You can Ollie when standing still and manage to Ollie while moving, too. But as soon as you try to Ollie over something, all of a sudden, something goes off, and everything becomes harder. But why? Let's scientifically break it down.
In this video, I will explain some important points of an Ollie over an obstacle; "speed," "line of sight," "center of gravity," and "use of the front foot."
Summary
How Fast Do You Need to Roll to Ollie Over an Obstacle?
The required speed is calculated to successfully ollie over an obstacle. With a 45 cm wheelbase and a 15 cm high ollie, the airtime is approximately 0.35 seconds. To clear the distance, a speed of around 1.29 m/s is needed, which is roughly equivalent to rolling at 1.5 skateboard deck lengths per second.
How Line of Sight Affects Your Ollie Timing
Your line of sight plays a crucial role in timing your ollie. Focus on the obstacle until right before popping, then shift your gaze if necessary. Popping too early increases the required jump distance by 1.5 times. To improve awareness, learn your front wheels’ position by lightly tapping obstacles.
How Center of Gravity Affects Your Ollie
Leaning forward towards the obstacle naturally shifts your body axis, affecting the pop. Excessive forward tilt disperses energy backward, reducing upward force. Additionally, the skateboard's movement can misalign your back foot. To maximize pop efficiency, apply force directly upward to counteract gravity.
Introducing Chart Analyzer
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Speed - How fast do you have to roll to Ollie over an object?
First, let's consider the most obvious difference between a stationary Ollie and a moving Ollie: speed. In order to understand exactly how fast you need to roll to get over an obstacle, let's do a simple math, assuming you are jumping over a line on the ground.
Minimum Distance for a Successful Ollie
Imagine you are approaching straight into the line. The required travel distance of an Ollie becomes the shortest when you pop right before the front wheels touch the line and the rear wheels land just across the line. This distance is practically equal to the length of the wheelbase, which, in my case, is 45 cm.
(*The distance the board travels while the rear wheels stay in contact with the ground is ignored.)
Time in the Air for a 15 cm Ollie
Assuming your Ollie is 15 cm high, the duration you stay in the air equals the length of an object to freefall 15 cm upward and then come back down again. According to my calculation, it is approximately 0.35 seconds.
Required Speed Calculation
As speed is obtained by "distance divided by time," 45 cm divided by 0.35 seconds is around 1.29 m/s.
Speed Compared to a Skateboard Deck
Well, how fast is it? The length of a skateboard deck is about 80 cm, which means rolling at 1.29 m/s is more or less rolling at the speed of around 1.5 decks per second.
3D Simulation of the Speed
And this is how it should look when simulated with a 3D model. Slow enough, isn't it?
How fast do you have to Ollie when you Ollie higher?
Speed Needed for a 30cm Ollie
You can stay in the air for 0.495 seconds, and rolling at the speed of 0.91 m/s gets you over the line.
Higher Ollie, Slower Speed
When your Ollie reaches as high as 60 cm, the airtime becomes around 0.7 seconds, and the required velocity becomes 0.64 m/s, shorter than the length of a deck. In other words, the higher you Ollie, the slower you can roll.
Line of sight
Next, now that you know how fast you need to roll, let's see how to do it. The first is the "Line of sight," which greatly affects the timing of the trick.
Where to Look Before Popping
Keep your eyes on the obstacle until you reach right in front of it. Then, when sliding your front foot up, shift it to the nose or your front foot if necessary.
Don’t Pop Too Early
As the obstacle gets closer, the nose blocks your sight, and the obstacle goes behind the nose. However, do not rush to pop while the obstacle is visible.
Blind Spot When Standing on a Skateboard
For example, when a man who's 170 cm tall is standing on a skateboard, there's usually a blind spot of around 20 cm from the nearest visible point on the ground to the front wheels.
Risk of Popping Too Early
Originally, the distance you needed to Ollie was 45 cm, but by popping too early, you will need to jump another 20 cm, which is 1.5 times greater than the original distance, unnecessarily increasing the difficulty.
How to Improve Your Awareness
To solve this problem, understanding the locations of the front wheels is essential. Try bumping the front wheels against the obstacle you are trying to Ollie over so you can grasp their actual locations without having to see them.
Center of Gravity
Leaning Forward Towards the Obstacle
Your body axis tends to lean forward as it is natural to lean in the direction you are looking at, which, in this case, is the obstacle.
How Forward Tilt Affects the Pop
The further your body axis tilts forward, the more energy of the pop disperses backward. In addition, because a skateboard naturally moves back and forth, your back foot will shift even further in the opposite direction of travel by the time the tail reaches the ground. If you pop in this state, you won't be able to generate an effective upward force to lift your body.
Optimal Pop Direction
Since gravity pulls your body weight straight downward, the force of the pop needs to be applied in the opposite direction—vertically upward.
Use of Front Foot
Avoid Pushing the Front Foot Too Early
A common mistake people make is to push their front foot in the direction of the obstacle as soon as they are airborne in order to get their boards across the obstacle. But this will cause the board to move out from under the center of gravity, making it impossible to land back on it.
Keeping the Board Under Control
So, instead of immediately pushing the front foot toward the obstacle after popping, pull it closer to the center of gravity first and keep your board under the center of gravity the whole time. And don't worry if your Ollie becomes rocketed. You can get used to the feeling of leveling the board later.
