Ah you've got it all covered then.


Regarding where your weight is, that sounds correct and logical to me.  I heard a coach use the metaphor of a speedboat - going forward the front points up a bit and the back points down, going backwards would be the opposite.  And they are great for curing toe pushing for us figure skaters as you will fall if you do that on wheels.

Thanks. It’s good to know I’ve figured out the weight distribution. I’ve often found with ice skating as well as inlines, you tube videos tend not to mention this ‘small’ detail. For me ice skating has the inverse weight distribution. Odd.

I wear gloves, no way am I going bare handed on tarmac. Wish I’d kept my old hockey gloves for inlining! Oh my lunge stops are very good, and I can slow with alternate parallel turns ie slalom, so I have no issues with hills, even steep ones.

Ah you've got it all covered then.


Regarding where your weight is, that sounds correct and logical to me.  I heard a coach use the metaphor of a speedboat - going forward the front points up a bit and the back points down, going backwards would be the opposite.  And they are great for curing toe pushing for us figure skaters as you will fall if you do that on wheels.

I'll hold my hands up as guilty trying to learn crossovers before being able to properly hold an outside edge. But I've definitely recognised I've tried to take a short cut - borne purely out of frustration at having to slow down on corners.

Outside edges are my current nemesis, as said by Leif its really hard to learn the balance as you don't use your inside leg to count balance but you use your outer leg instead. Its something seemingly so simple, but really hard to get to grips with!

I try to do those figure of 8s, inside edges really easy, outside edges are a wobbly mess and half the time I aren't even properly on the outside edge as I wobble out of it. Its tricky.

Just keep on trying and as TOTF says, one day it will crack. Sometimes there is a trick to it, sometimes it’s the scariness to overcome. With outside edges it’s partly fear, partly learning the body position. Clockwise transitions terrifed me so I took them slowly and did them often until the fear went away and I could then work on improving the technique. I won’t even attempt the loony moves done by figure skaters. That said, I tried 3 turns last night, rode a RFI edge, then rotated the foot CW, kinda worked albeit poorly, odd how with time you start to feel your edges.

Thanks all, esp. TOTF. Very informative.

I agree about the surfaces, some local roads are rough which is not nice, they shake up my aging joints. But some local roads are very smooth. WM: you can try parks, business estates and car parks out of hours, and of course country lanes if you are close to open countryside. I don’t wear wrist guards, thus far when I fall I deliberately land on my knee pads, or on my elbow pads. I have only fallen (many times) when attempting a hockey stop by exaggerating a lunge turn.

What I noticed is that the balance seems different in that when I skate forwards, I put the weight towards the heels, and when I skate backwards, my weight is towards the toes. I am not sure if that is right, but it’s what I do. I was unable to skate backwards until I started lifting my heels. I like the fact that I have to think more about my stance and balance which seems to be good for ice skating. I did public skating last night, and the inline seems not to have damaged it, if anything my balance was better.

I have 80mm wheels, all the same size, and no brake. I think being able to do a lunge stop is more than good enough for stopping. The skates are chewed up where they have hit asphalt. I don’t think I would be comfortable skating when people are present, some of those you tubers zoom around passers by, it looks hgh risk to me, but then I am an old fart. TOTF: are those online courses with Asha, or in person? I can’t remember where you are based. Her skating technique looks very good, apparently she had a serious hip injury.

I never tried that, back when I was doing That Sort Of Thing.  Wish I had now... 

I did love that one in the Rocker Foxtrot.  Used to put it in my Artistic/Interpretive programmes, too.  Since coming back to skating, I'm a bit wussy about it, but I'll get it back properly.  I will...