How to Ollie — Step-by-Step for Beginners

What is an ollie?

An ollie is a jump where you simultaneously pop the tail of the skateboard against the ground and slide your front foot up the board to level it in the air. The result: the board rises with your feet as if attached, even though nothing is holding it there. The motion was invented by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand in 1978 and became the fundamental building block of all modern street and park skating.

Every trick that involves the board leaving the ground — kickflips, heelflips, 360 flips, nosegrinds, 50-50s on elevated obstacles — starts from an ollie. Getting it right early sets the foundation for everything.

Prerequisites

Before learning to ollie, you need:

• Comfortable pushing — you can push and roll without losing balance
• Comfortable stopping — foot brake or tail drag
• Basic turning — you can navigate in a direction
• Board feel — you can stand on the board comfortably without constantly adjusting

If you're still figuring out balance and pushing, spend another week or two on those fundamentals. The ollie is much harder if you're also fighting balance at the same time.

Foot position

Foot position is the most common source of ollie problems. Get this right before anything else.

Back foot

Place the ball of your back foot centered on the tail of the board — not on the heel, not far up the board. The tail is the kicker you'll press down, and your back foot needs to be positioned to snap it cleanly and fully.

Front foot

Place your front foot across the board (not parallel to it), roughly above or slightly behind the front truck bolts. Angle the foot slightly toward the nose — about 30–45 degrees. The side of your shoe will slide up the grip tape when you ollie; the angle controls this slide path. Too parallel = poor slide control. Too perpendicular = your foot goes straight across instead of up the board.

Common mistake: front foot too far back toward the middle of the board. This shortens the slide distance and makes leveling the board nearly impossible.

The ollie — step by step

1. Set up stationary on flat ground — start on grass or carpet if possible, or on pavement with the board not moving. No rolling yet.
2. Check your foot position — back foot on the tail center, front foot over the bolts at an angle.
3. Bend your knees — crouch into a light squat. This loads energy and gives you room to jump. Keep your shoulders level and weight centered.
4. Pop the tail sharply — snap your back foot down hard, driving the tail into the ground. This is the pop. At exactly the same moment, jump upward with your whole body. The pop and the jump happen simultaneously — not pop then jump.
5. Slide your front foot up — immediately after the pop, slide your front foot up toward the nose using the outer edge of your shoe and the grip tape. This motion is what levels the board. Your front foot starts behind the bolts and ends near the nose as the board rises.
6. Suck your knees up — as the board rises, bring your knees up toward your chest to give the board room to reach its peak height.
7. Level the board — your front foot slide should bring the nose up to roughly the same height as the tail. At the peak, the board should be relatively flat under your feet.
8. Land with feet over the bolts — as you descend, aim to land with both feet positioned over the truck bolts (not on the nose or tail). Bend your knees to absorb the impact.

The critical timing

The most important technical point: pop and jump at the same time. Many beginners pop the tail, then jump — creating a two-step motion that kills the height and makes the board go sideways. The tail pop and the upward jump need to be one unified movement.

Think of it as: crouch → explode (pop + jump simultaneously) → slide front foot up → suck knees → land.

The front foot slide happens slightly after the pop, but the gap is very short — almost concurrent with the jump phase.

Common mistakes and fixes

Progression: stationary → moving

Learn in this order:

1. Stationary on grass or carpet — the soft surface catches the board if you mess up, and you won't roll away from mistakes. Focus entirely on the foot motion.
2. Stationary on smooth pavement — same motion, harder surface means proper pop feedback. You'll feel whether your tail snap is solid.
3. Very slow rolling — add rolling at walking speed. The moving ollie requires the same motion but your body also needs to handle the forward momentum. Keep the speed very slow at first.
4. Normal rolling speed — ollies are actually easier at moderate speed than at very slow speed, because the forward momentum keeps the board tracking straight. Once you can land slow rolling ollies, add a little more speed.
5. Obstacles — only after landing 8–9 out of 10 moving ollies consistently should you attempt to ollie over something. Start very small (a crack, a stick, a piece of tape on the ground).

Setup considerations

Your board setup affects ollie feel:

• Deck size: wider decks (8.25\"+) are more stable to land on but slightly harder to get full pop from for smaller feet. 7.75\"–8.25\" is the standard range for trick skating.
• Truck tightness: medium-tight trucks help with ollie consistency — loose trucks can wobble on landing and feel unstable when the board is in the air. See Truck Tightness Guide.
• Wheel hardness: hard wheels (99A–101A) give cleaner pop feel on smooth pavement. Soft wheels absorb some of the pop energy. For learning ollies, hard wheels on smooth skatepark pavement is the easiest setup.
• Deck pop: a fresh deck pops noticeably better than a worn one. If your deck feels dead and doesn't snap back when you step on the tail, it may be time for a replacement — see Skateboard Deck Guide.