My first concern is my approach to it. I'm not sure if it will leave me at a disadvantage for learning new tricks, but I tend to leave the tips of my fingers hanging off the edge of the board a bit, instead of how people usually keep their fingers within the bounds of the grip tape.

My second issue is with landing the ollies. I can get some decent pop, but landing the ollies, my back finger tends to come off the board. And if it doesn't come off, I feel like my fingers are all over the place on the board when I land instead of being close to where I started.

Any pointers or what I might be doing to cause this to happen? I really don't want to keep learning and reinforcing bad habits, so I wanted to come straight to the well-informed on this. Thanks in advance.

Here you go! Taylor got it covered in this tutorial and explains the details. If you havent already, you should really check out the whole series. It covers a lot of the common stuff..



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Feiip4-q2RE

Excellent deal, I'll definitely check that series out. But on my first original point, would my finger placement for ollieing currently put me at a disadvantage?

As far as I can tell, you are placing both fingers too far forward. I use the finger tips almost. You don't want to be using the second knuckle if you get what I am saying. You should use the first part of your finger that has the nail on it.

The reason for this is because even if you can get your ollie to work the way you described, flip tricks will be really hard, if not impossible, to do with that current finger placement.

KuhPopie wrote:

You should use the first part of your finger that has the nail on it.

Bahahah!!! this made me laugh... sounds funny..
But good advice.

Sorry its early and I'm not done my coffee yet!!

I should have clarified, when I say I leave my fingers hanging off a bit, I mean just the tips of my fingers are hanging off the board, not all the way up to the knuckle. Now i've been trying to mimic the form of the more proficient fingerboarders that i've seen and i'm failing miserably and keeping the board going straight and having my fingers land in a relatively similar position to what i started... i feel like my fingers just aren't sticking to the board, even though i feel like i'm mimic'ing a "foot" ollie pretty well.

I used to do the same, but I get loads more control just using the tips of my fingers placed on the board, makes flip tricks a a lot easier I find.

If you put your hand back and relax it helps a load. You want the finger tip in the centre of the board I find.

I'd go for a more laid back style for me. It took me a while to learn an ollie, even with a tech deck. Keep your fingers loose and moves precise. After frequent practice, you'll be doing ollies no problem!

yes dont put your tips off of the edge, keep them on the board using the tips for everything you do. This will make it easier for some tricks and it looks a lot less tacky and shitty

I started exactly how you did
its all in the practise and eventually you will be able to move your fingers down...