Inline Skating Technique — Longer Strides and Glides

By Jim Safianuk

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 caloric burn has exceeded your caloric intake for the day. Under these circumstances, it’s good to have a way to 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 him- 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?

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? Good question, let’s find out!

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 2 to 3 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 2 to 3 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 you’re now spending most of your time on only one skate, either the right or left skate, but not a lot of time on both skates at the same time. This means you’re conserving much-needed energy, 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!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Safianuk

Roller Skates – Taken Apart

By: Nathan Hicks

Parts of a skate

Roller skating is a good recreational endeavor. While it is a fun activity for families, there are also roller skating competitions that may put you are risk of injuries. It is always important to know your skates well like a friend. Know what type of skates you need to ensure that you will be able to choose the best skates that will be good for your use.

What are the parts of a skate?

Knowing the parts will help you know your skate better, this is important to help you use your skates well.

• The boot
• Frame
• Bearings
• Wheels
• Brakes or stops

The boot

The boot is the part of the skate that you will wear on your feet. Some boots are hard, some are soft, and some boots are high-cut while others want it low cut for more ankle flexibility.

There are disciplines of roller-skating that necessitates hard boot. Hard boots are used for many disciplines to protect the foot from impact and for better control of the sakes.

Recreational skating however prefers soft boots for comfortable riding.

If you are engaging in an aggressive skating, hard boot or hard booth with soft inner support will help you skate well.

Frame

The frame is the part of a skate that will support the wheels and attach it to the boot. The frame is important to be strong enough especially for competitive skating. The frame for a recreational skates is usually made of high-grade plastic.

For speed skating frames, they are usually built out of carbon fiber or extruded aluminum. They are more expensive but solid enough to protect the skater during competitions.

Frames made of magnesium or pressed aluminum is likewise used in some specialized skates.

Bearings

Ball bearings are used for the wheels to rotate smoothly and freely. Some bearings differ in precision tolerance, depending on the type of wheels and bearings combination, you will need to understand how to check it if they are worn out already so you know when to change them if necessary.

Wheels

The size of the wheels used in roller skating depends on the need of the various skating disciplines. Some of the common wheel sizes include the following

• 44-59mm for aggressive skating
• 68-72mm for artistic inline skating
• 47-80mm for roller hockey
• 72-80mm for freestyle slalom skating
• 72-90mm for general recreational skating
• 84-110mm for speed skating

Some wheels are made of plastic while some are made of rubber. Common plastic wears out easily and thus some competitive skates need to use polyurethane or high-grade plastic.

This is to ensure that you will be protected when you skate.

Brakes or stops

This is the part of a skate that is important to avoid accidents for beginners. Breaks or stops may be used under the heel or under the toe. This will ensure that young or beginning skaters will not hit the wall or lamppost when they skate.

However, for competitive skaters, the need for breaks may not be necessary because it may cause then to trip as they do the tricks.

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