Skateboarding is cool and all, but it’s sure not easy to learn. To improve your chances of succeeding at learning new tricks quickly, let us hook you up with a little tutorial. This week, we enter in a whole other skateboarding dimension with the Nollie!
Read carefully and remember that after the technique, the number one secret to skateboarding is practice!
Welcome to another edition of our TRICK TIPS section! Today, we leave the rails and ledges to return to the good old flatground, but this time, we discover another dimension of skateboarding on the ground with the Nollie!
Get ready, because once you have mastered the Nollie, a whole other range of maneuvers will be available to you! Basically, all the maneuvers that can be done in your regular stance, you can also do nollie, it's just a little more difficult ... But oh how good!
The 4 stances
Regular:
When you roll forward with your back foot on your tail. Like all the maneuvers we've learned in our trick tips blog section up to now.
Fakie:
Fakie is sort of the same as regular, but rolling backwards. It is still your dominant foot that will have the responsibility of snapping your tail, only going in the opposite direction.
Switch:
Switch stance means doing tricks while you're on your wrong side. A little as if you started writing again, but with the hand you're not used to. The position of the switch is in the same line as the nollie position, but instead of rolling backwards, you will roll looking forward.
Nollie:
Finally, the stance that we're studying today. The Nollie pop is done with the front foot, the one who is not yet accustomed to pop and the rolling direction is the same as for the regular stance, only you will have to pop with the front foot on your nose instead of with the back foot on your tail. A nollie is basically a fake ollie, but switch.
If you are still not sure to understand what the Nollie is, read the steps below and take a look at the following videos!
Foot Placement
Roll forward at a comfortable speed with your front foot just at the edge of the nose of your board. Your back foot should be roughly in the center of your board. Imagine your foot placement as being the same as for a fakie ollie. The only difference is that it's your opposite foot that will have to pop on your nose instead of your back foot on the tail while rolling backwards.
Compress and get ready to use your front foot to snap. Always while rolling forward of course! Bend your knees to give yourself a swing and as you start lifting your weight, visualize the nose of your board snapping and you going up. Now it's time for the moment of truth! The POP.
Popping and leveling up
Timing is the key for this maneuver: you must snap your nose with your front foot while pushing a little forward, lift your front foot and control your board in the air almost immediately by scratching your back foot along the board all the way to the tail in order to level it up.
Control the nollie with your back foot as you keep on lifting your front foot so your board reaches the highest possible level. The more you jump here, the higher your nollie will be. At this point, you are at the top of your nollie. Your board should be levelled up, feet in a solid position above the trucks, ready to go back down to the ground.
The roll away
Concentrate on maintaining your board levelled up in the air as you begin to get back down to the ground. Land with all four wheels on the ground at the same time and bend your knees to absorb the impact and for an extra dose of style! straighten your knees to return to your original position and here it is! You just learned the Nollie!
As we always say, the key to any skateboard trick is practice. Watch the videos carefully and follow the steps. It may not work the first time, but once you have found the solution to this trick, it is for life! It will also unlock a brand new tricks variety for you!
Next step: add a flip to your Nollie or do it before a grind or slide!
ENJOY PRACTICING!