Ready Position

Straight legs work great for walking but not for skating. To build muscle memory for the bent-knees skating stance, stand with your feet shoulder width apart in your best posture.

Your spine should be stacked perfectly along its normal curves. Raise your hands to waist level and within view. Without leaning or bending forward, get shorter: Push your knees forward 5-6 inches as the joints in your hips, knees and ankles bend. Keep your eyes forward and keep your shoulders directly above your hips, and hips over heels.

Now raise and lower your hips repeatedly, keeping your knees and spine loose and flexible. There should be a slight resistance of the boot against the front of your shins as you sink, offering a comforting feeling of stability. This low point is where you will end up after the effective application of your heel brake.

Before moving on to the next drill, with knees still bent, try standing with both skates tipped to the right and then to the left. You are learning how it feels to put weight on your wheel edges, both inside and outside edges. This type of muscle memory applies to your future turning skills.

Falling down and getting up

Indulge in a pain-free, controlled fall to test your knee, elbow and wrist guards. Starting from a ready position, bend down and put your hands near your toes. With fingers raised, reach forward until you topple onto your hands and knees.

Bounce your knee and elbow pads on the floor a couple more times. Doesn’t that cushion feel good? If not, consider paying more for gear with thicker padding.

To get back up, move both hands close to your feet and between your knees. Lift one knee and place that skate flat. For added security, press your elbow and knee together. Pressing both hands on the ground for support, raise the second knee outside the elbow so you end up in a deep squat. Right about now, you should look like a frog. Lock your skates into a V or T shape to prevent rolling (likely on pavement) and then unfold upwards.

Fall down and get up as much as you want on your carpet. Later, make it a point to repeat this on an uncarpeted surface several times to build confidence in your gear before heading outdoors.

Braking stance

You need well-bent knees for effective braking. With straight knees, you won’t be able to apply as much pressure and friction to the heel brake because you lack proper leverage. Practice these movements to see what it feels like to have your weight distributed properly for the most effective braking stance.

• Settle into a relaxed ready position with knees well bent and hands in view.
• Shift most of your weight over the brakeless skate (your support leg) so the braking foot feels light.
• Slide the skate with the brake slowly forward 8 inches, but keep the full weight of your ready position on the back, support skate. From the side view, your lower legs should form a triangle.
• Make sure your skates are parallel and no more than 4 inches apart so your toes are both pointing forward.

When you don’t raise the toe, this is called a Scissors Stance: low, narrow and long. Raise and lower your body several times over that single support leg. Don't stop until you can feel your thigh muscles begin to burn in that one leg. Dropping your hips builds valuable muscle memory for the final move that will someday complete a heel brake stop.

If you feel balanced enough, try the up and down motion with the braking skate’s toe lifted.

Turning motion

Stand so that your wheels are parallel and your skates are set wider than shoulder width. The wider the stance, the more stable you will feel and the easier it will be to make the basic A-Frame turn once you try this on pavement. Never fear, after you build muscle memory through a few successful turns with this very wide stance, you can easily translate that to a more natural width.

· Keeping your spine upright in its natural curves, bend your knees and raise hands within view at waist height, both arms outstretched. This reproduces the starting position for a turn, when you are simply coasting forward.

· Rotate your head, shoulders, ribcage, and outstretched hands toward the left. Keep your helmet centered over your feet, being careful not to lean or shift your weight to the left skate. When done properly, rotating left will add pressure to the right skate and cause it to tip onto its inside wheel edges.

· Now come back to center and rotate to the right so the left skate tips inward and feels heavier. Notice that the knee moves slightly inward in the same direction as the skate tips.

· Repeat looking around to the right and then to the left and feel the tipping and changing pressure inside your boots.

On pavement with a little momentum, the simple movement of looking where you want to go without unnecessary muscle tenseness will accomplish an effortless turn.

Striding motions

The basic stride is all about keeping your feet close under your body so you can stay in balance and control. To make in-line skates go forward, you must push off from your inside wheel edges. Practice the Duck Walk on a plush carpet to get used to both feelings without the distraction of a glide.

• Starting position: Assume a V-stance (toes out, heels touching).
• Marching in place: Standing in place, lift one skate at a time, shifting your weight right, left, right, left. Take care to keep your V-Stance at each setdown.
• Duck Walk: Relaxing your inner ankles so both skates tip slightly onto the inside wheel edges, begin stepping forward, advancing each skate a few inches ahead before setting it down right under your navel. The weight shift with your feet so close together may cause you to waddle like a duck (thus the name).
• Remember to keep those knees bent in the Ready Position! You may be jerky at first, but this will smooth out as you gain confidence.
• Feel the pressure along the inside of your foot as you push against each skate’s inside edges to move forward.
• Try to set each skate down so the back wheel is right below your navel and just two inches ahead of the middle wheels of the front skate. This helps head off the habit of an unnecessarily wide stance.

Physical momentum is what turns hesitant skate stepping into real stride and gliding. The same commitment to forward momentum is what turned our first jerky baby steps into real walking. Here's a carpet-safe way to turn your stepping into gliding. Make sure you have a few yards of clear carpet ahead before you start.

• Assume your best Ready Position.
• Take one Duck Walk step so your skate wheels are perpendicular to each other as shown in the diagram above: this is the T-stance.
• Tip the rear skate onto its inside wheels.
• Press against the rear skate until your forward skate begins to advance. Let your upper body move forward with the front skate in a glide of 3-4 inches at most.
• When the back skate gets light, lift and set it back down in a new T-stance right under your navel.
• Repeat, starting each stroke by pushing against the inside edge of the back skate’s wheels.

It's important to try and close the gap between your skates as much as possible before you start each new stride. Otherwise, you will end up lurching around looking like a modern day Frankenstein.

Give Yourself a Brake!

Most people are discouraged to find they don't get the feel for stopping with a heel brake right away, so don't feel lonely if you can't lay skinny scratch, either. But don't give up trying! When used with the proper form, the heel brake can be the most immediate and powerful stopping tool you'll ever need.

I hope this article helps you master braking, but I encourage you to consider hiring a certified skating instructor to save time and frustration. Also, if you are left-handed, it's very likely that you'll have better balance if you transfer your brake to your left skate (using the allen wrench packaged in the box).

Ready Position Stance

The key to effective heel brake stops is your stance, which unfolds from the skater's Ready Position. On a carpet or lawn, stand with feet shoulder width apart. Stand upright but with knees bent, so that your knee pads block the view of your toes. For better balance, raise your hands to waist level (still within view) and look forward, not down. Keep your shoulders directly above your hips and hips over heels. Do not lean forward or arch your back. Instead, curve your spine slightly so that your pelvis is tucked in. This brings your hips forward under your body, making it easier to extend the braking foot.

Although it seems the right thing to do the first time you try to brake, simply raising the toe of the brake skate is not the best way to stop. Rather, you must push that skate forward directly in front of your body mass before braking. This is true for all types of heel mounted brakes, including cuff-activated brakes.

Still on your non-rolling surface, try to assume the scissors position. The brake skate is pushed ahead by sinking down over the supporting leg's knee. It won't go very far if your supporting knee is straight. Extend the braking skate ahead at least until that ankle is even with the big toe of the other skate (at high speeds, even more distance between skates is necessary). You are now in the scissors stance necessary for making your brake work. From the side view, your lower legs should make a wide-based triangle over the pavement surface. Notice that most of your weight is on your back, support leg.

Make sure your skates remain perfectly parallel with each other and within hip width apart. This ensures that as you slow to a stop, it will be in a straight line. If you angle the braking foot off to the side, you'll swerve that way. Anticipate just this, though, when you are first learning how to use the brake, because it really is a balance skill, and if you're new to in-lines, you will tend to tip toward the outside of the brake foot at first. Try squeezing your knees together to keep the skates closer.

Touch down stance

Standard Brake: After you extend the brake into the scissors position, then you can tip up your toe and touch the heel brake pad to the carpet or lawn. Push forward against it, being careful not to look down at your feet. (Sure as shootin', your upper body will drop forward if look at your feet when in motion.)

ABT Brake: As you scissors your braking skate forward, instead of lifting your toe, you must consciously press your big toe down toward the pavement, the same way an Olympic diver or ballerina points her toes. As your foot slides forward, your calf muscle pushes back against the cuff of the skate, which automatically pushes the brake down so the rubber drags.

If you don't feel the brake touching down as soon as you scissors your foot forward, lower the brake pad according to the skate manufacturer's user manual. You'll get near "instant gratification" if you start out with the brake pad very close to the ground. You can always raise it again later.

Rolling Drills

For best results, do the following skill building drills in the order presented. Repeat as needed before moving up; return to the prior drill if you are too wobbly to progress. Spend a minimum of 5 or 10 minutes on each, especially the narrow scissors coast, which builds the required balance. Remember, keeping your hands in view at waist level helps with that balance. Also, if you roll too slowly, your balance actually gets worse!

1. Approach low (bend your knees) — You need to be able to coast in the Ready Position for at least 10 feet in order to learn how to stop with the heel brake. On the pavement (and fully geared, please), take a few strides to build up your speed, get in a good ready position, and then relax into a coasting roll. See how far you can roll with both skates together. Practice until you're comfortable doing this. And don't look at your feet!

2. Approach long (scissors the brake foot ahead) — While coasting at a moderate speed in the Ready Position, shift your hips left (or right if your brake is on the left skate) so your are fully centered over your support leg. Then extend your braking skate ahead one boot length by straightening that knee. Hold steady and continue to coast.

If scissors coasting is too hard right now, practice this one-footed balance drill. Coasting in your Ready Position, start marching by raising your knees slightly while keeping your body as motionless as possible. Try to lengthen the gliding time for each right or left march. This is easier if you remember to shift your weight first. Now see if you can pick up the skate with the brake on it and coast as far as possible. Later, try moving the airborne skate to the front, side and behind as you roll.

3. Approach narrow (hip width or less) — When practicing this brake-building drill, it helps if you squeeze your knees together or engage your abdominal (core) muscles for better stability in the narrow coast. Incidentally, this is the best position to glide safely and easily over nasty patches of pavement. In this defensive coasting stance, your wheels form a longer, more stable platform, and you are very close to the stopping position, should you need it.

4. Put the rubber to the road — Start out by only lightly touching down very briefly with the brake pad while coasting in the scissors position. Try to hear and prolong the light contact, but don't bother trying to stop yet, while you get used to what's going on below. Touch and then raise the brake several times over a long coast.

• Standard brake users, lift and lower the toe several times in one long coast.
• Cuff-activated brake users, scissors the brake foot forward with pointed toe and all four wheels on the pavement, then withdraw it, repeating several times in a long coast.

5. Squeeze it on — You should now be able to drag the brake lightly for at least five feet and deal with the resulting pull on your upper body without losing your balance. Once you are gently braking in a straight line, widen the front-to-back length of your scissors triangle to add friction and "smear" the brake further ahead. With eyes and chest upright and facing forward, increase the pressure until you stop.

Coasting with the brake engaged is your key to preventing speed on a downhill, so please practice drill 5 until you can coast as far as necessary with the brake engaged to get safely down a long decline. The longer you wait to apply the brake, the faster you'll go and the more frightened you will get. It is no fun to panic and "bail" on paved surfaces!

Stop on a line

Accept the truth: You will never be able to stop on a dime with the current in-line heel brake technology. However, you can stop wherever you want as long as you stay alert enough to plan ahead. Save this final drill for when you can drag your brake lightly for at least five feet.

1. Approach a line or other mark on the pavement in your best scissors stance with weight mostly on the back skate. Start a light brake drag with the braking skate as close as possible to the middle of your line of travel (known as the centerline).
2. To assertively finish the stop, drop your hips as though trying to sit down on the heel of your back support skate. As long as you don't lean forward, this down bounce bends your support knee so much that it "squirts" the brake forward at the same time, adding friction.
3. Repeat many times, approaching your line at varying speeds to experiment with what it takes to get your own personal body mass stopped on that line.

Remember to keep your torso upright throughout the entire approach because when your lower body stops, your upper body wants to keep going! Another typical problem area is being too tentative, which causes the brake to skip alarmingly across the surface and make you lose your balance. Here are tips to help with both situations:

• To fight the upper body's forward motion, tighten your stomach muscles in anticipation as you begin to add pressure. Concentrate on sinking down behind the brake as the pressure increases, as though you are about to sit on a stool, keeping shoulders above the hips. The moment your shoulders and head fall ahead of the heel brake, the lack of leverage makes it almost impossible to get enough pressure for an effective stop.
• To fight a skipping brake, make sure you increase the pressure on the brake pad very gradually. You want to squeeze it on, not slam it on. This is the hardest trick to learn once you've mastered the other braking skills. Squeeze on the brake the same way you do the brake pedal in a car as you approach a stop sign.

Practice, practice, practice!

Stopping on a line is the most important drill you can do from now on, and you should practice it anywhere and everywhere until you gain the confidence and balance to skate in a world filled with intersections, pedestrians, cyclists and cars. I urge you (as I do all of my students) to make 100 heel brake stops in a safe practice area so that this most important of safety skills will become an instinctive and possibly life-saving reaction when danger suddenly presents itself.

Better yet, you will gain the liberation that comes with knowing you are in complete control. When that happens, you can skate the world!

Glossary

Bearing- device that supports, guides, and reduces friction between fixed and moving parts of an in-line skate; allows the wheel to spin and roll smoothly.

Brake- device used to slow down or stop a skater.

Coordination- all parts moving together.

Disinfect- Clean !!

Edges- outside and inside sides of the wheel.

Elbow Pad-cushion inside a hard shell that protects the elbow during a fall.

Etiquette- acting appropriately in a situation.

Frame- device which holds the running parts(wheels, bearings, spacers) of a skate.

Helmet- protective head gear with inner shock-absorption and outer protective shell.

In-Line Skating- skating in which the wheels are aligned in one straight line.

Knee Pad-cushion inside a hard shell that protects the knee during a fall.

Mohawk- Turns using inside and outside edges.

Power Leg- The leg that initiates a movement.

Shoot the Duck- A one-leg squat position in which the second leg is held straight out close and parallel to the ground.

Slalom- To zigzag around an obstacle course.

Snake- multiple skaters make a line, place hands on waists of person in front of them) and stride forward as one group. Dangerous activity for the people at the end of the line.

Spacer- plastic or metal device in the center of the wheel to prevent the bearings from making contact with each other.

Wrist Guards- Pad with built in supports to protect the wrist during a fall.

Sources

Skate in School

http://www.rollerblading.com.au/lessons.htm

http://www.getrolling.com/orbit/heelbrak.html

Inline Mastery Ladder