Scientific breakdown of How to OLLIE

[@artyohm4810]

I simply love it when someone is THIS commited to helping others.👏

[@rwandeuk]

Right ! And THIS talented ! He explains so well, so accurate !

[@pastaboinch]

I think the most important step you mentioned here that most tutorials never touch on, is the fact that you need to pop AS your body weight is already lifted up off the board. The better you get at this timing of knowing when your center of mass is lifted up and when to begin popping really determines how well you ollie. You should crouch down, start to begin your jump, and once your body weight is off the board, THEN you begin your pop. Most tutorials just tell you to jump, pop, and slide, which is not helpful at all. Then if you want to ollie higher, you need to learn how to keep your head and upper body down while bringing your knees up to your chest. Doing an ollie higher isn't simply about having a higher vertical jump, you need to essentially crouch in the air and bring your knees up like you're doing a box jump.

[@commentcontrol7187]

this tip is crazy important, to add onto your point, a great way to practice is this to roll off a curb by jumping and lifting your wheels, then doing it again with your feet and body set up for an ollie. you'll do the ollie motion exactly the right way

[@heatenat8441]

@@commentcontrol7187 Can You Elaborate a little Bit More on That? Is The Setup to roll Off the curb Doffere t Than Ollie Setup?

[@skop6993]

I also think it's the most important tip a beginner could get. I used to pop the board when I was still crouching and preparing for my jump and i couldn't understand why my ollies looked so sketchy haha

[@tamaya619]

llllllll

[@beanguru6838]

While everything you mentioned is actually true, a main key factor is the direction of pop. The nose of your board needs to bite into your front foot. Notice when you pop, you're popping straight down. That's not good because the nose of the board is not properly connecting with your front foot, therefore the nose just mobs slightly upward making it a struggle to level it out. While it is possible to ollie this way, it's a lot harder and energy consuming and not really proper when learning how to pop into certain slides and grinds like lipslides, smith grinds, etc. To solve that issue, when you're rolling regular or switch, or even stationary, don't pop straight down, you gotta pop the tail back, against the direction your going. This makes the nose bite directly into your front foot properly, giving you more control over what the board does. Depending on how high you can jump and suck your knees up, you can easily and consistently get the board pretty darn high like Luan or Torey and with very little effort used.

[@traceychan9418]

Very informative. So regarding "needs to bite into your front foot", so would one aim for the front pocket area? To "catch" the board?

[@beanguru6838]

@@traceychan9418 yeah exactly. That's part of the reason why boards have concave. Our foot catching into that front pocket area is what gives us better control over what the board does once it gets in the air.

[@beanguru6838]

@Emmanuel Abera You can pop straight down, but the ollie won't be as responsive to the front foot. There was an old school transfer ollie which Rodney mullen commonly did in the 80s and he states it was what he used to create the flatground ollie. The way the transfer ollie worked is he would snap the tail in the direction away from the nose, this would cause the nose to connect straight into his front foot, giving him the proper front foot control needed to dive the nose down and land directly into a nose stall position.

[@TRUEROOTS2022]

💎💎💎💎

[@xpmovement]

This comment along with the video instantly helped my Ollie. Pop backwards, don’t kick the tail with your leg, just your ankle. Thank you both

[@7thfaker]

Started skating September 5th, rested on the 6th, and I did my first Ollie today September 7th thanks to this video... Each and every other video left out this crucial information that was really helpful, "pop once u r almost off your board so that the weight from you wouldn't be so present" I repeat"pop once u have shifted all your weight or suppressed energy into a jump, do it just after you leave your board guys, it'll def work..." I did skate 8years ago when I was like 13 but now I took it a step further by learning tricks instead of only cruising like I did in the past... Thanks man! I wish you could see me on that board today, I was so confident and I did lots and lots of Ollies(40% consistency) today and I'll go back to improve tomorrow before I switch to pop shuvits.... Literally took me two days to learn and execute an Ollie... I'm catching up fast, Thanks man ❤️

[@whythetrick]

Greeeat to hear that! Love this expression. "pop once u r almost off your board so that the weight from you wouldn't be so present" It's exactly what I wanted to say.

[@KazPaz]

This is such a good breakdown! And confirms my suspicions as to why my ollies are no bueno. I noticed the thigh/centre of gravity really does come up first before the pop when I watch others ollie, but this is never ever pointed out in any tutorials. And very few tutorials explain that your foot should not touch the ground when you pop. It's taken me so long to realise these things! Wish I could've seen this vid 2 years ago!

[@whythetrick]

thanks for the comment. just a little clarification in case I gave you wrong impression; it's not like I'm trying not to let my toe touch the ground. I just focus on popping down the tail, and I don't intentionally avoid letting my toe touch the ground. if you have a bigger foot, perhaps your back toe touches the ground.

[@mr.tofficial1140]

halfway tru this video and I want to mention IT’S INSANE HOW detailed and good this guy teaches all the tiniest things that other skaters who mastered the ollie probably think are default and obvious. Im surprised he doesn’t have more views he DEF deserves it, I’ve never seen a tutorial THIS good. Man im extremely impressed!!!

[@roseyrosable805]

this channel is unbelievably underrated. THANK YOU so much!

[@voidvoidvoid7274]

This is exactly what I needed, it's weird but I tend to learn a lot faster when scientific explanations are used to teach me something. Thank you so much ! EDIT : Wow, the mental preparation part was so motivational... dude, I won't give up, I'll land it when I'll land it.

[@basdobbelaere940]

This is so detailed, amazing and in no way or shape I have seen explained elsewhere like this, yet at the same time very helpful. Great work!

[@AdriStouse]

Innovative skateboarding tutorials. That's what you are doing. Amazing! Please keep doing that

[@whythetrick]

Thanks for the comment!!

[@ZorlanOtterby]

The main role of the front foot is to act as a fulcrum when the front trucks are near their highest point. Think of the board as a lever. There are three fulcrums in an ollie, each of which is active at a different time during the trick: rear axle, tip of tail, edge of front foot on the nose. The first two are associated with rotating the nose up, while the last one is associated with rotating the tail up. You can test this by placing your board underneath a rail, standing behind the board, and popping the tail so that the nose hits the rail right about where your front foot would contact the nose during an ollie. The board will do an "ollie". This is a simplification, of course. Other torques are involved, and the front foot does some other work as well. The main point of my comment is that people get obsessed with "dragging" the front foot -- even though that actually creates a very small effect on ollie height -- and don't appreciate the foot's role as a fulcrum, which creates a huge effect on ollie height. The major reason that getting your front foot higher into the nose yields a higher ollie is simply that you've moved the fulcrum further up on the board. Popping harder creates more torque around that fulcrum. Pushing forward on the nose enhances the effect, for reasons having to do with some of those "other torques" I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.

[@zackkurs9134]

Day 2 of skating @29 I hit my first Ollie thanks to your videos. Out of everyone on KZbin I think you’re the best resource thank you.

[@whythetrick]

you are very welcome. glad to help!

[@philip6252]

This is so much better than all the videos out there.

[@whythetrick]

thanks a lot!

[@anyduca-nb6nx]

im a beginner and just watching your video i learned to do an ollie in 5 min !!!!! LITERALLY INSANE. ✨ 💅thankiu

[@sauro8311]

Amazing explanation, it has solved all my problems and mistakes with the ollie. Good job and thanks for the video!

[@ricardo-simoes]

The most complete problem solver, thank you so much for this. Every manouver should be "debugged" like in this video

[@whythetrick]

Haha thanks for the comment. That’s exactly what I’m going for.

[@greenfox4362]

Thank you very much ! Now i begin to feel that my board begins to pop under my feets. I was trying to pop when all of my weight was on a skateboard instead of jumping first. You have made my day ❤ Now physics on my side !

[@64_bit80]

such an insanely good channel. my god

[@jeffli480]

Thighs vs calves is a really helpful cue. I think I’ve been using too much calves in my skating for a long time and have been dealing with a lot of knee issues and pain over time as a result.

[@emikpemik4814]

I saw this video 8 times and every time a get something new and master what I knew

[@pablovirus]

Wish I had found this video earlier, it's really well done and perfectly explained. Thank you!! I'm hitting the skate park right now to see if I can land a proper Ollie. I've been trying for a few days with only little success.

[@trcctrl]

Always the best explanations for tricks, thank you!

[@whythetrick]

thanks!!!

[@FairyLiquid69]

Amazing video, thank you for this. I still can't ollie after years of trying and giving up, trying and giving up again the next year etc etc. But after watching this I really want to try again. Also some advice for people trying learn ollies (or anything in skateboarding): record footage of yourself - it really helps when you can't figure what you're doing wrong AND you get to look back and see how much progress you've made :)

[@iansholylordinquisitor4271]

Im trying to learn it now, the sliding of my foot or rolling of my ankle is what im having issues with.

[@sirweihowe1005]

I can do regular ollies but switch is still a mystery to me, excellent video as always man!

[@whythetrick]

Thanks!!!

[@Endgame901]

Thanks so much. I waited a long time for this!

[@Tribuneoftheplebs]

This is such an amazing video... breaking down popping blew my mind. Thanks bro

[@steveco.1234]

excellent breakdown. looking forward to the future videos.

[@whythetrick]

Thanks a lot!

[@RaymondHinton]

Like everyone else has said, fantastic video! I think a reason that a lot of advice focuses on "dragging the board up with your front foot" is because that's what it FEELS like you're doing when you get really good at skateboarding and have built up a lot of fine motor control with your feet (for the record, I *assume* that's what it feels like - I am quite terrible myself 😀). You're basically trying to get out of the way of the pop, and gently guiding the front of the board to an optimal position. I am somewhat-competent in other skills (juggling and unicycling), and I know from experience that people have quite different perceptions of a maneuver when they're just learning vs when they are proficient. When you have completely learned a skill, you perform the basic motions without thinking about them, and your brain can concentrate on the finer movements. If a novice focuses on those same fine movements, they'll be ignoring the basic ideas that make the entire action work in the first place!

[@whythetrick]

Thanks for the comment. As you mentioned, most people focus on dragging the front foot. I think it's because it stands out as it happens right in front of our eyes. On the other hand, what's more important can be something else: elevation of body, for example.

[@linxianer12]

OMG ! Your channel and website is ultimate pure gem on break down tutorial ! Are you working in engineering field ? It just super marvelous for your effort on sharing tutorial like this I subscribe right away.

[@whythetrick]

Haha thanks! Been working on skating and programming days and nights. It’s always good to learn something new, isn’t it? Thanks for the sub!!

[@oldbonz]

This was very well explained. I am looking forward to the next one as my weight distribution seems to be back foot centric which really becomes an issue when rolling. Nice job!

[@whythetrick]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Stooorrrm]

Thank you, amazing job! I’m really tired of all those standard explanations all over the internet.

[@Franciscobocanegraww]

Best channel ever!

[@Pump]

Great video, incredible breakdown.

[@Kitty_girl135]

That 50-50 was smooth AF dawg. Definitely was high and stylish on that one.

[@prawnyb]

Have you done a landing vid mate? You've truly helped me to unlock my own ollies🎉

[@Sylykyn]

That calf pro tip is good, need to try.

[@whythetrick]

thanks for the comment. please give it a shot and give me your feedback!

[@Kyle-wq2ps]

I love you for making this

[@Boardrider3x1]

Very nicely done, respect! Thanks a lot and keep enjoying the ride 🤙

[@ariekanibalie]

IMHO, the common advice to 'stomp down on the tail' and 'slide your front foot up' are very misleading. Yes, you need to push the tail down hard enough to bring the nose up, but it's less of a 'stomp' and more like a light-footed snap - like when you pop your board up to grab it. So then you need to level out the board with your front foot. 'Sliding your front foot up the nose' is what tends to happen (it's nearly impossible to break contact with board after you pop) but really, really, it's not the diagonal slide up the grip that levels out the board but rather the forward nudge. The higher up the nose you do this, the less force you'll need, this is just basic physics, so pop the tail, then try to do a little side-kick nudge, aiming for the highest point of/very tip of the nose. Boom: instant knee-high ollies. Well, this works for me anyway.

[@bodrea_collective]

I love the video! do you think you can do a breakdown on heelflips?

[@whythetrick]

Thanks! Will try!

[@Rudwlf]

A few things left out or that I disagree with: At the snap of the tail, the back foot should not come that close to the ground it should be a quick pop as you’re already jumping. At the crouch back knee should be typically lower than the front caused by back foot being in the pocket this is what causes the teeter totter effect. Just because you can jump high doesn’t mean you can tweak your ollies on day one you have to develop the muscle memory to be able to control that quick snap. Coming up from the crouch back knee starts coming up to the height of the front knee and front foot jumps a millisecond before back but you’re basically jumping with weight on both feet it just looks like it’s the back because the board is tilting. Front foot should be touching nose by the time the board is popping up. Use your shoulders to bring that back knee to your face while pushing the nose forward not down with your front foot. Film yourself and you’ll realize it’s all in the take off the back wheels have to have enough snap to be able to level. What really helped me was thinking of doing an Ollie to an nollie in mid air and controlling everything with the shoulders.

[@zwisely]

Very clear and helpful, must try, thanks a lot.

[@Fusion_Playa]

What an insightful video, thank you!

[@tamathegiant]

can you make a video on the science of ollie while rolling? thanks! love your channel

[@whythetrick]

thank you for the request. if you can tell me specific symptom/s you are facing, I might be able to help you.

[@tamathegiant]

I got the olille and the pop down. but I suck at riding into a ollie. every time I try. I either pop to hard or do comit at all :( @@whythetrick

[@itech1521]

Thank you ive been waiting for this video for so long now and finally you made it. can you maybe also make a video on how to fall while getting hurt as little as possible.

[@whythetrick]

It may sound ironic but I think you should fall as many times as possible haha. But yes, it sounds fun. Thanks for the idea!

[@owengrigsby624]

needed this

[@ikadreeminn]

I, for some reason, am horrible at doing ollie (or pretty much every trick) while rolling because of the landing, so I bet the next video is gonna help me out a lot. Also nice title, bet that'll get picked up by the youtube algorithm (hopefully).

[@whythetrick]

haha you are totally right about the title. I'm trying something new. I was actually not expecting anyone could realize that. it's not something everyone can realize. thank you for watching as always!!

[@HarMegiddo]

Yes yes yes! Thank you! More please

[@whythetrick]

you are very welcome!

[@adnanahamed7297]

Love u bro, it's really helped me

[@deepyokan]

thanks u so much, man

[@silasb1415]

nice video. bs 180, bs bigspins, pressure flips next pls

[@DrSethGray]

Thanks, that was pretty clear

[@Lowpropo]

subscribed! Would be cool if you could explain backflips on wakeboards and snowboards too! There's all sorts of physics i can't understand with those sorts of sports!

[@whythetrick]

thanks for subscribing! backflip huh? that's new. let's see...

[@ishkool8664]

wow you explained it very well, hopefully I'll be able to ollie now :), let's see

[@whythetrick]

wish you the best luck! please give me some feedback after trying some

[@meta.aesthetica]

Thank you so much!!!

[@grassgrow030]

this is such a cool and helpful youtube channel youve created, thank you! Could you do a video on shuvits/fakie shuvits, boardslides and mb slappy grinds?

[@whythetrick]

Thanks for the comment! I’ve made videos about pop shoves. m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4mkn3l9a65qeM0 Will work on board slide and slappies too. Thanks!

[@Masloff30]

Brilliant🙌🙏 What about hand work while olliing?

[@shiryu22]

@1:26 is it, though 🤔

[@alexavery311]

for my ollies I feel like i put a little more weight on my front foot whilst keeping my pop foot very light, getting that wave motion. Looking foward to your next ollie video

[@steezy1692]

i need to try that cause i always keep the same weight on both my feet but still end up slipping when I jump

[@alexavery311]

@@steezy1692 Experiment, its always good to be light/weightless on the board, it seems to be a common trend for me when I do more technical tricks at speed to lockup instead of loosen up.

[@steezy1692]

@@alexavery311 yes this helped me a lot from slipping under when I try to pop and I noticed a whole difference in my pop when keeping it light

[@phillipperea2981]

After watching this video I was able to Ollie right after now I can roll and pop my Ollies and ollie over stuff

[@whythetrick]

Oh yeah? Great to hear that!

[@fishpump3058]

@whythetrick I am Phil's friend and he showed me your video to learn how to Ollie. I am learning according to your teachings.

[@ZORBEYgaming]

nice video as always

[@whythetrick]

Thanks for the comment. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about in the next 1-2 videos.

[@Tribuneoftheplebs]

Subscribed!!

[@whythetrick]

thanks for sub!

[@Ha1rD1aper]

you seem to think about skating something like me... want to know something? the principles of the ollie and every normal flip in every stance is the same. on the ground the skateboard is a mechanical lever. when you put energy into the tail or nose it puts rotational momentum (inertia) into the opposite truck, which makes it heavier, as energy is mass. when the board is in flight, this is essentially "zero G", and the board movement is determined by the location of the most energy. before entropy sets in and spreads the energy through the board, the truck with more energy acts the same as the one that was planted firmly on the ground. allowing the board to rotate in the air like a lever on the ground, as long as it's leveraged past the truck (inertia). this is where the "arc" comes from and why people talk about "pockets". the pockets are on the distance increasing side of the levers (nose and tail). there are 3 of them and they are determined by the truck bolts- slide up to pocket to lever between bolts and it keeps axis level, left or right of bolts flips. also, if you want to ollie high, the initial drag is almost a side note. got to roll your foot over and catch your toe in the ollie pocket, then flick the board up by making your foot level so the board rotates on the truck. i'm talking hard flick, like the board would otherwise fling away as if you threw it, if your foot wasn't there.

[@lildooma]

I know it's a relatively old vid, BUT: The rolling of the front anlke, in most cases I believe, only happens because it is relaxed. You don't actively roll it.

[@adithadi842]

i have a fuckn exam tomorrow and here i am watching this 🙂

[@railsonbarbosa5483]

muito bom!!!!!

[@whythetrick]

Obrigado

[@-dfh-866]

A big one that I had to figure out myself. All of the things you may have heard is correct with the popping with your ankle and sliding your foot etc. The thing you have to do in order for that to work than many tutorials don't mention is, you need to keep weight off your board. Before your tail hits the ground when you're popping, you need to jump. That's why people say they use their ankle. They're not using their leg bc if they did that, the tail would hit the ground first, then the tail would be pinched between your foot and the ground meaning, theirs weight on it.

[@oliec2540]

Retrun to basics!

[@whythetrick]

Yiiiizzz

[@chrisangel6833]

4:08 how do you do this

[@chrisangel6833]

Thanks for highlighting my comment but how do you do this?

[@KoolteethDeBlog]

When you go down your knees sometimes meet each other. Did you analyse this 'inward' movement of your knees?

[@whythetrick]

Interesting. Thanks for the insight!

[@KoolteethDeBlog]

@@whythetrick you're wellcome! Could you make a focus video on jumping up most efficiently?

[@mercury1sme]

3:03

[@makaio5684]

i finally get it

[@whythetrick]

Glad to know that ;)

[@hearong-xn9nf]

❤️‍🔥

[@EsotericOccultist]

👍

[@fritobandito8928]

Bro make a video about heelflips, I think that they're more complicated than kickflips

[@whythetrick]

Will try. Thanks for the idea!

[@liggerz87]

I can actually kick flip but never tried while moving I'm only able to spin a varial can't always do it taken me about 2 months to do it

[@RoNdOAk47]

If I can give any advise. Don't learn any trick stationary

[@liggerz87]

@@RoNdOAk47 ok how come . I can Ollie up curb no problem can do it standing still but if I'm moving I'm not that confident in doing it iv also noticed because I'm trying to do a varial it now fucks up my kickflip

[@zurih_]

varial kickflip?

[@whythetrick]

sry that was a mistake

[@alien432hz9]

My friend used to say: "science is not important!"

[@justinmusicandskateboardin9282]

You don't get any height because you arent' really jumping, look at your upper body, it barely moves upward at all. You have to jump with your entire body including your upper body. Your legs and knees are moving but you're not really jumping, you're just doing a particular motion with them, which does indeed get the board to ollie, but you will never get any height like that.

[@antoniodominguezjr4734]

There’s a bunch of physics of ollie videos I just watched and they’re all doing this same weird thing. He’s not really jumping at all. He’s like, standing up and then bringing his body back down to the board. He’s effectively canceling his own upward momentum. As helpful as this video is, it’s definitely bad for people who can’t ollie to emulate his movements. It’s always better to use a depiction of a person doing an actually decent ollie. But good job nonetheless!

[@kamehouse223]

Why is he cancelling out his pop when he Ollie’s. It’s making his Ollie’s much smaller in height then it’s supposed to be…

[@whythetrick]

Would you mind elaborating it a bit more please?

[@kamehouse223]

@@whythetrick bud, you're not popping while u jump for the ollie. You could get the actual height if you committed more to the jump while you move. Right now your like crouch jumping...

[@kamehouse223]

@@whythetrick you don't need to take this too seriously but just pointing out the flaw in your ollies.

[@joshwessell7759]

Firstly, im sure this is more about basic mechanics. I remember watching archaic tutorial vids on vhs as a kid That didnt even have a feaction of knowledge this has. Is it all encompassing? No. But is a "starting point"... eh, eh? Seriously, youre taking it too seriously.

[@coocieobtainer3021]

just lean forward

[@RuslanTsuiunCopy]

Mb this will help me 😂

[@JoeKyser]

if you cant ollie, just quit. just kidding lol. I would have never skated haha. I was just a little kid and it took me years to get it down. I would try but just couldn't do it. As I got older and got stroger and could jump higher, it was a wrap.