What do you think is most important for popping high?

[pizzafliptofakie]

Leg strength? Height? Straightforward technique?




I was watching Austyn's new part and started to think about ollieing up tall things with relative ease and started comparing notable guys who can jump really high. Skaters like him and Reynolds who seem pretty tall can pop over stuff no problem, but then you've got someone relatively short like Westgate who can pop higher than most.


I dunno, I'm bored at work thinking about skateboarding. Discuss?

[j....soy.....]

Technique.....flexibility too.....the sheer vertical makes up for only a portion of the Ollie....it's quickly sucking up your legs.....

[JB]

a dope fit.

[ChuckRamone]

I'd say mostly technique and reflexes. you have to have good muscle tone but being really strong is not what it's about, or else you'd have skaters in the gym building up gigantic leg muscles. there's a perfect mix of speed, power and agility involved.

[shark tits]

irie vibes and stomach muscles
[joaquim taught me that in 96]

[Iceman]

[Tufty]

Being tall helps a lot. If the average ollie is above knee the person with higher knee will probably ollie higher.

Also I think that except from hard pop, focusing on raising the back foot as much as possible helps.

[somethingmustbreaknow]

don't be fat

[pizzafliptofakie]

don't be fat

J-Lay's pretty stocky and he's got ups.

[Baron Samedi]

Experience/technique and man strength were it for me. I started being able to ollie very notably higher than I ever could starting when I was like 22-23. I attribute that to having started getting a little bit of grown up muscle as well as just having been skating for for ten years and being good enough at skating to where the movements started to make more sense.

On paper it seems like a strong core would be the best thing since the whole popping process and sucking up your legs mostly comes from there. Just a guess though.

[Abyss1]

Rice Krispies are the key

[perverted super otaku!]

There seems to be a couple of approaches:

Upper Body Momentum High Jumpers: The most powerful looking method, utilizes jump momentum for height, with knees sucked up straight to varying degrees eg. Westgate, Reese

Flexy Boners: The more idiosyncratic approach perhaps, while momentum is used to gain height, the board is also elevated by a forwards and upwards boning motion, ideally peaking with the board and both legs nearly all parallel eg. Kenny Reed, That Hari guy, Levi Brown

[ill_Murray]

Be Brazilian.

[lilpeen]

Methamphetamine

[Gray Imp Sausage Metal]

positive energy ...

[N.L.]

Less regret about the past and less anxiety about the future.

its a zen thing...

!POP!

fucked if i know...

skate more?

[Heather Chandler]

I remember seeing that pic a long time ago.  Amazing.  Kenny Reed eat your heart out.

[Hannity]

strong core and hip flexors. suck those knees up and level it out

[AllBranFlakes69]

I find placing my feet closer together on the board helps me get a little bit of extra height.

[christ0v]

I hope it's squats, because i've been squatting every other day.

[j....soy.....]

Explosiveness.....the action has to happen very quickly...this is what you lose when you get old.....

[shit_for_brains]

It's your legs, right?

[corto]

I think it's all about your explosive strength to bodyweight ratio. Westgate is super strong (explosive strength) compared to how much he weighs.

[eranka]

There seems to be a couple of approaches:

Upper Body Momentum High Jumpers: The most powerful looking method, utilizes jump momentum for height, with knees sucked up straight to varying degrees eg. Westgate, Reese

Flexy Boners: The more idiosyncratic approach perhaps, while momentum is used to gain height, the board is also elevated by a forwards and upwards boning motion, ideally peaking with the board and both legs nearly all parallel eg. Kenny Reed, That Hari guy, Levi Brown

Both use their upper body strength to keep in position while tweaking the board.
i think the secret to pop is the combination of strong legs,mainly the muscles controlling the pelvis in place, and your abdomen. you are right about most height is achieved from sucking the feet up rather than just vertically jumping. when you suck your feet up the center of balance shifts forward and to keep yourself in place you have to have strong abdomen, pelvis and hip control and you have to have a strong calf muscles to pop the board to keep up with your body mid air.

[sharkin]

for me personally it's all about that back foot, getting it up fast enough after the pop


also moving my front foot back allows the board to get more vertical before I flatten it out, so it pops higher

[Willie]

It's timing and technique for sure but it's also 80% how high you can do a standing jump off one foot (unless you are using a launch of some kind, then it's like 60% technique).

[Allez_Jambon]

you got to have ups too. have your whole body come up. sometimes i noticed my lower half does all the work but my head and shoulders stay about the same so i tried to be more conscious of that. it definitely works for me. idk i've always had the ability to grind tall ledges.

[Shifty Flip]

A giant glass of metamucil fiber, and a nice indica/sativa hybrid around 27%.  Add a little fresh live resin if you need to.

[Tracer]

timing and explosiveness

[Francis Xavier]

my buddy has pop, he's a skinny tall fucker but has the strength to boost up and over some shit. His set ups are usually light which helps but it's speed and just how you blast that shit from the get go. I've seen Reese Forbes and Donger skate in person, they both have a little different methods but the strength and power are there...I mean Donger ollied over cars! Westgate said loose ankles...