Inline
Skating Newsletter Article Inline
Skating Newsletter Article The following is an excerpt from the third edition of Get Rolling, the Beginner's Guide to Inline Skating.--Liz
Linked Backward Swizzles
Let’s bring Part 2 (backward movement) of the Football Drill to full fruition. Don’t forget to watch over your shoulder as you proceed.
- Start by repeating the Football Drill three or four times to get your posture and feet in gear.
- Just before your heel wheels meet going backward, pivot on the balls of your feet until you are in an A-Stance.
- Begin a new side-directed push with your toe wheels. Don’t push toward the back or you’ll topple forward!
- Fully recover both skates before each new backward Swizzle.
Practice Tips
If you’re having trouble pulling the skates back together:
- You have too much weight on the rear wheels of your skates; make sure to push off from the A-stance with toes only.
- Your knees are separating too much; try keeping your knee pads touching while you swizzle with just the lower legs.
Backward Strokes
You can achieve the basic backward stroke by linking together a series of half Backward Swizzles. This skill is best learned on a very slight parking lot drainage slope.
- With your back to the slope, begin a series of linked Backward Swizzles and get into the swizzle rhythm.
- At your narrowest A-Stance, start a sideways push against the toe wheel of the left skate to begin a Half Swizzle. The left skate begins its arc out to the side while the right one rolls straight backward.
- As the left skate comes back under your left hip, shift your weight over it and begin to press the right skate’s toe wheel into a Half Swizzle.
Continue practicing until you can get a short glide from each Half Swizzle (without lifting a skate off the ground).
Practice Tips
If you just can’t get any momentum:
- Broadly “wag” your hips from side to side to force the weight shift.
- Begin shifting your weight sooner; don’t wait for the Swizzling skate get behind you, it must be right under you.
- Return to square one: Use alternating backward turns to force the weight shift. Look over the right shoulder, then twist around to look over the left, then right, then left.
After you successfully achieve backward momentum, start concentrating on swizzling from the knee down.
Comments or questions? Ask Liz