Author Topic: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?  (Read 2789 times)

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ArgonautJon

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Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« on: January 18, 2021, 12:49:56 PM »
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!

rocklobster

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2021, 07:04:21 PM »
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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SneakySecrets

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2021, 07:06:42 PM »
You’re turning your shoulders.  Your hips follow whatever your shoulders are doing. Force yourself to your shoulders in line with the bolts. 

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Mr. Stinky

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2021, 07:07:13 PM »
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.

rocklobster

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2021, 07:13:42 PM »
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
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Legs lead the feet
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ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2021, 07:16:57 PM »
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!

corto

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2021, 08:03:48 PM »
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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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2021, 08:11:14 PM »
Just do frontside 180s commit to your symptom

Mbrimson88

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2021, 08:36:14 PM »
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.

I talk too much about skateboards.  Sorry.

Mbrimson88

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2021, 08:42:58 PM »
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 talk too much about skateboards.  Sorry.

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2021, 08:43:18 PM »
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!

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2021, 08:50:37 PM »
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!

Mbrimson88

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2021, 09:10:57 PM »
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.
I talk too much about skateboards.  Sorry.

rocklobster

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2021, 10:38:16 PM »
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.
[close]


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.
[close]

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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ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2021, 03:54:22 AM »
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!

corto

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #15 on: January 19, 2021, 05:44:17 AM »
Quote
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.

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #16 on: January 19, 2021, 05:47:58 AM »
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!

corto

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #17 on: January 19, 2021, 06:05:39 AM »
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.
[close]

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.

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #18 on: January 19, 2021, 06:11:23 AM »
Expand Quote
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.
[close]

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!
[close]

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.

Jory4

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #19 on: January 19, 2021, 07:23:56 AM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
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.
[close]

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!
[close]

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.
[close]

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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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #20 on: January 19, 2021, 07:43:28 AM »
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

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #21 on: January 19, 2021, 08:13:04 AM »
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!

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #22 on: January 20, 2021, 09:25:45 AM »
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!

Mbrimson88

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #23 on: January 20, 2021, 06:22:57 PM »
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.

I talk too much about skateboards.  Sorry.

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #24 on: January 20, 2021, 06:34:26 PM »
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.

Quote
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.

Quote
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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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #25 on: January 20, 2021, 07:04:40 PM »
Front 180s actually looking really good too - at least you know how to turn frontside - that comes naturally to some more than others.
I talk too much about skateboards.  Sorry.

rocklobster

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #26 on: January 20, 2021, 09:55:14 PM »
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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ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #27 on: January 21, 2021, 03:43:23 AM »
Quote
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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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #28 on: January 21, 2021, 04:04:53 AM »
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.

ArgonautJon

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Re: Strange ollie frontside turn issue - any assistance?
« Reply #29 on: January 22, 2021, 06:25:36 AM »
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