from How To Inline Skate on 27 Apr 2017
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Playlist – Beginner’s Guide to Inline Skating
First time on inline skates?
No need to fall like this! I’ll teach you how.
#1 HIGH-FRICTION SURFACE
Find a soft high-friction surface. A playground with a rubber a surface is perfect.
Try to stand up with skates on and get used to the feeling.
Hmm, I think you got it now.
By the way, you can also practice on grass.
#2 FLAT SAFE AREA
Now you’re ready for the real thing – asphalt and concrete.
Find a car free spot. It can be an empty parking lot or somewhere in the local park.
But I warn you. It must be completely flat! Even the smallest gradient will cause your skates to roll
#3 GETTING UP
Okay, time to get up
…
There are two clues to getting this right. First your balance point should be above your skates, else they’ll just shoot out to the side.
Second, keep the skates at an angle to one another.
#4 THE HEEL LOCK
With the skates heel to heel like this, like in a V or a T, you won’t need to fear one skate just suddenly rolling away.
Or … toe to toe works too, I guess.
#5 THE PELVIS
I bet you didn’t know this but your pelvis is essential for a good balance.
Too much in front, in medical terms – posterior pelvic tilt, or too much back – called anterior pelvis tilt
… and you’ll find it hard to balance on skates.
What you need is a nice old-fashioned straight body posture.
#6 THE KNEE BEND
At least, this applies to your upper body. It’s always good to bend your knees.
It lowers your balance point, makes it easier to recover if you’re about to lose balance.
And as your skating improves, a knee bend will make you faster as well.
#6 THE ARMS
Keep your arms in front like this. I like to think of my arms as monkey arms. It really helps me keep balance.
So basically, if you listened to my advice, you’ll want a good old fashioned straight pelvis and spine, a frog’s legs, and the arms of an orangutan.
#7 THE LEADING SKATE
Keep one skate slightly in front of the other. This gives a wider base of balance.
#8 FALLING FORWARD
Alright, no matter what you do, you can never completely remove the risk of falling.
So better learn how to fall safely.
The clue is to distribute the fall over both your knees and your wrists and maybe elbows too.
So first I land on my knees but I don’t want them to take the entire impact, so I keep falling forward and let the arms absorb the rest of the energy.
#9 FALLING BACKWARD
Backward falls can be extremely painful, especailly if your land on your tail bone.
But normally when I lose balance backward, one arm and one leg shoot up to compensate
while the other arm goes behind to catch the fall while the entire body rotates.
So in the end I normally either fall on my ass, and surprisingly that’s not painful at all.
… I guess that’s where the pelvis kicks in…
Or I just rotate completely and absorb the fall with my knees and arms.
But this is all instinct.
#10 SAFETY GEAR
Knee pads, wrist guards and elbow pads are often sold in bundles. And they can be very cheaep too.
And even the cheapest ones do offer good protection but one concern is that knee pads are usually very small.
They protect the knee cap but you still risk scraping the skin of your shin.
Therefore I recommend you consider buying some larger knee pads.
The helmet can be either a skate helmet or a bicycle helmet.
Just make sure it’s the hard foam EPS kind. I know all helmets in Europe have to be of this kind,
but in the US I recommend you stay clear of soft foam skate helmets.
One more thing – EPS helmets can only take one impact, so if you fall on your head once or simply just drop the
helmet by accident, you better buy a new one.