The ollie is a trick that we teach very early on in snowboarding. We teach it for many reasons: to have more fun, to get ready for jumps, to get onto rails, to get over last minute obstacles in our way. No matter why we are teaching it, the ollie has a huge variety of applications. In this quick pro tip we will look at a way to get extra power out of the pop of our ollie, not only for ourselves but also for our students as well.
A common way to teach an ollie is to tell our students to pressure the tail of their snowboard while flexing their back leg and keeping the front leg straighter. Then we ask them to do a quick extension of the rear leg to flex the tail while lifting the nose off the ground. Once we reach full extension in our back leg, the energy we are storing in the board will be released propelling us into the air and creating the main part of the ollie maneuver.
Teaching this way will achieve an ollie, but are we getting the most power out of it that we can? Is there a way we could achieve more air, and time the flexion and extension of our legs better? What if we apply a movement to the nose of our snowboard first before moving to the tail to initiate our ollie?
Think of standing still in the middle of your snowboard on flat ground. Now begin to move your hips and center of mass in a straight line towards the nose of your snowboard. Once you have reached a reasonable amount of motion then begin to move your center of mass in a straight line from the new position to the center of the board, in between your feet. Once you reach this point, both legs should be flexed evenly and you should have some momentum heading towards the tail of your snowboard. Continue that momentum towards the tail and begin to extend your legs. As you do this, you should be lifting the nose of your snowboard off the ground, and beginning to flex the tail. When you reach the apex of your extension, you will be releasing the energy out of the tail of the board, creating that pop you get from an ollie.
You have essentially just created a circular motion with your hips and center of mass, allowing you to get and keep moving momentum that can be easily transferred to your tail, allowing for a higher ollie. This is almost like winding up for a spin but on a different plane of movement. By first going towards the nose of the board to initiate the ollie, you are creating a longer length of distance to get onto your tail, allowing you to put more energy into flexing the board to get more air.
This can help students to better understand the timing of which legs to extend and when. They will have an easier pattern to follow in their heads because they don’t have to change the direction of the momentum rapidly. Instead, they will change it slightly over a longer period of time. I encourage you to not only try this with your students but also for yourself. Many of us do this movement pattern naturally as we become more advanced because it is a very effective movement. Bringing attention to this technique in our own riding will allow us to hone it even further. You may find that you can ollie better into 180s because you have more air time, or even get into butters more easily. The applications are endless, so go explore and see where you can put the essential ollie into effect!