# I can't ollie, too weak?



## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

You think the Missions are stiff that's your problem you are fucking weak.


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## honeycomb (Feb 6, 2011)

with his little girly legs they might feel stiff...





cb1021 said:


> The binding position is at the widest allowable


that might be part of your problem


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## ETM (Aug 11, 2009)

de-thug your stance


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

First, jumping with both legs isn't "improper", it's just not ollying. There are situations where popping is the proper thing to do.

Second, can you ollie better when you're not moving? I personally find it easier to ollie when I'm not moving, becuase when I'm moving I'm hesitant about throwing my weight onto my back leg. If so, that's just practice.


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## aiidoneus (Apr 7, 2011)

Donutz said:


> First, jumping with both legs isn't "improper", it's just not ollying. There are situations where popping is the proper thing to do.
> 
> Second, can you ollie better when you're not moving? I personally find it easier to ollie when I'm not moving, becuase when I'm moving I'm hesitant about throwing my weight onto my back leg. If so, that's just practice.


I also see lots of people not shift there weight forward much first. So the weight shift backwards is not as dramatic. Which ends up being a very small pop.

Other thing I see a lot is people trying to throw their weight back, but they are very straight legged.


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## Smokehaus (Nov 2, 2010)

Close your stance a tad and practice, practice, practice.


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## CheeseForSteeze (May 11, 2011)

cb1021 said:


> I ride a skate banana with burton missions (pretty stiff bindings). I'm 5'7, 135lb. The skate banana is 149cm. The binding position is at the widest allowable. Angle is at 13/-13..
> 
> anyways...I can't ollie. I can get air by jumping up with both legs but I know that's not the proper way. When I try to flex the board and pop off the tail, I just can't hold the energy on my back leg. I can't flex the board enough for it to spring me into a pop....
> 
> ...


Narrow your stance, that's probably like 24" or more which is ridiculous given you are 5'7". I am the same height and I rock about a 22.5" which is on the wider side.

The way you describe your ollie sounds like you are trying to do it in discrete steps; it sounds like you are trying to press the tail and pogo stick off it. Ollie it like a skateboard, get low, start to pop up and as you start to get light, snap space right outside the binding and let it boost you up.


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

As the others have said, make sure you send your inertia forward first. From a standing position, drop your legs and weight onto your nose until it's loaded, and in the same motion switch your weight to the back and lift up your front foot.

I'm 5'7 as well and use a 22.5 ish stance like Cheese, anything wider just limits your range of motion.

And if you can fit into skinny chicken leg jeans, it's probably time to bulk up those quads up.


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## lola24 (Apr 11, 2011)

I think your stance could be too wide, but it also depends on how long your legs are as far as I'm concerned, it's not totally height based so I can't advise that it's definitely too wide without knowing your body type in addition to you height. That said, I personally find it hard to ollie in boots that are too stiff, have too much forward lean, or are too tall. My leg from hip to knee is actually rather long for my height, and in my opinion, a little disproportioned in comparison to the length of my leg from knee to ankle. One thing that gets SO in the way for me is if a boot hits my calf muscle, at that point it interrupts my muscle use and flexibility in that area and it's also an indication of being too damn high on my shin hindering my ankle flexibility. I can't use a boot taller than 11 inches in total height and has to have a flex of less than 4 in general ratings (but I'm light and a girl plus this is what works for me, may not be the same for everyone.) But I need to be able to get a nice bend going and get some good balanced pressure on my tail (but not too much) and then use all that momentum to pop off the tail and then follow through with picking my knees up toward my chest. On another note, I'm about 5'6" 108 lbs and have been regularly riding a 140 ride OMG with about a 21.5" stance which I'm starting to feel is a pinch too narrow actually. I just picked up a new GNU B-street in a 141, I'm trying the stance out at about 22.5/23. I'm a pinch nervous to see how it affects things if any....

Anyway, I'm going to venture to say you just haven't found your sweet spot, I don't think it's a leg weakness or inability, I think you just need to find what works for you. Practice at home in a safe area just popping up in the air strapped into your board, make some adjustments until something feels like it clicks, when I used to work at a surf/snow shop we'd put boards on and jump and 180/360 in the store all the time, turns out it was good practice  good luck!


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## snowklinger (Aug 30, 2011)

Learn to ollie a skateboard. 

Everyone who can ollie a skateboard is better at ollieing their snowboards than people who can't.

Ever watch someone mimic an ollie on a sk8, their first try? It looks terrible. This is because the mechanics are not simply intuitive and require practice, finesse, accuracy, power and timing. If you are entering this on snow without experience, you are effectively going at it blind, not that it cannot be done, but your mind and body are not going to wrap themselves around the concept properly if you just cruise around on your snowboard wondering why it doesn't "snap" "pop" "are my legs weak" (wtf? If you can snowboard for more than 2 hours your legs are strong enough to ollie).

You don't even have to get good at it, but teaching your body the concept, and trying it a hundred times or so, you will move past that initial stage where it doesn't resemble an ollie one bit, to where you can at least understand where you are trying to go. At this stage, moving to snow will already really benefit from skate practice.

Hint: Ollieing a skateboard is harder, trickier mechanics, but if its not worth learning you can just resign yourself to ollieing your snowboard less well :laugh:


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## Smokehaus (Nov 2, 2010)

HoboMaster said:


> And if you can fit into skinny chicken leg jeans, it's probably time to bulk up those quads up.


Most "skinny" jeans have spandex in them. I bet all of us could fit into a pair, but how we would look in them is a completely different story. :laugh:


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

Smokehaus said:


> Most "skinny" jeans have spandex in them. I bet all of us could fit into a pair, but how we would look in them is a completely different story. :laugh:


while i would look SO stupid in skinny jeans i honestly dont think i could fit. for some reason i naturally have huge calves (wish my upper body was naturally that big) and i fill out normal jeans as it is, too bad i dont even want to stoop low enough to even try them. I saw this high school age kid at the hill the other day with skinny jeans...he had such chicken legs it didnt even look like he had calves, or any muscle for that matter, at all. my arms are bigger than his legs, there were seriously little twigs. i just stared in amazement someone's legs could be that tiny.


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## cb1021 (Nov 21, 2010)

Yea thanks guys for the tips...I'm gonna keep practicing.

Btw if I want to ollie and spin a 180, do I need to build the spin before I take off or can I just get air with the board flat, then switch in mid-air...


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## CheeseForSteeze (May 11, 2011)

Both techniques are used in different aspects of snowboarding.


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## Smokehaus (Nov 2, 2010)

IdahoFreshies said:


> while i would look SO stupid in skinny jeans i honestly dont think i could fit. for some reason i naturally have huge calves (wish my upper body was naturally that big) and i fill out normal jeans as it is, too bad i dont even want to stoop low enough to even try them. I saw this high school age kid at the hill the other day with skinny jeans...he had such chicken legs it didnt even look like he had calves, or any muscle for that matter, at all. my arms are bigger than his legs, there were seriously little twigs. i just stared in amazement someone's legs could be that tiny.


Looks aside, once again they are still pants and come in different sizes and usually have spandex in them (that means they stretch duh). My girl has legs easily half my size and I was able to joking fit into a pair of her stretchy skinny jeans.


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## Nickx (Aug 27, 2011)

i doubt its because your weak. I'm 5'7 120 lb and i have no problem flexing my rome 390s or popping ollies. it just takes practice. For about 2 weeks i stood infront of a mirror and corrected my form before i was able to do a good ollie.


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