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Ollie is the hardest thing to learn in skateboarding. It took me and my friends a long time. I think it's hard to explain it, so it's hard to teach.It's rather that the initial smack or pop of the tail against the floor makes the board fly upward, which you can reproduce by just by stamping on the tail of your board. That was my first insight. You can do a standing Ollie with one foot: stamp it and as the board starts going up you shove your same foot to the right to stabilize it. After mastering that, a two-foot Ollie was just a matter of practice. Also, the longer you delay putting any downward force in the nose, the more air you get. I feel like I should make a video of a standing single foot Ollie, as two feet complicate demonstration, I think. The moving forward of the foot isn't for adding more forward velocity, a standing Ollie can get really high and land in the same place. A moving Ollie relies on your existing velocity, which should be pretty high. I've not skated for about 10 years, but I got a board recently to see if I still had it. Ollie'ing is like riding a bike, never forget how to do it. :) |  | |
> I've not skated for about 10 years, but I got a board recently to see if I still had it. Ollie'ing is like riding a bike, never forget how to do it. :)It's tough for me. I skated nearly every day of high school and not much since then. I got on a board a few months back and it was like starting all over again. The biggest difference that I noticed was my diminishing flexibility. I need to start managing that--my wife, a physical therapist, says that lack of flexibility in our 30's and 40's is highly correlated with likelihood of falls when we are elderly. | | | |
> my wife, a physical therapist, says that lack of flexibility in our 30's and 40's is highly correlated with likelihood of falls when we are elderly.I think this is why a lot of people get injured as they get older. You just don't realize how much less time you're putting into something you used to be able to do really well, then you try something that used to be easy with less flexibility and bam. problems, heh. I ran an obstacle course recently after having not done it in awhile. I was actually pretty surprised at how coordinated I still was (I'm 31, so I don't have all the issues I could yet), but I felt the tightness during and was sooooo sore the next day I really need to start doing consistent balance drills and flexibility training | | | |
I really need to start doing consistent balance drills and flexibility trainingIf that's your aim, I can't recommend a regular yoga practice highly enough. | | | |
This seems absurdly obvious now that you've mentioned it :)I'll have to seriously look into that | | | |
> The biggest difference that I noticed was my diminishing flexibility.This is definitely the biggest change I've noticed. There is no way I could skate now like I did in college and high school as my body simply won't allow it. Also important is that I doubt I'd recover from a nasty fall like I did when I was younger. Lastly, even if I could physically move like I did before, the mental concern about the cost of a bad fall / breaking a bone / pulling a ligament / etc. would prevent me from landing any type of trick beyond the basics. One of my friends who skated with me a lot in college used to like saying that the biggest factor in pulling off a trick is "thinking that you're going to". | | | |
> There is no way I could skate now like I did in college and high school as my body simply won't allow it.With some work you probably could. You'd be surprised by how many "older" dudes (40+) absolutely crush it at the climbing gym. It takes a damn lot of strength and flexibility for them to be able to do that. | | | |
To add to this, when it comes to rock climbing so much is down to finesse, and precision. As a mediocre climber, I find myself limited when on routes that I can't muscle my way out of; it's a conscious effort to practise planting my feet slowly and accurately, and coordinating my balance.Climbing is such a wonderful activity precisely because it blends so many things; strength, agility, discipline, accuracy, not to mention shear mental focus. Oh, and you get to play with lots of gear and gadgets. It's great for geeks. :-) | | | |
Good on you! I noticed I was initially afraid to just get moving on the thing. What about the skateboard falls? Partly why I stopped street skating was all the falls and ankle kinks. I still feel like I need to stage a fall on this new board just to break the ice. :-) | | | |
I wouldn't say it's the hardest, but it's definitely the first hard step.I learned to ollie in the summer of 1987. It had taken me and my brother about 6 months to figure it out. The hardest part was training our brains to be ok with it. Once we landed a few, it was then fairly simple. But, it was the landing that was most difficult. We intuitively understood the motion and forces required, but we resisted letting our back foot follow through. By 1989, we were able to do bike racks, picnic tables (with appropriate ramp angle), garbage cans. And, we eventually figured out the kick flip, which was the second hardest trick to learn (at first). Now, the 360 flip to handrail grind - that's a freaking hard trick that requires some guts to let oneself do. And, it's one of those tricks that requires a good video camera nearby to establish proof. | | | |
>It's rather that the initial smack or pop of the tail against the floor makes the board fly upward, which you can reproduce by just by stamping on the tail of your board. That was my first insight.I see this repeated over and over. Maybe I'm misinterpreting your comment, thought I've definitely seen it elsewhere such as this comment on the article: >It actually looks like he "bounces" the board while starting the ollie, which provides a portion of the initial upwards velocity of the board. Think about that for a moment. This is patently absurd. It's like trying to get several feet of air by crouching down and hitting the ground with a hammer. The collision is too elastic. I think the confusion might arise because a really strong smack of the ground by the tail coincides with more torque (torque, right?). Of course, you can easily ollie if your tail hangs over nothing at all; it's probably even easier because you can rotate further. IMHO, Terr's guess is exactly right. You get all the lift from pushing down the nose / dragging across the grip tape. | | | |
> IMHO, Terr's guess is exactly right. You get all the lift from pushing down the nose / dragging across the grip tape.This is clearly not the case. The front foot guides the board, stops it rotating backwards, and is necessary to land the ollie, but it doesn't help get the board into the air. The back foot pushes down (HARD) on the tail, the entire board rotates about the back axle until the tail hits the ground. At this point the front truck (which has significant weight (relative to the rest of the board)) is moving up and the rear truck is stationary, the momentum of the entire system is now up - the skater now (simply!) has to lift the rear foot at about the same speed as the tail lifts off the ground, and use the front foot to stop the board from over rotating back. | | | |
>Think about that for a moment. This is patently absurd. It's like trying to get several feet of air by crouching down and hitting the ground with a hammer. The collision is too elastic. //It's not at all like hitting the ground with a hammer [but hammers will bounce on concrete FWIW and even flip end over]. It's more akin to a see-saw that isn't fixed down. If the force at the back of the board is sufficient to overcome the weight of the board pulling it down at the front then the board will rotate lifting the front. Once the back of the board hits the floor there is a new pivot point, the rear tip of the board (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=339k...). Now the board is rotating - in the clip - anticlockwise. But the front foot prevents this rotation and provides a further pivot. You can do this experiment to demonstrate that a pivoted plank can jump. Take a ruler, place it on top of a rounded pen - this setup mimicking the rear wheel of a skateboard. Hit the ruler down at the short end and you'll see it flip up (it might take some practice!). Indeed the whole ruler, if it's short enough, might flip and continue rotating such that the long end goes up and over the short end - but this is because you don't have a front foot pushing that part down. Replacing the foot with your hand - as a barrier above the ruler preventing this continued rotation - leads to the ollie being imitated. The ruler jumps up with nothing other than a swift hit on the short end furthest from the pivot. ( ) hand imitates ( ) front foot ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) hit ( ) down --------------------------------- O pivot, eg pen
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Indeed, you don't even need the new pivot point of the back of the board either. If you smack the tail but don't drive it down the board will fly up into the air because the ground is resisting the pivot point of the wheels but the sky is not. The center of mass will start a linear trajectory once the pivot is defeated and I imagine that the angular velocity at the center of gravity will be mostly preserved once it takes off... My physics are rusty. | | | |
Yeah, you misinterpreted me. I didn't mean that just hitting something makes it fly up horizontally. I meant that if you simply stand on the tail of a board the nose points up and the whole board will fly upwards, like a seesaw. This is how you pick up your board if you're cool, stamp on the tail and it jumps into your hand. Small demo of that exact action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDU9wZUTLdUThe ollie is just that action with a foot sliding forwards to change the angle of the board. | | | |
Yea, I was being an idiot. I was interpreting some people's claims as the bouncing of the board being enough to propel the skater upwards. I guess nobody is saying that.I really should know better since I can ollie. I think my mental model of the ollie put too much emphasis on the sliding. Anyway, sorry. | | | |
I didn't say all the lift, I said "a bit more forward"...The majority of the upwards movement seems to come from pushing down on the back, levering most of the board-mass upwards. | | | |
Big moment in my childhood was learning to 'pop an ollie'. From that moment on, you could separate yourself from others with these seemingly impossible standing jumps up kerbs and over obstacles. I didn't ever really get much higher than maybe a foot on my best day, but it was great fun.Now I feel like finding a board just to see if I can. Sadly my Powell Peralta was lost with my Lego in some parental clean out while I was out being an adult that had flown the nest. I'd gladly trade my school photos and stupid artwork that was saved to get those back again. | | | As an enthusiast with a deep understanding of skateboarding mechanics, I can confidently delve into the concepts discussed in the article about the force vectors on a skateboard during an Ollie. The Ollie is considered one of the most challenging tricks in skateboarding, requiring a combination of skill, timing, and understanding of the forces involved.
The article touches upon several key concepts related to the physics of an Ollie:
Understanding the physics behind an Ollie involves comprehending the interplay of forces, leverage, and timing. The insights shared by the author and other contributors in the comments shed light on the nuanced aspects of executing this fundamental skateboard trick. Whether discussing the initial pop, foot positioning, or the importance of practice, these concepts collectively contribute to the mastery of the Ollie.
