Ollie Tutorial

The Ollie is the most important trick in skateboarding. It is the backbone of almost every trick, and personally I think it should be the first trick any new skater learns. It is super important. I know that for me, landing it for that first time was not very easy. It took me a while to land for the first time. In this Ollie Tutorial, I will give you everything you need to know to land your first ollie and land them all the time.

Foot Placement

Above is a photo of the foot placement. You want your back foot to simply be on the tail, and the front foot just under the bolts. Make sure your feet are sideways on the deck. If your foot is turned at an angle, it might be harder to learn. But the foot placement is generally something that wont change a ton. The only thing that will change is, you might put your front foot back further on the board in order to get higher. But you have the foot placement now, so whats next?

What's Next?

Now that you have your foot placement correct, you need to do multiple steps. First thing you want to do, is pop. In order to do this, you just slam your back foot into the ground. You want to let the front of the board go up too. But you dont just want to pop. You want to jump too, so bend down, pop and jump. Now that your in the air, it's important that you bring the skateboard with you. In order to make the board go up, all you have to do, is twist your ankle sideways and scrape it up the grip tape. That will cause it to stick to your foot and go up. You want to make sure that you do that right after popping and jumping. So pop, jump at the same time, and scrape the side of your foot. Remember to keep your foot turned sideways. So now that your foot is scraping across the skateboards griptape you just need to finish it. Once you hit a certain point, usually just above the bolts or a little further up if you want. All you do is flatten your foot back down like normal and it will make it so the board levels. One thing you'll need to keep in mind, is to make sure your bringing your back foot up too. You want to make sure both feet go up so the board will go into the air.

How to do it while moving?

Doing an ollie stationary and moving does feel different. Though, it isnt extremely different. The only thing that you need to remember to land them while moving, is lean slightly forwards. Not very much at all, but it will help because your moving. Don't rotate your shoulders at all, only lean slightly forwards. That's the only thing that's really different. Also try to remember that your moving. So on landing, don't freak out. I dont recommend moving very fast until you get comfortable doing it slow. Build your way up!

Common Mistakes

A lot of beginners with myself included, struggled with the ollie at first. But once you understand it, theyre a lot easier. Although a lot of mistakes can be made. They are usually simple to fix. The first mistake that I always see being made, is not jumping. You need to make sure that you jump. One thing that can help with this, is doing the steps indivdually. So pop a bunch of times, than just scrape your foot on the skateboard, and than piece it together. Something else a lot of newer skateboarders do, is put their back foot closer to the center of the skateboard. The best thing to do is keep your back foot above the tail. Another issue, is you twist your shoulders. That will make the skateboard rotate one way, like a 180. In order to fix this, all you have to do is make sure that your shoulders are squared with the skateboard the whole time. Sometimes when doing the trick, you lose balance and slip out. This is because when your doing it, your balance point is off. You want to have your balance in the center area of the skateboard and than land with it in the same spot, dont lean back at all. The final mistake im going to mention is, trying to force the landing. Sometimes people stiffen their legs and push them down. I would mostly recommend to just let the trick flow, and let yourself go to the ground. Of course you can let your legs straighten out, but let it be a little more natural.

How is it important?

Without the ollie, you wont be able to do a ton of tricks. You wont be able to kickflip very well, you wont be able to 180 and more. It's a super basic trick. And you can use it to get over curbs and other obstacles. It will also make you even more comfortable on your skateboard, which is very important.

Final Thoughts

These are the things that helped me land my first ollie. I hope it works well for you. You can do this :). Also please subscribe to our newsletter, you will get updates on new articles! It also really helps me as a developer!