How to Push on a Skateboard in 2024 | Pushing Skateboard and Obtaining Perfect Technique

Pushing is one of the most important things to learn on a skateboard. It’s an essential part of how you get around, and it’s also great exercise. Some people view pushing as boring or annoying, but I love pushing because it’s like carving in your own little controlled environment. Pushing is an art form; it’s the essence of skateboarding. Learn the basic techniques and tips forHow to Push on a Skateboard like a pro with our complete guide. Discover the proper stance, foot placement, and balance to get the art of making and take your skateboarding skills to the next class.

For beginners, though, pushing can be frustrating and discouraging. All you feel like doing is picking up your board and throwing it across the street! It’s a lot easier said than done, but there are some tricks to making pushing fun and easy. Here are some tips that have helped me progress in my pushing over the years. Remember, if you can push well then you are halfway to being able to ollie.

How To Push ON A Skateboard

Pushing on a skateboard may seem like a simple task, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. The key is to use your whole foot, not just your toes, to push off the ground. This will give you more power and help you maintain control of the board. Start by positioning your feet shoulder-width apart and placing your weight over the center of the board. Then, bend your knees slightly and push down with your front foot. As you do this, transfer your weight to your back foot and continue pushing until you reach your desired speed. With practice, you’ll be able to push on a skateboard with ease.

Your Skateboard Stances Goofy Or Regular?

If you are a goofy skateboarder, then you need to make sure that your back foot is on the tail of your board during the ollie. Since goofy skaters like to ollie with their right foot, this means that they will be turning the nose of their board slightly to the left to compensate for their back foot being on the tail.  Conversely, if you are a regular skateboarder, then it is your front foot that should be on the tail during an ollie.

Determine the Front Foot – Right Foot or Left Foot?

The first thing that you will need to do when learning how to push a skateboard is to determine which foot you want your front foot to be.  There are benefits and negative traits in each foot being the board’s front, meaning that if you’re pushing left, then your right leg will be doing most of the pushing while if you’re pushing right, then your left leg will be doing most of the pushing.  Your front foot could be your right if you are riding regular or goofy (goofy being when you are skating with your left foot forward).

The Push – Foot Placement

Once you have determined which foot is to be in front, you will need to place that foot accordingly and you will be ready for your lean.  Typically, the first thing that you will want to do is face forward just as if you were about to ride.  From this point, drop the ball of your back foot onto the board with your toes hanging off slightly.  From here, you will push with your front foot and roll away (similar to a regular push except that the ball of your back foot is firmly planted on the board).

You should be pushing with the ball of your back foot until you get up to speed.  Once at this point, you will bring your back foot up and plant it on the tail of the board.  At this point, you will be using mostly your front foot to push and steer.

Timing and Speed

You will need some speed before trying an ollie, so make sure you’ve gotten a good distance between you and the transition before attempting the ollie.  You should also make sure that your board is at an appropriate height for your ollie (more on this later).  Once you are ready to go, roll up to the lip of the tranny with full momentum.

Glide by Relaxing the Back Foot

As you approach the lip, lean forward and plant your front foot (the foot that will do the actual ollie) firmly onto the deck of the board just behind the bolts.  From here, press down hard with your right foot and transfer your weight to it.  Once you have transferred your weight, press down with the back foot and it should pop you off the tranny.

Position of Front Foot

Your front foot (the foot that you plant on the board when ollieing) should be somewhere between the bolts and in line with your back trucks.  If it is too far toward the nose of the board, it will make for a shorter jump; if it is too far toward the back of the board, it will make for a much longer jump.  This is something that you will need to determine and adjust as necessary, but typically your front foot should be somewhere around halfway between the bolts and the nose or midway between the bolts and middle (depending on how high you want your ollie).

Pushing Action

Your pushing action will need to be quick and concise.  You should really push down hard with your back foot (the foot that you plant on the board when ollieing) and continue to transfer your weight onto it until you leave the tranny.  Once you’ve transferred your weight, compress down with your front foot (the foot that you plant on the board when ollieing) and keep it compressed until you’re in your mid-air.

It is also very important that you do not break or bend your knees before you leave the ground; if you do, then this will have a negative effect on your ollie.

Increasing Speed

The faster you are going when leaving the tranny, the higher you will go.  Typically, if you roll up to a transition that is on your way home from school or work and you do not have anything that needs to be done immediately after skating, then it’s probably a good idea to try and get up as much speed as possible.  This is because, if you’re going to be wasting time anyway, then it’s probably a better idea to spend that “wasted” time gaining speed.

Turning Action

You will want to turn the board slightly so that the front of the deck is facing slightly uphill.  Learning how to turn on a skateboard is helpful only when you transfer your weight onto the nose of the board during your ollie, it will lift up easier.

Back Foot on Skateboard

The transfer of your weight onto the nose will make or break an ollie.  So, as you press down with the back foot and start to lift off on the board, make sure that you are squeezing harder than usual and transferring all of your weight onto it (make sure that you do not bend at the hips; bending at the hips will make for an ollie that is much longer than usual).

Get In A Proper Stance To Push On Your Skateboard

This is important when ollieing off of tranny. The reason for this is that it will allow you to gain speed/momentum in the event that there are no trannies in your area (provided that you are pushing at a steady pace).  This, in turn, will make it much easier to ollie when you are in the air.

 The proper way to have your feet during a push is, with your back foot being on the tail of the board and your front foot being somewhere between halfway between the bolts and the middle (depending on how high you want your ollie).  This will allow you to push the board at a decent pace which will result in an easy ollie when you’re in mid-air.

How To Push A Skateboard Without Falling- Pro Tips

1) Relax your grip – Holding your board too tight makes it much harder to push. If your hand is clenched tightly around the board, your fingers can’t freely move and you won’t get a good feel for the board.

2) Plant your back foot – When you’re just learning to push, it’s very important to have a solid base from which to push off. This means putting most of the weight on your back foot. Although both feet should be near the middle of the board, you might find it more comfortable to keep your back foot at the tail and just in front of the truck mounting.

3) Use a mirror – This one’s mainly for when you get better and start skating faster. You’ll be much happier if you learn to push properly before trying to ride fast around corners or slopes. If you look in a mirror when learning to push, you can see your foot position and exactly where the board is in relation to your body.

4) Don’t be lazy – This is one of my pet peeves with beginners: You’ve rolled up to a busy street or sidewalk and you’re just standing there! I don’t care if it’s only two blocks to the park, if you have somewhere to be then get moving! It’s so annoying when some kid is holding up traffic just because he doesn’t feel like pushing.

5) Do heel ollies – When learning to push, I highly recommend doing heel ollies for at least a little while. Heel ollies are when you do an ollie while your front foot is near the bolts on the nose of the board. This forces you to push properly and safely and will help ease you into pushing.

6) Take it easy – When you’re just starting out, try to build up your speed gradually instead of going full blast from the beginning. Pushing is like anything else: you need to take it easy and give yourself time to adjust. If you’re not even comfortable pushing up a slight incline, then you should wait until that becomes second nature before trying anything more difficult.

7) Relax your front foot – One of the most common mistakes on push comes when people try to ollie while their front foot is still on the board. Relaxing your front foot and putting it back near the bolts makes pushing easier and can help you get that lift into an ollie.

8) Shift your weight – When pushing, try to keep most of your weight towards the middle of the board instead of leaning too far forward or back. If you lean too far forward, you’ll have a tendency to an ollie off the front of the board and not get as much height. If you put your weight on your heels too much, then it’ll be harder to push off quickly.

9) Get a good running start – For longer distances, try to get a running start. If you can, pick up some speed before pushing off just to get the feel of pushing farther. This will help you understand how to best push yourself around corners or away from obstacles.

10) Be smooth – Finally, if anything is important when learning to push it’s being smooth. Try not to jerk your board around when pushing off– it’ll make it harder to get a good push. Keep your motion smooth and fluid, but use quick bursts of energy when you need to.

Final Thought

Learning how to push on a skateboard is an important part of being able to do the sport/.hobby.  It allows beginners to get better at the sport and it also helps them when they are at skate parks or in areas with much fewer trannies than usual.