If inline skating was just striding up and down a beautiful patch of asphalt, it could be pretty easy. And boring! Yes, because what’s wrong with a little challenge and excitement in you life? Nothing much – if I may say – when you’re surviving and your skin stays put on the same place where it belongs. Because there is little fun in excitement and sensation if you fall unnecessarily often or get yourself injured. Happy to share which techniques really helped me out
Safe breaking with lemons
My humble opinion? If you can’t break, you shouldn’t be in public traffic on your inlineskates. It’s just dangerous. So the next best thing after whenever you get ahead even a little bit is learning how to stop. And for me the most stable and effective brake-technique is the lemon-making. I’ve got this lemon method from Ricardo Lino, hereby all the credits go to him! He also has a great Youtube- channel, with also some great tips for beginners.
And for making it easy for you, the video here down below 👇
Having to admit, after a solid month of picking up inline skating this is the technique I use the most.
- Pro’s of lemon braking: stable and easy to learn
- Con’s: you slow down quite calmly, so that you cover some distance
Approaching obstacles one foot at the time
As I said earlier, there are quite some obstacles for me right in front of my house. And it would be a complete horror falling everytime in front of the neighbours (although I shouldn’t feel ashamed falling, I do feel stupid). So how do I safely overcome this poor pavement and bumps in the road ➡️ step by step! Do not drive over these disturbances with 2 skates at the same time, but one foot (uhhhh skate….) in front. Is it the case you loose balance because of an obstacle? Your back foot/ skate is still in control. And with this “good skate” you can step over. I have to admit: this takes some practice. And the one at a time skate could feel scary.
Descend with fries
In Holland we bike rides our a lot. And with this comes a lot of bike-tunnels. I have to go through this tunnel to reach some nice clean asphalt. One problem: a tunnel has a way down. However these tunnels have a have a small slope, this can be scary as hell in the beginning. Because your going fast(er)! But there is a certain safe way to do this. By keeping your skates parallel, pushing your shins against the front of your shoes and leaning a bit forwards. Especially the last could feel contradictory. Leaning forward ànd going downhill may look like you’re falling forward. But that’s not the case. Leaning backwards is going to make you get out of balance.
After a while going parallel, you might take some paces when you’re almost down. And after a while practicing you’ll notice you’re brave enough to stride downwards, you hero 💪
Smooth curves
Nothing to do with which curve or turn is better, whatever fits you best. But I just love that I now kan make smooth parallel turns. This video from SkatefreshAsha is great (however I don’t make the curves before turning). And again with a Youtube video I’ve seen from Ricardo Lino, it’s this one 👇
The excercise with making the turn with one wheel in the front foot: I didn’t (yet!) practice. Worst excuse ever: my braking-block is still on my right skate. I don’t use it, but’s on there for a safety-feeling or something 🫠.
But while typing this blog, I saw some other great vid again on Youtube, which is this one 👇
I like this one, with the reason that the making turns with “crossing over” method (like an ice-skater) is something on my wishlist. And this guy explains it in a really relaxt manner, which gives me confidence in a weird way. Oh whatever, me wanting to inline skate after 40 is kinda weird too 😉
