. Its going to be a long road to my goal of the decent ollie.

.... I've also worn thru the shoe lace of my front foot in about 2 weeks and I don't even wear these shoes in the skatepark where I sometimes practice ollies.

I've worn thru another shoe lace on my street skating shoes, and the lace protection is peeling off my front skatepark shoe

dude. get yerself some of this. it realy works. you can make your own little lace guards.



alternativley. roll of black gaffer tape. £5 b+q.

Progress Mr J????

dude. get yerself some of this. it realy works. you can make your own little lace guards. alternativley. roll of black gaffer tape. £5 b+q.

I find that hot-melt glue is a good cheap alternative to shoo goo - I freestyle and don't wear leather so my cheap-ass skate shoes tend to get trashed pretty quick!

cut up your old shoes. super glue (or something else , good and strong) bits to the offending areas. works a treat too.

Progress Mr J????

ollie project on hold for a month or so while I recover from a small hernia op.
However I was making some small but steady progress, but I haven't taken any recent vid. I've not been getting much extra height, but recently the movement has began to feel more natural and consume a lot less energy. I no longer seemed to need to throw my arms around and contort my body all over the place to try and get it off the ground.

dude. get yerself some of this. it realy works. you can make your own little lace guards. alternativley. roll of black gaffer tape. £5 b+q.

I find that hot-melt glue is a good cheap alternative to shoo goo - I freestyle and don't wear leather so my cheap-ass skate shoes tend to get trashed pretty quick!

i've gone thru some of the stitching on the ollie reinforcement in the upper lace hole and gone thru the stitching in the rubber outsole further down and the stuffing is exposed on the ankle padding on my expensive Fallen Billy Marks left shoe, however I reckon it will be a long time before it falls apart. But I've got different shoe requirments from you Mick, shock absorbtion was my main reason for choosing these heel airbag shoes

Just saw this and thought the place might appeal to your analytical approach to the wheely board MrJ ...

http://www.exploratorium.edu/skateboarding/trick02.html


ps. I just read about your hernia ,get well soon mate.

cheers Naus, I like that link, the individual still frames are good to study, good explanation too

I'm still practising ollies about 4 times a week. Just outside the block of flats where I live is a convenient little patch of middle-class ghetto. I took my ollie board there yesterday for a few pops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWe3KhacrkI

Do those triangular wheels improve the pop

Can't be good for anything else

^^^ LOL well spotted, no wonder he has to wear super shock absorbing shoes

Do those triangular wheels improve the pop

Can't be good for anything else

for absolute beginners they do help and I was in the absolute beginner stage for about 2 yrs! They are called "softrucks" and are one piece lumps of urethane which fit the normal truck bolt pattern. The board goes absolutely no where except up a bit, so that does sort of rule them out for the generally accepted definition of skating

Learn them in motion Mr J, i can do a really good ollie when i'm still but when i'm moving the board went all over the place and even now i can only manage a couple inche

I shouldv'e learnt them in motion, it's like learning them all over again

Ash, with hindsight I spent far too long practising them stationary, I think I could have speeded up the learning experience by a year or two if I had focused more on learning them rolling. Although the rolling technique is the same it feels very different and repeated practise of them stationary seemed to do little for my ability to do them rolling.

I never thought the day would come when I could say that I find the rolling ollie easier, but I do now. Although I'm still not very good on the flat, I'm best over fun-boxes.

The only useful ollie is a rolling ollie, so I think its best to practise mainly that way.

I think it is very cool that you post your progress. I tried to ollie 15 years ago, I still can't do it. I succeeded only once, and the feeling was amazing! But I never could reproduce how I did it.

When my foot is healed I should try it again. I think I will never succeed, but it wont hurt to try and practice it.

The thing that I always have is that when coming down my board is not in the same position as it used to be.
It is always like behind me, it is not straight anymore and it is kinda hard to get my feet back onto it.

I really don't know what I am doing wrong.

Btw, where did you get the softrucks?

There's some really useful tips on this thread

I've only tried ollies a few times

Then decided I'd be best getting more comfortable on me deck before I tried jumping about on it lol

I've pretty much cracked frontside kick turns
Not managed to fully pull a rock to fakie off yet
Dropping in on six foot transitions occasionally lol
It's about time I cracked on with ollies, I'd say

The thing that I always have is that when coming down my board is not in the same position as it used to be.
It is always like behind me, it is not straight anymore and it is kinda hard to get my feet back onto it.

Did you mean back as in heelside? I find that occurs when my upper body hunched over the board (i.e bent at the waist) instead of properly bending the knees to crouch lower before jumping off the board. Also looking at the nose of the board instead of your legs helps a lot in balancing.

P.S I don't know how to ollie yet, still at the jumping up and land back on moving board phase

...Btw, where did you get the softrucks?

I was living in the US at the time, and had to mail order them. They are not commonly available. I reckon you could get something similar made - get a set of old bearings welded up to stop the wheels rolling.

...Btw, where did you get the softrucks?

I was living in the US at the time, and had to mail order them. They are not commonly available. I reckon you could get something similar made - get a set of old bearings welded up to stop the wheels rolling.

Super glue them. If you've got any carpet offcuts skating on these can make stuff easier as the wheels don't roll to well. Quieter too

The thing that I always have is that when coming down my board is not in the same position as it used to be.
It is always like behind me, it is not straight anymore and it is kinda hard to get my feet back onto it.

Did you mean back as in heelside? I find that occurs when my upper body hunched over the board (i.e bent at the waist) instead of properly bending the knees to crouch lower before jumping off the board. Also looking at the nose of the board instead of your legs helps a lot in balancing.

P.S I don't know how to ollie yet, still at the jumping up and land back on moving board phase

Yes, heelside, sorry my English is not perfect
Thanks for the tip, will keep that in mind. Will not skate for a few weeks though, cast is removed but foot still
hurts pretty much, got a 'soft shoe' and try to walk but it is kinda painful.

The thing that I always have is that when coming down my board is not in the same position as it used to be.
It is always like behind me, it is not straight anymore and it is kinda hard to get my feet back onto it.

Did you mean back as in heelside? I find that occurs when my upper body hunched over the board (i.e bent at the waist) instead of properly bending the knees to crouch lower before jumping off the board. Also looking at the nose of the board instead of your legs helps a lot in balancing.

P.S I don't know how to ollie yet, still at the jumping up and land back on moving board phase

Yes, heelside, sorry my English is not perfect
Thanks for the tip, will keep that in mind. Will not skate for a few weeks though, cast is removed but foot still
hurts pretty much, got a 'soft shoe' and try to walk but it is kinda painful.

Your English's perfect, no worries Back as in the towards the tail is sometimes used interchangeably with heelside. Confuses the heck out of me at times too.

to hear about your injured foot. Hope you get well soon.

Yes, heelside, sorry my English is not perfect
Thanks for the tip, will keep that in mind. Will not skate for a few weeks though, cast is removed but foot still
hurts pretty much, got a 'soft shoe' and try to walk but it is kinda painful.

Your English's perfect, no worries Back as in the towards the tail is sometimes used interchangeably with heelside. Confuses the heck out of me at times too.

to hear about your injured foot. Hope you get well soon.[/quote]

Thanks, sometimes I have a hard time explaining technical stuff. :-S

Here's some footage of my ollies at Prime from tonight big thanks to big kid for the pointers last time and filming

I skated when i was 14 then i stopped. I picked up a skateboard again last year and found out that my ollie is gone. It's like i never did it. I still remember the movements but i could barely get it off the ground. I practiced it stationary but didn't get anywhere. Then i read somewhere that it's easier to learn while rolling so that's what i did. I started off with just one push then ollie. I was able to get it up at least 3 inches. I guess what helped me was the momentum. I started learning it around September of last year. First 3 months of learning it was really difficult and totally frustrating not to mention exhausting.Then around December, it suddenly clicked and i was able to summon enough courage to try it up a curb and later on a deck standing on its rails. Right now, after 6 months i am pretty comfortable just cruising around and ollying up curbs, cracks and small gaps found on the street. For me, it is a very important trick worth learning even if you're just planning to cruise around. I would say that anyone can learn it. It all depends on how much interest and effort you'll put into learning and mastering it. It could take months but definitely not years if you practice at least 2-3 hours every other day. Here's a clip of me doing some ollies up curbs after 3 months of hard practice along with some bonelesses and cavemans. I know the aggressive music doesn't really fit my lousy skating but i like Black Metal so i thought i'll use it for the background. PS: it helps if you will practice with an obstacle. I practiced on a shoebox because it won't stop your board even if you land on it as opposed to practicing on harder stuff like rocks or trash bins

That's a great vid Ardenbaino. You've got real style! Being right handed and goofy, I grab backside for bonelesses - but they look so much more stylish the way you do them. I'm going to give it a go!