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Skateboarding => Skate Questions => Trick Tips => Topic started by: ArgonautJon on January 18, 2021, 12:49:56 PM
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Hello,
Apologies in advance, I'm not very familiar with your community and was sent here by a friend. I'm sure you guys probably get a thousand ollie questions, and I'm sure you're sick of them, so thanks for looking at this!
I have a strange issue with my ollies. I've been skating for about 6 months, doing ollies for 5 months, rolling for almost the entire time. They're OK-ish for 5 months when rolling, maybe 4 inches or so. About curb height, maybe a little less. However I've found that to get more height I'm going to need to slide my foot properly. However, I find that when I do that, I get a really heavy frontside turn that seems to be driven by my hips.
Here are some examples. I did them stationary because it exaggerates the issue for demonstration purposes.
https://streamable.com/on17uo - This one has the best example of a super exaggerated turn. The ankle bend and slide looks right to me though, as far as I can tell.
https://streamable.com/tauqxe - Another example, this one at a different angle.
I know that normally this issue is caused by the shoulders but as far as I can tell, my shoulders are staying mostly parallel. They may even be rotating a bit backside in an effort to stop the turn. I know my hips need to stay straight but I just can't figure out a way to crack the muscle memory and force it to happen. I've spent months battling it and I'm a bit lost.
Things I have tried:
- Crossing arms like an X
- Keeping hands in pockets
- Leaving back to a wall
Some other recent clips of my rolling ollies for reference in case they're needed:
https://streamable.com/xg3akz
https://streamable.com/ijedbr
These were with my older, less proper slide so they didn't turn quite as much.
Again, thanks so much for any feedback. I know I'm probably the thousandth person to ask for ollie help this week but I'll gladly take any assistance you can provide.
Thanks!
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Hey, preliminary viewing show you're really struggling with your front (left) shoulder especially in the first pic. It looks like you're trying to force your shoulders straight 1 way but as you pop your body wants to rotate the other way.
Shoulders look parallel but you hips and and butt look like they aren't aligned with your shoulders or board, so while you initially pop straight, your legs want to bring you in the opposite direction. Loosen up your body; I know it's much easier said than done, but right now you're looking tense on the shoulders and hips which is causing the rotation. (see video 1 & 2).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrOCMjotAuw&t=241s
This is my go to video for correcting ollies, sticking your ass or head out too far limits your pop and causes your board to do in weird directions.
Lastly, what board size are you riding? It looks pretty small for you.
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You’re turning your shoulders. Your hips follow whatever your shoulders are doing. Force yourself to your shoulders in line with the bolts.
Sick helmet btw
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Keep your shoulders squared lengthwise with your board and make sure you don’t have your front foot angled towards the nose when you slide it. It’s generally a pretty easy fix and those are the most common culprits.
Edit: I can now see that my post was mostly unnecessary.
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You’re turning your shoulders. Your hips follow whatever your shoulders are doing. Force yourself to your shoulders in line with the bolts.
Sick helmet btw
Eyes lead the head
Head leads the shoulder
Shoulders lead the hips
Hips lead the legs
Legs lead the feet
Feet lead the toes
Toes lead the board
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Hey, preliminary viewing show you're really struggling with your front (left) shoulder especially in the first pic. It looks like you're trying to force your shoulders straight 1 way but as you pop your body wants to rotate the other way.
Shoulders look parallel but you hips and and butt look like they aren't aligned with your shoulders or board, so while you initially pop straight, your legs want to bring you in the opposite direction. Loosen up your body; I know it's much easier said than done, but right now you're looking tense on the shoulders and hips which is causing the rotation. (see video 1 & 2).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrOCMjotAuw&t=241s
This is my go to video for correcting ollies, sticking your ass or head out too far limits your pop and causes your board to do in weird directions.
Lastly, what board size are you riding? It looks pretty small for you.
Hey thanks for the reply. I'll try to keep that in mind. I definitely agree with the assessment but I just can't seem to find a way to fix the rotation on my hips. It's really driving me up a wall, and it feels like every time I practice I just dig myself deeper into the hole of bad habits. I'll try to loosen up and see if that helps. Definitely easier said than done, but I'll take what I can get!
I'll watch the video, thanks for the link. Seems to be one of the few remaining ollie videos on the internet I haven't watched.
As for my board size, it's 8.25, shoe size 11.5. I want to move up a bit but don't have the funds for it right now I'm afraid. That said I'm pretty hesitant to blame the equipment, I'm sure others have done more with a less optimal setup.
You’re turning your shoulders. Your hips follow whatever your shoulders are doing. Force yourself to your shoulders in line with the bolts.
Sick helmet btw
Are they? I don't doubt it, but it's hard for me to see it. In a few it even seems like I'm turning them backside to counteract the rotation, but I don't know. I'm sure you guys are the experts. Do you have any suggestions on how to correct that beyond the obvious?
Thanks again for the replies!
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Concentrate on ollieing using only your leg and glute muscles. Don't assist your jump by throwing your upper body and hands upwards, but instead try to keep your upper body vertical, shoulders aligned with the board and as relaxed as possible.
You'll feel really weak for a long time and your ollie/nollie will be small but accept it. Little by little you'll get used to jumping only using your legs and then your ollie will get bigger. As you'll learn that style your upper body and arms will be completely free for balancing or whatever is needed (rotating for spinning tricks, grabbing etc.) for whatever trick you are doing. All the greatest skaters have this style.
Don't start by trying to ollie as high as possible. Ollie small but get your technique correct. Later when you'll have your technique down you can up the power anytime you want.
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Just do frontside 180s commit to your symptom
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One of the most common things I notice with people learning is they almost try to jump steps or go too hard too fast sometimes.
Don't forget to just roll around, lift and turn, as well as learn to lean to turn, try things on flat or on gentle ramps from the ground up, learn to go forwards and backwards, try things off the nose as well as the tail, not just skate switch, but there are so many simple things to help with balance and ability to stay on the board too.
Learning to ollie is definitely the hardest thing for a beginner, as that opens the gate to almost every other trick in the book, but that is about half way through the book, not the second chapter, if that makes sense.
With more balance and basic ability, everything else like ollies come so much more easily too.
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I meant to say too, those ollies totally looked like you were skating switch, mainly due to where your body was holding, with your left shoulder turned more to your toe side than your heel side as you were approaching and even afterwards, see where your head is looking, more so not where you are going but to the side or even more behind you.
Are you regular, or have you tried them the other way?
You might find that you are actually more able to learn to skate both ways, but your head needs to be facing which way you are going, not so much the rest of your body, which is better side on and square with the board, but if you look down or back, you are going to be off balance to keep going forward.
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Concentrate on ollieing using only your leg and glute muscles. Don't assist your jump by throwing your upper body and hands upwards, but instead try to keep your upper body vertical, shoulders aligned with the board and as relaxed as possible.
You'll feel really weak for a long time and your ollie/nollie will be small but accept it. Little by little you'll get used to jumping only using your legs and then your ollie will get bigger. As you'll learn that style your upper body and arms will be completely free for balancing or whatever is needed (rotating for spinning tricks, grabbing etc.) for whatever trick you are doing. All the greatest skaters have this style.
Don't start by trying to ollie as high as possible. Ollie small but get your technique correct. Later when you'll have your technique down you can up the power anytime you want.
Thanks, I'll try this. I will say some experimenting with leaving my torso as stationary as possible has only given me the same results as before - the hip opens and sends the nose sideways. https://streamable.com/iamuos
I'll keep at it though and I'll see if it gets me anywhere.
As for doing lower ollies... I'll definitely try. Given that my max height is only a few inches, there's not a lot of difference between a big and small one for me, though.
I feel like if I could just feel the correct technique once maybe I'd be able to reproduce it, but I just can't seem to force my body to do what I see everyone else doing. It's very frustrating.
Thanks for the suggestions!
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One of the most common things I notice with people learning is they almost try to jump steps or go too hard too fast sometimes.
Don't forget to just roll around, lift and turn, as well as learn to lean to turn, try things on flat or on gentle ramps from the ground up, learn to go forwards and backwards, try things off the nose as well as the tail, not just skate switch, but there are so many simple things to help with balance and ability to stay on the board too.
Learning to ollie is definitely the hardest thing for a beginner, as that opens the gate to almost every other trick in the book, but that is about half way through the book, not the second chapter, if that makes sense.
With more balance and basic ability, everything else like ollies come so much more easily too.
Thanks I'll keep at it. I've been trying not to focus on this too hard and play with other things, and I know it takes time. I've stumbled my way into pop shuvits, regular shuvs in a few stances, working my way towards a front 180, etc. It just feels like a decent looking ollie should be doable by now. I've sunk hundreds of hours into it at this point, but maybe I just need more time. I'll keep grinding it out, thanks a bunch!
I meant to say too, those ollies totally looked like you were skating switch, mainly due to where your body was holding, with your left shoulder turned more to your toe side than your heel side as you were approaching and even afterwards, see where your head is looking, more so not where you are going but to the side or even more behind you.
Are you regular, or have you tried them the other way?
You might find that you are actually more able to learn to skate both ways, but your head needs to be facing which way you are going, not so much the rest of your body, which is better side on and square with the board, but if you look down or back, you are going to be off balance to keep going forward.
I am definitely regular. I can barely even kick turn riding switch. It feels very unnatural. Thanks a bunch for the suggestion though!
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The saying "LOW AND LOOSE" is one that always comes to mind.
Stay a bit lower and relax a bit more and things will get a lot easier too - bend your knees not your back.
Corto definitely has it right.
Concentrate on ollieing using only your leg and glute muscles. Don't assist your jump by throwing your upper body and hands upwards, but instead try to keep your upper body vertical, shoulders aligned with the board and as relaxed as possible.
You'll feel really weak for a long time and your ollie/nollie will be small but accept it. Little by little you'll get used to jumping only using your legs and then your ollie will get bigger. As you'll learn that style your upper body and arms will be completely free for balancing or whatever is needed (rotating for spinning tricks, grabbing etc.) for whatever trick you are doing. All the greatest skaters have this style.
Don't start by trying to ollie as high as possible. Ollie small but get your technique correct. Later when you'll have your technique down you can up the power anytime you want.
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The saying "LOW AND LOOSE" is one that always comes to mind.
Stay a bit lower and relax a bit more and things will get a lot easier too - bend your knees not your back.
Corto definitely has it right.
Expand Quote
Concentrate on ollieing using only your leg and glute muscles. Don't assist your jump by throwing your upper body and hands upwards, but instead try to keep your upper body vertical, shoulders aligned with the board and as relaxed as possible.
You'll feel really weak for a long time and your ollie/nollie will be small but accept it. Little by little you'll get used to jumping only using your legs and then your ollie will get bigger. As you'll learn that style your upper body and arms will be completely free for balancing or whatever is needed (rotating for spinning tricks, grabbing etc.) for whatever trick you are doing. All the greatest skaters have this style.
Don't start by trying to ollie as high as possible. Ollie small but get your technique correct. Later when you'll have your technique down you can up the power anytime you want.
Expand Quote
Concentrate on ollieing using only your leg and glute muscles. Don't assist your jump by throwing your upper body and hands upwards, but instead try to keep your upper body vertical, shoulders aligned with the board and as relaxed as possible.
You'll feel really weak for a long time and your ollie/nollie will be small but accept it. Little by little you'll get used to jumping only using your legs and then your ollie will get bigger. As you'll learn that style your upper body and arms will be completely free for balancing or whatever is needed (rotating for spinning tricks, grabbing etc.) for whatever trick you are doing. All the greatest skaters have this style.
Don't start by trying to ollie as high as possible. Ollie small but get your technique correct. Later when you'll have your technique down you can up the power anytime you want.
Thanks, I'll try this. I will say some experimenting with leaving my torso as stationary as possible has only given me the same results as before - the hip opens and sends the nose sideways. https://streamable.com/iamuos
I'll keep at it though and I'll see if it gets me anywhere.
As for doing lower ollies... I'll definitely try. Given that my max height is only a few inches, there's not a lot of difference between a big and small one for me, though.
I feel like if I could just feel the correct technique once maybe I'd be able to reproduce it, but I just can't seem to force my body to do what I see everyone else doing. It's very frustrating.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Watching this last video I can see that you're really trying to drag straight forward without turning, but your hips are automatically bringing your legs and feet along for the ride. I'm not a physiotherapist or sports scientist, just bro science talk here: but your lower body looks incredibly tight and stiff? What's your sports / injury history like? Try spending a few minutes a day stretching to loosen out your hips, the tightness is pulling your legs and board along for the ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I4cKIK29O4
Back when I was doing kickboxing regularly I bought a friend who was a marathon runner in for a trial session. His legs were so used to moving back and forward only (running motion), instead of outwards & arching which is the motion you need to whip a solid kick into a bag. I'm seeing the same thing here with your ollies.
Give the stretches a try, worse case you feel better and relieve some tightness in your muscles.
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your sports / injury history like?
Nothing with the legs I'm afraid.
As for pushing out, it's almost as if I've fully extended my leg by the time my foot reaches the nose, and since there's no more room to go, the hip tries to open in order to push the board out if that makes sense. Almost as if my whole torso needs to move up to the nose or something, maybe. I'm not sure.
Thanks, maybe I'll try some stretches!
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As for pushing out, it's almost as if I've fully extended my leg by the time my foot reaches the nose, and since there's no more room to go, the hip tries to open in order to push the board out if that makes sense.
Another thing to try is:
Unlike people often say the ollie is not about pulling the board up with your front leg by scraping your grip. Rather it's all about smacking your tail in an explosive manner against the ground, thus making the board bounce off the ground and stay glued to your feet. This makes it possible then to level the board using your front foot. The more explosively you smack, the higher the board will follow you.
So don't put too much effort into pulling with your front foot and opening your front knee. It's all about jumping and smacking at the same time. Back leg pop.
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Another thing to try is:
Unlike people often say the ollie is not about pulling the board up with your front leg by scraping your grip. Rather it's all about smacking your tail in an explosive manner against the ground, thus making the board bounce off the ground and stay glued to your feet. This makes it possible then to level the board using your front foot. The more explosively you smack, the higher the board will follow you.
So don't put too much effort into pulling with your front foot and opening your front knee. It's all about jumping and smacking at the same time. Back leg pop.
Hm I'll definitely give it a try. I think I'm honestly OK with the amount of pop I'm getting on average. If I could level it out, I'd be able to get a lot more height though, so that's what I'm really trying to do. Take my current ollie and just figure out how to properly slide up, out, and level it at the apex.
Thanks a bunch for the input!
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Expand Quote
Another thing to try is:
Unlike people often say the ollie is not about pulling the board up with your front leg by scraping your grip. Rather it's all about smacking your tail in an explosive manner against the ground, thus making the board bounce off the ground and stay glued to your feet. This makes it possible then to level the board using your front foot. The more explosively you smack, the higher the board will follow you.
So don't put too much effort into pulling with your front foot and opening your front knee. It's all about jumping and smacking at the same time. Back leg pop.
Hm I'll definitely give it a try. I think I'm honestly OK with the amount of pop I'm getting on average. If I could level it out, I'd be able to get a lot more height though, so that's what I'm really trying to do. Take my current ollie and just figure out how to properly slide up, out, and level it at the apex.
Thanks a bunch for the input!
Yeah i think that philosophy is not necessarily the right one. If you pop the tail hard you don't really even need to slide up and level it. Rather you can just keep your front foot stationary (or even push it down a bit) and the bouncing tail will come right up making the boars leveled at the apex.
What might be happening currently is you put a lot of effort into opening your front knee forcefully for sliding your foot up, and this momentum of the opening front knee makes your body rotate frontside.
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Another thing to try is:
Unlike people often say the ollie is not about pulling the board up with your front leg by scraping your grip. Rather it's all about smacking your tail in an explosive manner against the ground, thus making the board bounce off the ground and stay glued to your feet. This makes it possible then to level the board using your front foot. The more explosively you smack, the higher the board will follow you.
So don't put too much effort into pulling with your front foot and opening your front knee. It's all about jumping and smacking at the same time. Back leg pop.
Hm I'll definitely give it a try. I think I'm honestly OK with the amount of pop I'm getting on average. If I could level it out, I'd be able to get a lot more height though, so that's what I'm really trying to do. Take my current ollie and just figure out how to properly slide up, out, and level it at the apex.
Thanks a bunch for the input!
Yeah i think that philosophy is not necessarily the right one. If you pop the tail hard you don't really even need to slide up and level it. Rather you can just keep your front foot stationary (or even push it down a bit) and the bouncing tail will come right up making the boars leveled at the apex.
What might be happening currently is you put a lot of effort into opening your front knee forcefully for sliding your foot up, and this momentum of the opening front knee makes your body rotate frontside.
Oh shoot. Thay actually makes a lot of sense. I'll see how it goes, thanks a bunch.
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Expand Quote
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Expand Quote
Another thing to try is:
Unlike people often say the ollie is not about pulling the board up with your front leg by scraping your grip. Rather it's all about smacking your tail in an explosive manner against the ground, thus making the board bounce off the ground and stay glued to your feet. This makes it possible then to level the board using your front foot. The more explosively you smack, the higher the board will follow you.
So don't put too much effort into pulling with your front foot and opening your front knee. It's all about jumping and smacking at the same time. Back leg pop.
Hm I'll definitely give it a try. I think I'm honestly OK with the amount of pop I'm getting on average. If I could level it out, I'd be able to get a lot more height though, so that's what I'm really trying to do. Take my current ollie and just figure out how to properly slide up, out, and level it at the apex.
Thanks a bunch for the input!
Yeah i think that philosophy is not necessarily the right one. If you pop the tail hard you don't really even need to slide up and level it. Rather you can just keep your front foot stationary (or even push it down a bit) and the bouncing tail will come right up making the boars leveled at the apex.
What might be happening currently is you put a lot of effort into opening your front knee forcefully for sliding your foot up, and this momentum of the opening front knee makes your body rotate frontside.
Oh shoot. Thay actually makes a lot of sense. I'll see how it goes, thanks a bunch.
I think this is key. When we learnt to Ollie in the dim distant past (1987) it was all about banging the tail, at that point no one had worked out that some extra height came from a Kung fu forward leg.
We also learnt with the back foot right on the edge of the tail not in the pocket but then our boards were heavy and huge and we had kids legs so leaving the ground at all was an achievement.
If you watch someone popping into a manual, most of the time the board doesn’t level out even if they are popping onto a decent height manny pad. Maybe practice rocketed ollies where you pop up and come down on the back wheels first. That way you can concentrate on staying straight for that portion of the motion.
Before I read the above I was gonna add, you must be twisting your hips (without realizing) as you scrape as people imply above.
Also, make sure your back leg is popping straight down and not positioned off center before you start.
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Apologies for Posting Braille but this shows it quite well. Look how little his front foot moves despite the height of the ledge
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2DI1lNqfP4
Also, in the rolling clip
Where you stumble off, you fall backwards which indicates your weight is probably outside the heel edge of the board when you land instead of being over it. Check you aren’t jumping towards the front left of the board and your legs are following.
As mentioned above, you need to
Be in line with the board all the way through the motion
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Apologies for Posting Braille but this shows it quite well. Look how little his front foot moves despite the height of the ledge
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2DI1lNqfP4
Also, in the rolling clip
Where you stumble off, you fall backwards which indicates your weight is probably outside the heel edge of the board when you land instead of being over it. Check you aren’t jumping towards the front left of the board and your legs are following.
As mentioned above, you need to
Be in line with the board all the way through the motion
Jesus yeah he really gets up there with that pop huh... Though I do notice he still has a really solid looking slide, but I see what you're saying - the height isn't coming from the drag in this case. He really just got like 5x higher than I ever have just by popping really well. I get the point, thanks for the advice!
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Someone on on a skating discord suggested that I try holding on to a rail while ollie-ing to see if I could isolate the issue without the other variables. Oddly I found that after playing with this for a couple of hours over a few days, I couldn't keep myself from turning for even one attempt.
This issue is really puzzling me and I'm worried that every time I practice I'm just digging myself deeper in the hole of bad muscle memory.
Does anyone have any suggestions about this? Am I going crazy? With my arms planted, it seems like I should be able to keep it straight, but it just doesn't seem to be possible.
https://streamable.com/f37p21
https://streamable.com/ev8oyr
https://streamable.com/f2f5b6
Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide!
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Take it back a step or two, completely leave that all behind for a minute and just go roll around, relax and practice turning and having fun.
Looks like things are getting too tense in your body, too worked up and yes definitely learning and making your body keep doing exactly what you don't want it to do.
Forget doing ollies on the spot for the time being and only do the smallest most relaxed ones rolling, not fast, but just the smallest tap of the tail on the ground and make sure you are still rolling straight. Keep doing that more than anything else for a bit, try them higher if you want to, but as soon as that ollie turns and you don't want it to, go back to the minimal taps.
A thought too, had you done any frontside or backside 180s, either cess around or ollie? Maybe learn those so you know what you have to do to turn the board which might also help you work out why you are pushing the board frontside when you ollie.
Things like gutter or curb edges can be good to ollie onto, as it looks like you can get that height, but again that is more so after doing the straight small ones.
It all just comes down to board control and getting used to having it, practice and putting in the time, but do it rolling. No more just on the spot if it is not helping.
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Take it back a step or two, completely leave that all behind for a minute and just go roll around, relax and practice turning and having fun.
Looks like things are getting too tense in your body, too worked up and yes definitely learning and making your body keep doing exactly what you don't want it to do.
Yeah That's fair and its exactly what everyone tells me, but it's just hard to let it go. It just seems like it should be doable so I really want to hammer it out so I can stop worrying about it. But you're probably right.
A thought too, had you done any frontside or backside 180s, either cess around or ollie? Maybe learn those so you know what you have to do to turn the board which might also help you work out why you are pushing the board frontside when you ollie.
I'm... sort of close to something resembling a fs 180, but I've stopped doing them for now since I feel like it might interfere with fixing my ollie. https://streamable.com/r0rkkw
I've tried some back 180s but those don't feel particularly doable yet.
It all just comes down to board control and getting used to having it, practice and putting in the time, but do it rolling. No more just on the spot if it is not helping.
Yeah that's fair. I normally only do them over sticks and such now, so I'll go back to that. Just figured it made sense to work out the issue while pinning my shoulders and arms to the rail, but you're probably right that it's clearly not helping.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestions! I'll see how it goes.
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Front 180s actually looking really good too - at least you know how to turn frontside - that comes naturally to some more than others.
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It all just comes down to board control and getting used to having it, practice and putting in the time, but do it rolling. No more just on the spot if it is not helping.
Beginners (and even guys who have been skating for years) can easily go down this hole of trying to hammer a trick out by clocking more hours in; I've definitely done that in my youth. Like @Mbrimson88 said, it's more important to have an ollie you can toss around while you're cruising than a perfect one while holding onto a bench. Light pop and focus more of dragging straight and forward instead of up and high; a low but leveled ollie beat a high but rocket one any day.
It's demoralizing to work on 1 trick for hours on end with little progress; mix things up and don't worry about getting textbook fundamentals since you'll hone those over time. Similar to other sports the most important thing is to have fun and getting immersed into it. I would have quit kickboxing years ago if the coaches only allowed me to kick the bag and didn't teach me punching. Skateboarding doesn't function like a regular sport so being that rigid in the technical learning is everything against it.
Set up some sizable obstacles to ollie over too, a broom handle or line are easy but you could easily cheat your way over the board with a shitty ollie. Maybe a shoe box or a couple of bricks.
Don't neglect Fakie tricks as well, lots of guys find doing tricks rolling fakie much easier than regular (kickflips, 180s) since you return to your regular stance afterwards.
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Set up some sizable obstacles to ollie over too, a broom handle or line are easy but you could easily cheat your way over the board with a shitty ollie. Maybe a shoe box or a couple of bricks.
Yeah that's fair. And normally I'm not one to do anything stationary like this, I've been doing my tricks moving. This was just for experimentation purposes.
I'll go back to doing it over boxes or something and try to focus on other stuff. Thanks for the suggestions!
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You seem to have your back foot on the toe edge of the tail, your boards wants to go backside and your body counters this by going fronstside, try to ollie with your (back) toes in the middle,close to the edge of the tail (end of your board),
Edit, also, try keep weight evenly centered between legs. Lift you back leg but dont jump from one leg to the other.
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Edit, also, try keep weight evenly centered between legs. Lift you back leg but dont jump from one leg to the other.
This is actually kind of interesting to me. I know it's getting into major overthinking territory, but bear with me... I've felt like I have to have my weight shifted towards the nose during the setup. Otherwise I have a hard time getting my sliding foot all the way up to the nose. With weight forward, I feel like I jump and pop 'behind me' and that gives me enough room to slide up to the nose. Is that not correct? You want your weight distributed evenly?
I'll play around with it, thanks for giving me something to think about.
As a side note, I did manage this one yesterday, taking the advice of just doing the lowest possible version and focusing on keeping it straight. First one I've done that 'looked right' with a decent looking slide and push forward, so thanks a bunch, I might be back on the right track.
https://streamable.com/046axs
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Edit, also, try keep weight evenly centered between legs. Lift you back leg but dont jump from one leg to the other.
This is actually kind of interesting to me. I know it's getting into major overthinking territory, but bear with me... I've felt like I have to have my weight shifted towards the nose during the setup. Otherwise I have a hard time getting my sliding foot all the way up to the nose. With weight forward, I feel like I jump and pop 'behind me' and that gives me enough room to slide up to the nose. Is that not correct? You want your weight distributed evenly?
I'll play around with it, thanks for giving me something to think about.
As a side note, I did manage this one yesterday, taking the advice of just doing the lowest possible version and focusing on keeping it straight. First one I've done that 'looked right' with a decent looking slide and push forward, so thanks a bunch, I might be back on the right track.
https://streamable.com/046axs
Last one is looking better than the ones in the garage, still a little turn but way less than before. Setup a low obstacle but with some width, that way you can focus on dragging forward and over. Instead of just upwards.
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You seem to have your back foot on the toe edge of the tail, your boards wants to go backside and your body counters this by going fronstside, try to ollie with your (back) toes in the middle,close to the edge of the tail (end of your board),
Edit, also, try keep weight evenly centered between legs. Lift you back leg but dont jump from one leg to the other.
Other than the shoulders thing that everyone is saying, this is true too. When every I try to get up something high I'll put my back foot farther back but it'll make me go frontside
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Edit, also, try keep weight evenly centered between legs. Lift you back leg but dont jump from one leg to the other.
This is actually kind of interesting to me. I know it's getting into major overthinking territory, but bear with me... I've felt like I have to have my weight shifted towards the nose during the setup. Otherwise I have a hard time getting my sliding foot all the way up to the nose. With weight forward, I feel like I jump and pop 'behind me' and that gives me enough room to slide up to the nose. Is that not correct? You want your weight distributed evenly?
I'll play around with it, thanks for giving me something to think about.
As a side note, I did manage this one yesterday, taking the advice of just doing the lowest possible version and focusing on keeping it straight. First one I've done that 'looked right' with a decent looking slide and push forward, so thanks a bunch, I might be back on the right track.
https://streamable.com/046axs
Last one is looking better than the ones in the garage, still a little turn but way less than before. Setup a low obstacle but with some width, that way you can focus on dragging forward and over. Instead of just upwards.
Thanks! Unfortunately I still haven't figured out how to keep even a single one perfectly straight, no matter how small or slow, so I've had to just give up for now. It was just making me too frustrated and ruining skating for me. I just can't seem to do make my body do it, but I'm so damn close to having it cracked. Maybe one day...
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As others suggested, try some fakie ollies every now and then. And I know everybody has a different foot position for ollies, but to me it looks like you use too much of your front foot. To get that forward motion with my front foot, I angle my big toe of my front foot towards the lower, left front bolt. You know 4 bolts in the front truck, keep your foot angled to the lower ones. But as said before, everyone has their own little technique. You got this!
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As others suggested, try some fakie ollies every now and then. And I know everybody has a different foot position for ollies, but to me it looks like you use too much of your front foot. To get that forward motion with my front foot, I angle my big toe of my front foot towards the lower, left front bolt. You know 4 bolts in the front truck, keep your foot angled to the lower ones. But as said before, everyone has their own little technique. You got this!
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them.
As a more general update -- unfortunately, it's been about a montj since my first post, and I'm still about where I started. Haven't been able to keep a single one straight. If anyone has any other ideas, I would really love to hear them. I'm pretty much at the bottom of the barrel at this point and I don't really know what to do or how to proceed.
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As a more general update -- unfortunately, it's been about a montj since my first post, and I'm still about where I started. Haven't been able to keep a single one straight. If anyone has any other ideas, I would really love to hear them. I'm pretty much at the bottom of the barrel at this point and I don't really know what to do or how to proceed.
I don't say this in an insulting way, but I don't think you're quite ready to learn ollies yet.
You've been skating for what, 7 months now? It took me over 2 years of skating to be ready to learn them properly. Ollie isn't something you should even bother with until you are very confident on your board in general, and it varies greatly from person to person how long that will take.
Most of the advice you've gotten so far has to do with what to do up until you pop the tail, but I believe your issue lies all in what your body does after the pop. I can tell from your videos that your body isn't yet comfortable enough with standing sideways, resulting in your stance unraveling once you try to ollie. Your back foot, especially, pushes the tail frontside as you're leveling out, and your front foot is helping along as well when stomping down. Also, despite having good posture with your shoulders parallel when setting up, I think your upper body resists the position somewhat, wanting to save you from landing sideways, resulting in a frontside turn.
I think the only way to remedy this is to get better at skateboarding. Ride, turn, manual, learn transition, kickturn etc. I don't know what your general skill level is here, though.
Enjoy skating and don't worry too much. Once you're able to thrash around with speed, aggression and confidence, I'm sure you'll be able to curb your bad habits with sheer will. Skateboarding is very mental, after all.
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As a more general update -- unfortunately, it's been about a montj since my first post, and I'm still about where I started. Haven't been able to keep a single one straight. If anyone has any other ideas, I would really love to hear them. I'm pretty much at the bottom of the barrel at this point and I don't really know what to do or how to proceed.
I don't say this in an insulting way, but I don't think you're quite ready to learn ollies yet.
You've been skating for what, 7 months now? It took me over 2 years of skating to be ready to learn them properly. Ollie isn't something you should even bother with until you are very confident on your board in general, and it varies greatly from person to person how long that will take.
Most of the advice you've gotten so far has to do with what to do up until you pop the tail, but I believe your issue lies all in what your body does after the pop. I can tell from your videos that your body isn't yet comfortable enough with standing sideways, resulting in your stance unraveling once you try to ollie. Your back foot, especially, pushes the tail frontside as you're leveling out, and your front foot is helping along as well when stomping down. Also, despite having good posture with your shoulders parallel when setting up, I think your upper body resists the position somewhat, wanting to save you from landing sideways, resulting in a frontside turn.
I think the only way to remedy this is to get better at skateboarding. Ride, turn, manual, learn transition, kickturn etc. I don't know what your general skill level is here, though.
Enjoy skating and don't worry too much. Once you're able to thrash around with speed, aggression and confidence, I'm sure you'll be able to curb your bad habits with sheer will. Skateboarding is very mental, after all.
Thanks for the input. That's an unbelievably, extremely discouraging assessment but I do appreciate the honesty...
I just don't know that I'll be content to simply ride around for two years, nor do I even have that amount of time. I'm 31 so I only have a few more viable skating years left in me. Plus no access to transition, so that really limits the range of what I can do.
I think I've just gotta keep banging my head against the problem, even if it's an impossible task. Thanks for the advice though, even if it's not what I want to hear....
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Age is not as important as you might think, sure when I was pre twenties, I thought I would be done by 25, yet I am now almost 46 and still doing my thing on a skateboard, even with injuries and other things getting in the way over the 30+ years I have been on a skateboard, but what I find the most pleasure is not just how high I can ollie or what flip or other tricks I can still do or anything like that, but more just being able to roll around.
With that rolling around, enjoying it more and then being able to think about a couple of tricks here and there, which sometimes work, sometimes don't, but I have learned not to get frustrated and blow my top, get upset, lose it and then lose the interest in it, which I had often done when younger, as well as seeing some major meltdowns and mental breakdowns from beginners and pro skaters alike over the years, self included.
The biggest thing that I will always come back to from when I did lessons and ran skateboard events, especially for your situation, is that it is not about timeframe in reaching goals, but more in relaxing and getting your body to get more used to being on the board, which in turn will allow you to do more on it. In any group there was always the kid who could do whatever trick we taught him within a session or two, but then most took a lot longer, some took the whole term to learn, but we worked with them and they usually got there in the end. Some were always going to be better at it than others.
Trying the same thing over and over will not only make you more tense but will also teach your body to move in the wrong ways sometimes, and bad muscle memory is not a good thing - there are some tricks nowdays that I just do not want to land and I will almost do anything to get my feet from landing on the board rather than being comfortable landing and rolling away - 360 flips is a big one for me - but to take it back a step, if you keep practicing the trick and not doing it right, you are going to keep doing it like that a lot more often, than if you left it for a bit, just roll around and do other things, then come back to it every so often after trying other tricks.
This is why skateboarding is so completely different from anything else - there are no rules, there are no guidelines on timeframes, points of achievement, qualifications for reaching certain levels or anything else the way almost every other part of our lives can be measured, rated, outcomes achieved, etc. Every single person is different and I know while I was growing up, I was maybe the least skilled kid on our street, with some guys I skated with going pro and others well on their way there, but I stuck with it and enjoyed it for what it was - a fun thing to do. Never forget that.
I could quote so many amazing people right now, but really, this simple wooden toy has become more to us than we would have ever thought and we have been able to do more on it than anyone ever believed possible from back when this all started. Every day someone else pushes boundaries and does something more insane than the last guy (which we all see via social media or instant access), but it is not for us to compare ourselves to him or what he can do, more so for us to take note what others do, but for our own selves, just to do what we can do on it, on any given day and accept it for what it is.
Today things might not turn out as you planned
But there is always tomorrow, so you can try again
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBovzCXFDjK/
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Someone on on a skating discord suggested that I try holding on to a rail while ollie-ing to see if I could isolate the issue without the other variables. Oddly I found that after playing with this for a couple of hours over a few days, I couldn't keep myself from turning for even one attempt.
This issue is really puzzling me and I'm worried that every time I practice I'm just digging myself deeper in the hole of bad muscle memory.
Does anyone have any suggestions about this? Am I going crazy? With my arms planted, it seems like I should be able to keep it straight, but it just doesn't seem to be possible.
https://streamable.com/f37p21
https://streamable.com/ev8oyr
https://streamable.com/f2f5b6
Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide!
Hey dude, in the 2nd clip where you're holding onto the chainlink fence the first thing I noticed is that you're pelvis is rotating so that the front hip is going toward your back before the tail has even left the ground. Your shoulders are staying parallel but that front hip is what's turning your board back. Watch the clip and you'll see it
Frankly, you're skating just like any kid who is fresh to skating is gonna skate, you're just 31 and don't have the stamina of a 13 year old. Seems like you've got perseverance though, so get some. Hanging onto a fence is probably a bad idea, but I mighta tried something like that when I was learning too. I don't remember. just keep ollieing. once you loosen up you'll start floating straight.
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Maybe try tightening your trucks? You hang your heels a lot and between that, the force your putting maybe pushes you in that direction.
As much as jumping as high as you can.....ollieing is also as easy as just lifting your legs....you're trying really really hard and maybe that's what forces that torque.....can you do smaller in control ollies?
You're getting good height....which is good though.
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Hey op, please don't feel discouraged. I was always the worst kid in my crew and nowadays I am the only one who still skates. But you know what's even better as ollies, kickflips and boardslides?
Just get on your board, push as fast as you can and forget all that other bullshit out there.
No need to rush your ollie skills, honestly. It is the most fundamental trick and I personally needed ~5 years to learn fast and good ollies. Nothing beats a stable foundation.
Pushing with both feet, carving frontside and backside in every stance, slappys, bonelesses, whatever. There is so much more to learn than "just" the ollie. I feel you on transition, never really been my thing. All you need is a empty parking lot. Flatground wheelies and nosewheelies are also fun and difficult enough.
Keep your head up, you are still young.
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Hey dude, in the 2nd clip where you're holding onto the chainlink fence the first thing I noticed is that you're pelvis is rotating so that the front hip is going toward your back before the tail has even left the ground. Your shoulders are staying parallel but that front hip is what's turning your board back. Watch the clip and you'll see it
Frankly, you're skating just like any kid who is fresh to skating is gonna skate, you're just 31 and don't have the stamina of a 13 year old. Seems like you've got perseverance though, so get some. Hanging onto a fence is probably a bad idea, but I mighta tried something like that when I was learning too. I don't remember. just keep ollieing. once you loosen up you'll start floating straight.
Yeah I was just doing it to try to prove that it wasn't the shoulder turning problem. Shoulders can't turn if your arms are bolted on to something. I don't need the fence. I've been doing them rolling for 6 or 7 months or so.
Maybe try tightening your trucks? You hang your heels a lot and between that, the force your putting maybe pushes you in that direction.
As much as jumping as high as you can.....ollieing is also as easy as just lifting your legs....you're trying really really hard and maybe that's what forces that torque.....can you do smaller in control ollies?
You're getting good height....which is good though.
The trucks are about medium tightness. I've toyed with it before though and it doesn't make much of a difference. I think my problem is on the way 'down' if that makes sense. My guess is that it's not a problem with the takeoff. Could be wrong, I'll play with it.
As for smaller ollies, no, I'm unable to keep those straight either. As far as I'm aware I've never been able to land one straight, low or otherwise.
Hey op, please don't feel discouraged. I was always the worst kid in my crew and nowadays I am the only one who still skates. But you know what's even better as ollies, kickflips and boardslides?
Just get on your board, push as fast as you can and forget all that other bullshit out there.
No need to rush your ollie skills, honestly. It is the most fundamental trick and I personally needed ~5 years to learn fast and good ollies. Nothing beats a stable foundation.
Pushing with both feet, carving frontside and backside in every stance, slappys, bonelesses, whatever. There is so much more to learn than "just" the ollie. I feel you on transition, never really been my thing. All you need is a empty parking lot. Flatground wheelies and nosewheelies are also fun and difficult enough.
Keep your head up, you are still young.
Yeah thanks, I appreciate it. It's really hard not to get down because nearly everyone I know that skates was already had ollies long before this point, so I just have a hard time believing that there's not some way to improve them and dig myself out of this hole. Trying to keep my head up though. I've joked that this I've never spent more blood sweat and tears on anything else in my life, and it's honestly not even an exaggeration. One day it'll click, but I've just gotta keep beating my head on it for now.
I'll keep at it.
Anyway here's some more recent clips in case they're needed...
https://streamable.com/bxtqf6
https://streamable.com/ottdix
https://streamable.com/y8skhk
https://streamable.com/rdrjde
https://streamable.com/laa51w
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Hey dude, in the 2nd clip where you're holding onto the chainlink fence the first thing I noticed is that you're pelvis is rotating so that the front hip is going toward your back before the tail has even left the ground. Your shoulders are staying parallel but that front hip is what's turning your board back. Watch the clip and you'll see it
Frankly, you're skating just like any kid who is fresh to skating is gonna skate, you're just 31 and don't have the stamina of a 13 year old. Seems like you've got perseverance though, so get some. Hanging onto a fence is probably a bad idea, but I mighta tried something like that when I was learning too. I don't remember. just keep ollieing. once you loosen up you'll start floating straight.
Anyway here's some more recent clips in case they're needed...
https://streamable.com/bxtqf6
https://streamable.com/ottdix
https://streamable.com/y8skhk
https://streamable.com/rdrjde
https://streamable.com/laa51w
for sure, I was trying to point out that yes, the shoulder turning isn't a problem.
it still looks like you're micro rotating the front hip as you're coming off the ground off the ground. the shoulders aren't what's turning you back, it's pelvic movement. if you watch your first clip from what I quoted above, in slow mo, I did it by pausing a bunch, you'll see it. it's subtle but that's where the turn originates.
what's your weight distribution like while standing still? is one side dominant? it is in most people. Oftentimes there's an almost imperceptible pull on the low back/hip/pelvic complex via the psoas, which is a really, really deep core muscle that controls hip flexion (walking, standing, leaning, etc), connecting around Thoracic 5 vertebrae, wrapping over the hip, and connecting at the lower end of the pelvis, in the region of the upper femur. It is extremely common for one side to be stretched longer than the other, which in turn pulls the opposite hip/low back down and back. If this is at all relatable, it could be beneficial to look up the yoga pose suptapadangusthansasana. All it requires is laying on your back and a strap/belt to hold your foot. speaking as a restorative yoga instructor that works with folks rehabbing from injuries and as someone who has used restorative yoga to rehab the psoas and related ailments, if you stick with it, it's a game changer.
keep pushin homie
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i started at 21. took me 3 years to get a decent ollie down :((
like everyone has said, it's the fact that your hips are turning can you just stand off the board and just do the jump+pop+slide motion? close your eyes, imagine you're on the board, and do it? then what happens?
the slide fucks w/ people. im just standing up in my room right now, sliding my foot up and pausing to look at my hip orientation, and i look like a dog about to pee on something - the hips naturally kind of open up when i slide in some ways versus in others. see if you can get a little slide/raise (As people have mentioned) of your front foot, but _without_ opening your hips at all (i'd be curious to see vid clips just of this happening).
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You have a lot of advice here on this thread. I dont have much to add, except for dont try so hard. Looks real forceful. Once you get the pop just relax.
I also recommend just riding around, cruise, turn, flow, ride fast. Then come back to the ollie.
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Sorry I've been meaning to update this thread forever. I think I finally got it more or less sorted out towards the middle of February. After a bunch of experimenting, I found that the key was to actively try to do a backside 180. Like, wind up in advance and everything. What ends up coming out is an ollie that doesn't turn. Oddly it does move "in front of me" as in in the direction of my toes, but the board stays straight.
Shortly after figuring that out, I managed to keep an ollie straight over my curb height box:
https://streamable.com/thwagh
Spent a few weeks baking it into muscle memory so that I didn't have to think so much about it as I was doing it. Shortly after that I finally ollied onto my first curb.
https://streamable.com/ajak3f
https://streamable.com/stwscd
I still get a lot of frontside turn going up and over obstacles as you can see especially in that first one. I can fight it but it still takes a lot of conscious effort.
I'm going to keep at it but this was really the benchmark I was shooting for -- the minimum that I'd consider an acceptable, usable ollie. Thanks everyone for the assistance. I hope if there's anyone else out there googling for ideas they might find this helpful. Again to reiterate - my fix was to actively try to do a backside 180, complete with wind up before.