The Ollie in 6 Steps: The Foundation You Need to Lock Down Before Anything Else

You've watched the clip ten times. You've got the motion down in your head. You set your feet, you jump — and the board goes one way, you go the other. Or it pops two inches off the ground and slaps right back down. Or it turns 45° and you end up walking on it.

That's normal. Everybody goes through it. Even the pros can tell you exactly what their first 300 blown ollies felt like.

The difference between the kids landing it in two weeks and the ones grinding for months? They run the steps in the right order. No shortcuts, no "let me just send it full speed and see what happens." Step by step.

Here are the 6. In order. With the most common mistakes at each one.

The ollie: a trick invented with no ramp, back in 1978

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Before 1978, if you wanted your board in the air, you needed a ramp. Skating was bowls and half-pipes. Then Alan Gelfand — nicknamed "Ollie" — pulls off something nobody had seen in a Florida bowl: he takes the board up into the air with his feet still on it, no hands. The trick took his nickname. The ollie was born.

A few years later, Rodney Mullen — the dude who literally invented the kickflip and about thirty other tricks — takes the ollie to flat ground. That's when everything changes. Street skating becomes possible. Every curb trick you see today exists because of that.

So when you're working on your ollie, you're working on the foundation of all street skating. It's not just a beginner trick — it's the trick.

Read next: The perfect beginner setup for starting skateboarding in 2026.

The 6 steps to landing your first ollie

1. Foot placement

   Back foot on the tail — the part that kicks up at the back of the board. Toes near the edge. Front foot between the two middle bolts, angled slightly. Not at 90°, not parallel to the board either — somewhere in between. It feels weird the first few times. That's normal, stick with it.

2. The crouch: load up the pop

   Bend your knees. Actually bend them. Not a little dip — a real crouch. That's where all the power in the jump comes from. The lower you go, the higher your ollie goes. Early on, do it standing still: rock back and forth on the board without even trying to jump, just to feel the position.

3. The pop: snap the tail

   Slam the tail down with your back foot so it smacks the ground. Hear that sharp crack? That's the one. The nose lifts off. That move is called the pop — no pop, no ollie. It has to be quick and committed, not tentative.

4. The slide: drag the tail up

   Right on the heels of the pop — and I mean right on it, not a beat later — drag your front foot toward the nose. That's what levels the board out in the air. Not a kick, a slide. Too late and the board stays cocked to one side. Too hard and it shoots downward. Nailing the timing is 80% of the trick.

5. The peak: board level in the air

   At the top of the jump, the board should be flat — parallel to the ground. Your feet are still on it, knees tucked up toward your chest. If the pop and the slide are balanced, this happens on its own. If it keeps kicking out to one side, your slide is too strong or too weak on that side.

6. The landing: come down over the bolts

   Aim for the bolts — where the trucks mount to the board. Both feet. Bend your knees on impact to absorb it. If you hit the bolts and roll away, you ollied. For real. The first time it happens clean, you won't forget it.

The 4 classic fails and how to fix them

Start stationary, not rolling

Start standing still. Board on the ground, grass or gravel under the wheels so it can't move. Run the motion slowly, without trying to get any height. Just feel where the feet go. Three clean landings stationary — only then do you take it rolling.

That's the part everybody rushes. That's why everybody struggles. The ones who progress fast do the exact opposite: they slow down to understand before they speed up.

Thirty focused minutes beat three hours of flailing at the board. When you feel like throwing your board instead of popping it, stop. Come back in an hour or the next day. The trick doesn't sink in while you're tensed up.

How long until you actually land one?

The honest range: 4 to 12 hours of focused practice. Some people get it in a day. Others take two months of weekly sessions. Both are normal — it's not about talent, it's about the quality of the practice.

If you've run the 6 steps properly and ten hours in there's zero progress: film yourself. Watch it in slow motion. Most of the time you'll spot the problem immediately — a foot out of place, a soft pop, a slide that lands too late. An outside look changes everything.

And when you finally land one — really land it, both feet on the bolts, board flat, clean roll away — you'll get why everybody starts here.

Was your first ollie a total nightmare or did it click right away ? How long did it take you to land it ? Drop it in the comments ↓