How To Land an Ollie

If you’re just starting to get into skateboarding and you want to impress your friends, or even just yourself, there are certain techniques that you should be able to master. One of those techniques, otherwise known as tricks, is the ollie.

The first thing you need to do when preparing to land an ollie is to place your feet on the board in a balanced position. Following that, you’re going to roll forward. At that point, you want to pop the board with your back foot as you slide your front forward in order to make the board jump. One thing to keep in mind, and that is of critical importance, is that when you land, you land on the bolts. The bolts are the strongest part of the board and will ensure a safe landing if you land on them. If you land on the tail, there’s a decent chance that you will crack it, and maybe even break it. More importantly, you will be putting yourself in danger of getting seriously injured. The nose might be slightly more durable than the tail, but is also a dangerous place to land when performing an ollie.

If you’re the type of person that likes to keep things simple and can figure things out on their own with minimal instruction, then all you need to remember is pop, slide, and jump. Those are pretty much the three key components for landing an ollie. Some might say ‘land’ should also be included, but gravity has proven that if you’re going to jump, there’s an excellent chance you’re going to land. Therefore, ‘land’ is not really a necessary instruction.

Your ultimate goal for landing an ollie should be to get to a point where you can do all this in one fluid motion. There’s only one way to get to this point, and that is with a lot of practice. Muscle memory is very important in all sports, and skateboarding is no different. Think about it this way, bodybuilders must constantly change exercises in the gym in order to build muscle. Why? Because their muscles get so used to a certain exercise that they’re not building their muscles anymore. Basically, the exercise has become too easy and routine for that particular muscle. Landing an ollie in skateboarding is no different. Only that in skateboarding, muscle memory will work to your advantage. You want this technique, or trick, to become too easy and routine. That will mean that you have reached a point where you have mastered it, and will allow you to move on to attempting even bigger and better tricks.

Skateboarding offers a ton of creative freedom, but before you can attack that aspect of the sport, you must land the ollie first.