Longer Strides and Glides

Sometimes, especially on trails longer than 20 miles, and in high heat in the middle of the summer, you may start to fatigue due to dehydration or if your calorie burn has exceeded your calorie intake for the day. Under these circumstances, it’s good to have a means by which you can conserve your energy until you reach the end of the trail. One approach is to use longer strides and glides. Let me explain!

The Three Forces

There are a number of forces that act on an inline skater while he or she is in motion including the following:

• Rolling friction



• Wind resistance



• Gravitational force

When skating longer distances, we’re primarily concerned with rolling friction and wind resistance. Let’s tackle the frictional force that’s developed when your wheels roll over the pavement, and leave wind resistance for a future article.

Reduce the Rolling Friction

Rolling friction is defined as a force which opposes the motion of any body which is rolling over the surface of another. In our case, the body is the inline skater and the surface is the trail itself. The frictional force is applied against the skater’s wheels when they come in contact with the surface of the trail.

In addition, this force is in the opposite direction and hence opposes the force exerted by the skater to move himself or herself forward. The greater the rolling friction the more force the skater needs to apply to overcome this resistance. What would happen if the skater were to reduce the rolling friction? Good question, let’s find out!

In this case, he or she would need to exert less force to move forward. Since work is equal to force times distance, it follows that the skater needs to do less work to travel the same distance. The skater conserves energy by doing less work. So, how does one reduce the rolling friction?

Enter Longer Strides and Glides

You can employ a technique dubbed, Longer Strides and Glides. The idea is to minimize the time you spend rolling on both skates, or conversely, maximize the time you spend rolling on only one skate, which in turn serves to reduce the rolling friction.

Longer refers to a greater amount of time for the striding part of the maneuver, as well as a greater distance for the gliding part of the technique. Let’s see how it all works!

To skate using longer strides and glides:

1. Make four or five normal strides to pick up speed.
2. Push outward to your left side as far as possible using the inside edges of your left skate.
3. Hold your left skate in the air and out to the side for 3 to 5 seconds.
4. Balance and glide on the right skate.

5. Circle your left skate back under your body until it returns to the home position on the surface of the trail.
6. Quickly push outward to your right side as far as possible using the inside edges of your right skate.
7. Suspend your right skate out to the side for 3 to 5 seconds.
8. Balance and glide on the left skate.
9. Circle your right skate back under your body until it returns to the home position.
10. Continue to make long strides and glides using steps 2 through 9 above for a mile or so.

Key Benefits of the Maneuver

This technique affords two key benefits when skating on longer trails. First, it reduces the rolling resistance since your now spending most of your time on only one skate, either the right or left skate, but not on both at the same time. This means you’re conserving much-needed energy, especially later in the roll, because you’re doing less work to travel the same distance.

Second, you’re giving your leg muscles a break by keeping one leg suspended in the air followed by the other leg. Trust me, even these short breaks feel good after 20 miles on the trail.

Summing up

Use the above maneuver when you need to conserve energy and maintain a fluid style on the return leg of a trail that never seems to end. Until next time, good luck and get fit on the trails this summer!

For the complete lesson

The above article deals exclusively with the intermediate trail skating maneuver dubbed Longer Strides and Glides. To find out how to master the Staggered Stance to establish the proper balance, the Pumping the Brake maneuver for coming to a complete stop after skating at higher speeds, as well as how to do Mid-Radius Parallel Turns for skating on gradual slopes refer to Lesson #2 Intermediate Trail Skating.

If you prefer, check out the Skating Module, which contains three skating lessons. Lesson #1 For Beginners Only, Lesson #2 Intermediate Trail Skating, and Lesson #3 Advanced Trail Skating are all included in this module.

About the Author

Jim Safianuk is the writer and publisher of the three-part series entitled Skating Lessons, as well as the two-part series named Skate Maintenance. He is also the developer and owner of the Inline Skating Center. The site was recently established to act as a hub for the recreational, inline skating community. For information about our skating lessons, maintenance module, and trail guides, send an e-mail to .

You can also e-mail Jim at the . The Toronto Trailbladers is an adult, inline skating club based in Toronto, Ontario, which he helps to organize in the summer months.