Help with exercises/stretches for increasing ollie height

[babyluau]

Hello,
I’m looking for exercises and stretches to help increase the height of my ollie. I’ve read all the threads on here about techniques and by practicing alone I’ve noticed an increase in the vertical height of my jump and ollie. I’m looking for some extra “cross training”

I’ve found those skate stretches on the loaded newsletter. I do very basic yoga

I think I will start with Plyometric exercises (various box jumping), dumbbell snatchs, jump rope and of course more hours of practice. I want limber reactive legs. Comments, suggestions?

[BergaLiden]

Increase Vertical Jump

[babyluau]

Thanks Berga....theres so many sites on increasing vertical tuned towards basketball and not all carry the same theory or even overlap but that site you posted is one that appealed to me as well. Gonna add this to my routine and see what happens. Progress is so addicting.

Sweden huh? I've met a few girls from there, they all have fantastic energetic personalities, and for lack of a better word are all hot.

[ksplash]

get more intense with yoga, start slacklining. and start doing squats, high weight, low reps.

[Crappysurfer1]

wear heavy shoes or add weights to your board and do that for awhile, then take em away

[babyluau]

ksplash - noted on the yoga, didn't know what slacklining was but I'm always interested in excersises like that, I've got a pair of still rings hanging in my garage.

Crappysurfer1 - how do adding weights to my board help to increase height of my ollie? I thought majority of the ollie height comes from jumping, and the back foot pops the board to follow....although I do remember a difference when I switched from larger softer heavier wheels to smaller harder lighter wheels...or maybe it was in my head and due to progression.

[geolemon]

Originally Posted by babyluau

...I thought majority of the ollie height comes from jumping, and the back foot pops the board to follow....although I do remember a difference when I switched from larger softer heavier wheels to smaller harder lighter wheels...

There's an easy way to tell what's limiting your ollie (jump vs. technique):
If you can jump higher than you can ollie, then it isn't your jump that needs work, it's your technique.

If your jump needs work, I'm sure whatever those links posted above will help.

If your technique needs work, try to break it down:
Three parts: Jump, Pop, Level.

Jump-
I teach little kids to ollie, and I tell them to start by standing in an ollie stance, and jumping in the air - off their boards - and then landing back on their boards. But the key is, you have to learn to jump high from this position without causing your front wheels to come off the ground. The reason is - it biases your jump in exactly the same way you jump when you ollie - more front leg than rear (the rear has to control the flick of the tail ). So practice that, silly as it might seem.

Pop-
I then tell them to stand on the ground and put their foot on the tip of the tail, touching the grip tape, where it would be when ollieing. Without lifting off the grip tape, I have them quickly flick the tail down at the ground to pop the board off the ground (and catch it in your hands, off the ground). As you already know, your foot, the tail, and the ground can't all come into contact at the same time, or you stop the bounce from happening. In your case, you might just practice the flick, getting a snappier and snappier pop.

Level-
With the little ones, I don't usually get this far - but this is the real trick as far as ollie height goes.
You've probably noticed, when you ollie, you can almost always get your front wheels over whatever it is you want to ollie, but you hang up on the back end. If that's the case, all you are screwing up is the level.
What you need to do is jump up in the air as high as you can, really suck your knees into your chest (it can help practicing by standing on the ground and lowering your body so you are in that "tuck" position), and as you do, not only sucking your back leg up, but sliding your front foot up the grip tape and pushing it forward slightly, even down as it clears the object you are ollieing. Both of those things will bring your back end up. That's usually where the height is missing. j

Equipment helps too, as you noticed - simple physics - you only have so much "pop" in a deck, and it'll spring higher if it has lighter parts on it. Lightweight trucks and hollow-core wheels really do help (I highly suggest the flatspot-proof, air-core Darkstar Light Knights - never had a ligher, better performing, more durable wheel - unbelievable).

And when you practice practice practice, you can clear the world record flat-ground ollie height of 44.5"...

[babyluau]

geolemon, thank you very much for the lesson, I spied your similar write up in the slide section. It is my technique that needs work particularly the leveling part. I'm extremely inflexible and have started to routinely do yoga I figured during the next years as I continue to learn how to skate I may as well incorporate exercises that will benefit my goals.

Thank you for the share on the "Darkstar Light Knights" thats gonna be the next thing I add to cart.

Also previously after reading you post in the slide section I shared the same info with a friend who could only do standing ollies, having him jump while moving got him past whatever was blocking him and onto the rolling ollie within one session.

Thanks geolemon and everyone for your help, luv this place.

[geolemon]

No problem! It's nice to be able to contribute something here, since I'm new to the longboarding side of the fence and have been taking a lot of advice. I hope it helps you like your friend!

I'm on my second set of the lightknights - had a set of core Spitfires... flatspotted them, went back to the lightknights. I don't know how they make them flatspot-proof... just awesome.
Not sure what size ranges they come in - I ride 52mm on my shortboard. Perfect for shortboarding, hard as rocks for a longboard though, of course.

Just stretching by crouching like that, knees in chest, torso as upright as possible - maybe watching TV - if you can hold it for 30 to 45 seconds and then stand back upright...
I think the sign of progress is when you can lower yourself down into that position and raise back up again quickly and easily. Stretching is something I've been doing since my 20's before I go out to skate... if I don't, I pull muscles left and right if I really get aggressive in the slightest.
Definitely helps with flexibility too, though.

Good luck!

[BuckWyld]

Originally Posted by geolemon

good stuff

Thanks for the write up, I am going to need to give this a try once I get a brace for my knee in a few days.

[Eminentus]

I am in the process of learning how to ollie, using a Chicago Longboards Campus Cruiser 30" with Tracker Dart 129s and 66mm ZigZags 78a.
I'm finding it tricky, especially in speed, and I'm a bit afraid to keep practicing and developing bad habits.
So I was wondering - is it a board well suited for learning to ollie on?

Pics:




I have a 32" x 9" poolboard coming in a week or so - with indy 149s and some soft 62mm wheels. It's more similar to a skateboard, so I hope it'll help me progress faster..
Will the extra width on the new board (compared to a regular 7.5"-8" skateboard) handicap me at all for street-riding with flip-tricks and such?
And what about wheels - why do all the street-skaters use hard, small wheels? Any disadvantages to the slightly larger, softer ones?

Answers much appreciated

(I'm sorry for hijacking the thread)

-Daudun

[Wells]

The modern street skate is a pretty damn well-engineered ollieing machine. Wide, long boards are heavier and harder to ollie. Boards with heavy soft wheels and no kicked nose are heavy, frequently tall, have weird weight distribution, and as such are very difficult to ollie.