Inline Skating Primary Skills

Krista Heubusch: Hi, I am Krista with Skater's Quest and I am here to introduce you to the basics of inline skating. Phylis and I will be demonstrating the primary skills of inline skating, of balance, edging, pressure application and rotary motion. First of all, the most balanced position is what we call the ready position and this is where your knees are bent, your hands are in front of you, you have a nice straight back, keeping your head up so that you can watch where you are going and show off your smile. This is the position where you should start and end all of your inline skating skills because this is your most balanced position.

Next, Phylis is going to demonstrate is our edges. Phylis is currently standing on her center edges. If she steps out a little bit and rolls her ankles in, she would be on her inside edges. By stepping her feet in a little closer together and rolling her ankles out she would be on her outside edges and finally by rolling the ankles in the same direction, she will be on what we call corresponding edges.

Next Phylis is going to demonstrate rotary motion and this is where you rotate your upper body to the right and then to the left. We use upper body rotary motion frequently when we are turning. Last but not least we have pressure application, and we apply force on to the ground to propel ourselves, to initiate turns and to pull ourselves down. So by simply marching in place Phylis is applying pressure to each of her skate that are on the ground.

Next, Phylis is going to lunge from side to side. This is also a way of practicing pressure application. So she would be lunging to the left and then to the right. So now we have just introduced you to the four primary skills of inline skating and we use each of these skills in different aspects for all of our functional skills. We use our balance in our most balanced position which is our ready position. Our edges, rotary motion and pressure application.

Next, we will introduce you to the basic forward stride which is called stride one in inline skating.