No offense to Braille skateboarding but their tutorial was step1: hit your tail . Step 2 drag you foot up. I would recommend this video to someone learning how to ollie
I just had an epiphany about this a few weeks ago when I'm trying to teach my teenage kids to do an ollie as well. You jump off the board not jump off the contact with the ground. As you jump off you just flick your rear foot down more to make the tail pop! And then retract as fast as you can. One more important point I learned though is that beginner fixage on the feet sequence and forget to jump correctly. When you are standing still and jumping, you compress your body down like a spring and in order to jump high you must release that wind up in sequence before your feet left the ground. My kids have that problem they bent down but did not move their body up before messing with their feet try to pop it. So the correct sequence should be like this, -Bend your body down -Squat your knee -Then releasing your body up -Unsquat your knee -Jump off the board in springy action(with your toe) -As your lift off flick your rear foot down to make the board pop! -Retract rear foot up by bending knee -Then drag your front foot as much as you like Houston we have a lift off!!
Talking about jumping, one thing that is always not included in Olli tutorials, is the arm movement and technique. Proper arm action is needed in every jump movement to gain height.
100% I've been trying to teach myself ollies and I basically erased 80% of all videos advice I've watched they are very misleading. This comment and this video is how you do it.
By the way, to clarify the pop Ben does... he's jumping UP before popping using his ankle motion. It's how you get that millisecond of a difference between pop and jump, otherwise you get this 'stomping' the tail which results in the board coming up too quickly against the back foot, causing a fairly low ollie.
This must literally be the best ollie tutorial I've ever seen. Spot on: I wasted years of my life following common trick trip advice to 'stomp down on the tail' with all your weight, as if you're trying to dent the pavement, etc.
The metaphor I've started using lately is, it's like dribbling a basketball. Using the snap of the ankle through the toe to bounce the tail off the ground.
Dude, I've been telling this to begginers since i've figured it out myself. I always tell them "Think of it as a jump, THEN pop". Most people think that the pop is off the tail, when it hits the ground haha
Dude literally this video just opened my eyes up. I’ve been popping with my foot touching the ground with the board! Your comment kinda clicked it for me thanks man
YES. FINALLY. Every tutorial I've seen is just "do this this and this" and not once mention WHEN to jump and HOW to with your back foot. I've been planting my back foot TOO hard and not jumping soon enough. I needed this.
No one, I mean no one explains mechanics of skateboard well like Ben does.(eg.His wheelbase series helped me a lot when choosing my deck and truck) Glad to see that kinda detailed explanation on skills. Thank you Ben!
As I described to a young kid recently, you don't jump the board, you jump & bring the board with you. Seemed to make sense & worked well for him. Then I put a piece of wood just in front of his rear truck & got him to ollie over that to simulate the forward motion needed for a rolling one which really helped him along 👍
Level 43 male here, first time skater, and this is the first Ollie video that has actually clicked fir me. Watched it once and was like, oh, that makes a lot more sense. Went out in the garage and nailed an Ollie easier than ever. It’s all about the toe push down/flick at the end of your jump that actually gets the board in the air!!! Thank you!
I always regarded the "jump" as simply quickly standing up from crouching. One thing from Braille that really stuck to me is how Aaron kept saying an ollie isn't a jump, it's an ollie. Your advice of staying at the ball of your feet allowed me to put more pressure on the board so when I "stand up" and quickly lift my front foot I would release all those potential energy and slightly elevate my whole body and pop the board at the same time. So basically I: 1. Crouch 2. "Jump" by standing up quickly 3. Just before my legs straighten I lift my front foot 4. I lightly push forward to level the board and lift my back foot simultaneously Idk the physics of it but keeping my back foot centered on the tail instead of closer to the edge transferred more energy from my ankles and quads onto the tail thus yielding a better pop. I really thought it's the other way around cuz a lot of ollie tutorials recommended placing the back foot closer to the edge.
My ollies were already good but they leveled up significantly when i started thinking about it more as "jumping and bringing the board up with you" rather than "making the board pop in in the air and jumping with it", if that makes any sense. There is this 2 foot high planter where i skate and i was having trouble to ollie up it, but then i just focused on getting my back foot up it and not worry about the board, the board just seemed to come along for the ride!
It is a difficult thing to explain. You broke it down in a good way. The timing is killer, at the end of the day it tends to be something you discover organically through trial and error. The jump and flick is the killer. We’ll spend weeks pinning our boards to the ground with our back foot before it’s figured out lol.
Got back on the board after more than a decades absence but having to learn goofy as I've had a very complicated op done on my left leg and basically I don't have full use of it. Its coming back to me and your videos really help and inspire. I'm pushing 40 but I'm lucky to look ten years younger. Thank you for helping me sort my life out.
Hey Ben, I noticed the same thing recently when I watched a slow mo video of a kick flip I did. It surprised me too! I just started skating again after 16yr hiatus(37 now) and I never knew I did that. Keep up the great work, really enjoy your skating videos!
I had to relearn after losing more than an inch off my right leg after being hit by a drunk driver ( skate regular) so my ollies have always sucked on flat. Still rolling at 52.
Ben I have been a subscriber for a year now and I started skating because of you I just landed a heel flip after a year of trying today and I’m very proud I got 4 in all out of 100+ try’s thank you for everything you do and keep making amazing content I will always watch
1) I feel like I'm watching the Alan Thicke of skateboarding. 2) This man is a GREAT teacher. I've been skating on and off for 20 years. I've finally rededicated myself at 35 and my ollies (moving) suck. I really need to work on timing and commitment. I guess the sucky time and the fear of falling create a double whammy that I need to get past. Thank you for your awesome videos!
I just started back up after 20 years and it was so weird losing the timing. I got it back within a day but man, if the timing isnt there you dont have anything.
I was looking for this exact title yesterday! I was asking myself what am I missing even though I can ollie. I just wanted to get better. Thanks so much Ben. We appreciate your time and love you put into this. Thanks again.
Thanks, you talking about little details like this is always interesting, I have internalized this motion years ago but when helping others I make the mistake of explaining in a wrong way. By the way, a friend of mine used to do ollies with no pop, you almost never heard the pop. One day we made a test, piece of paper under the tail on the floor, pencil dust on the tail, he did a knee high ollie, the paper was clean. I grabbed his board and slightly touched the tail with the paper, it came black. It looked like the board was stuck to his feet. Have not figured it out yet, the worst part is that he had no idea what he was doing. And his board never had razortail, he scratched the sides of the tail from doing varials but the center was always almost new. My guess is perfect timing and a feather touch pop.
Brilliant. I have been analyzing so many videos and I just needed the hear the thing about jumping off the tail, the tail will pop itself. That’s just amazing. Thank you!!!!
this is so comprehensive, thank you dude. i can ollie but like i almost always watch tutorials that look detailed like this so i can find more stuff to try and keep improving it.
i’ve been trying to do an ollie for a couple of weeks now and i wasn’t even close but i watched this guys video and i’ve been so close in the matter of minutes
WHY DOES NOONE TEACH OLLIES THIS WAY?!?! I've been struggling for 2 YEARS not knowing what I was doing wrong and it's because everyone teaches them the exact same way without getting into these nuances, this video has been a great help, thank you!
Thanks Ben:) I personnally enjoyed at the end the ollies slowmo high quality filming!!! The super quality of your contents is undeniable. Thank you for your continuous efforts to improve your channel (filming, music, montage...).
Hey, i love the quality of your videos. They’re simple, but they are just the right thing. You don’t talk to much, you don’t say a lot of unnecessary stuff, you actually show what are you talking about and i enjoy just watching them. I can’t actually explain it, but yeah. I’ll be waiting for more videos :)
Great tutorial, Ben! I've been skating for like 16 years, and I never noticed that we jump before the tail hits the ground. I've never thought about it that much or analyzed footy, but I think this is one of the best explanations of how to properly pop that I've ever watched. one common mistake I see with beginners is that they don't slide their foot all the way up to the nose, but I think that having their weight on the tail is more likely the problem
Your point at around 03:05 where you explain that "the best way to get the pop is when the body weight has left the board already" is the key issue I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Also, I kept thinking I really needed to slide my front foot far up the board. Your video is so helpful!! Also, thanks for being realistic with how much time it takes to master the Ollie.
I've been skateboarding since 2005 and I've realized I've been skating my boards backwards (been popping my tricks off of the nose instead of the tail) and recently I've been trying to skate my board the "normal" way and my timing is soooo off lol but I'm getting there.
after watching this video hundreds of times and other tutorials, im slowly getting it and i just need to be consistent. i tried different ways and so far what worked for me is. 1. placing my fromt foot in the middle of the board. i tried under the bolts like ben and the board not leveling up. maybe im not tall so my comfortable foot placement in on the middle. 2. i placed my back foot half on the edge. 3. i realized that i dont actually need to force my foot to slide up. once the board lifted up, your front foot will naturally slide up because you jump from the board. placing my fromt foot in the middle gives me a space to slide the board. this helped to level up my board. unlike before, it was rocket ollie. 4. the more im concious on what im going to do, the more i cannot ollie. all my successful landed ollie has no pressure on my mind. Like what Ben used to say, it takes a lot of practice. i just recently started focusing on ollie. i tried it few times before but didnt pay much time on it. i used to cruise on the street and practice carving and downhill. i never skated in the park. im the same age as Ben and he has inspired me in a lot in skatboarding. its truly that age is just a number
This tutorial makes way much more sense I'm going to use this learning my nollie/switch tricks. I never thought about it this way. BACK TO THE FUNDAMENTALS
hey Ben! your new channel is actually a gift for New skaters. you Cover Things in your tutorials that every beginner really needs to think of, instead of all the other experienced skaters that sadly dont even know anymore what the Problems of first learning the ollie is. TY SO MUCH!
Going out to practice right away after watching this...still haven't got it yet but i'm close. I can feel it! I am learning that an ollie is a lot like trying to make a golf swing. There is a whole bunch of little things and movements that you need to do all at once and you can't really be thinking about any of them as you do it...challenging.
You explain it so well, I already know how to ollie but had to watch to see how you explained it. The way you explained it is better than I've seen in other videos. Keep doing these as i feel you have a knack for teaching skating
One tip for the back foot timing - it’s similar to skipping. When you skip the foot planted on the ground will do a 2 step motion. You bend that foot at the ball and jump off your toes. Try skipping flat footed. You won’t be able to. Same thing for the ollie.
I fixed this in one day by doing this one exercise. I jumped from ollie postion to all four bolts. I figured out that you don't really try to pop the board, if you try to jump it will automatically pop the board and the motion you use to pop the board, is the jump from ollie position to landing on all four bolts. When you ollie, pop the way you jump, like don't try to pop the board, just jump and the board will automatically pop. The board automatically pop, because when you jump, you put pressure on the ground and force, so if you jump on ur board, you will put pressure and force on the tail. The timing was something I couldn't fix in the ollie no matter how hard I tried, so I decided to try this exercise I made up a few times and I DID AN OLLIE WITH CORRECT TIMING.
Spectacular video, no one talked about the snap before and how your back foot comes off. Will be intersting to see your explanation with this on other tricks too.
TOE! Never occurred to me how important the toes of your popping foot play in help you get a solid pop. I think that's the difference you get when you compare someone who pops heavy (with their entire foot and calf) verus nimble (mostly toes and foot, some calf)
I would “like” this 20 times if I could!!!!! Most of the videos on ollies are vital in one way or another. This one is no exception!! And it’s a very specific point that I haven’t yet seen. Thank you so much for the tip!!
This is the best tutorial out there. I'm 40 and just bought a skateboard 7 weeks ago (when I was a kid couldn't get past pushing and kick turning) and thanks to Ben I can now ollie (stationary 35 to 40cm high), shuvit (this one is not consistent yet) and yesterday I just did my first drop in on a 1 meter ramp. And I can't skate more than 3 or 4 times a week and no more than 45 mins because, well, life. So, Ben, keep producing tutorials like these! Without them, progress would be much slower! Thanks
After watching this video I was today years old (45) when I finally did an ollie. 15 mins later my 14 year old niece was doing them too. No medals for style or height but we're taking it. Thanks buddy 😁
Excellent detailed information. Thanks Ben. I think of popping/bending my knee and sliding to the tip of the nose at the same time/beginning. I’m getting more pop because of this way of thinking.
