On The Trail

IN THIS ISSUE...

• Publisher's Message
• Bends
• Until Next Time

Publisher's Message

Welcome to the temth issue of On The Trail! The Inline Skating Center will publish ten issues of the newsletter from now until the end of October covering a wide range of topics about inline skating on marked trails.

In today's issue, we're going to introduce a technique you can use to skate around wide bends and sweeping curves on the trail.

Bends

Sometimes you may encounter wide curves or sweeping bends in the trail. Most inline skaters would simply keep their skates together and coast around the bend until the trail straightens out again. The problem with this approach is that you lose your momentum and speed. Fortunately, there is a better way to handle such a change in direction and it’s called the Crossover Turn.

The crossover turn is a technique that’s borrowed from short- track speed skating. It’s also used by ice skaters and hockey players when they need to quickly change directions at one end of the rink and head back up the ice.

To cross the outside skate over top of the inside skate:

1. When you approach the curved section of the trail, lift your outside skate about 6 inches off the pavement.
2. Keep your weight forward and hands out front.
3. Bend slightly with your inside knee.
4. Cross your outside skate over top of your inside skate while keeping your skates about 8 inches apart at all times.

The movement should be like drawing an arc of a circle with the tip of your outside skate. Be careful to keep your skates a safe distance apart so you don’t clip the rear of your outside skate with the front of your inside skate.

1. Let your outside skate land flat on the pavement about 8 to 12 inches out in front of your inside skate.
2. Now, the outside skate is leading and the inside skate is trailing.

To move the inside skate back in front of the outside skate:

1. Lift the inside skate, which is the trailing skate, about 3 inches off the pavement.
2. Move it straight ahead.
3. Place it flat on the surface in front of the outside skate.
4. Drop into a staggered stance to complete the crossover.

The inside skate is now the leading skate and the outside skate is now the trailing skate again. You are now back at the home position. The heel of your inside foot should be aligned with the toes of your outside foot and about 3 inches apart.

Dropping into a staggered stance at the end of the turn prepares you for subsequent striding on the straight part of the trail, much like a short-track speed skater striding on the straight stretch down the track towards the next turn.

To link three crossover turns:

1. Repeat this leading and trailing exchange of your outside and inside skates at least three times around the curved part of the trail.
2. Repeat the crossover method 20 to 25 times until you feel comfortable with it.

This is one of the skills you can take to the trails and pull it out of your tool box when you need it. The crossover method comes in handy on 45-degree bends and wide sweeping curves, which you find on some trails.

Use this method to make quick, aggressive turns as you hug the inside edge of the curved part of a trail so you don’t lose any speed or momentum. In fact, if done properly with just the right amount of aggression, you may find yourself speeding up around such bends in the trail.

Until Next Time

That's it for this season! Everyone at the the Inline Skating Center hopes you enjoyed the issues of On The Trail this year. We'll be back in 2006 from May to October with ten more issues of the e-zine.

Until then, keep rolling and skate safely!