Skating on one foot
I've seen some videos where it's recommended to practice skating on one foot. I'm having difficulty with this and it makes me wonder if skating on inline skates on one foot means balancing while the skate goes in a straight line.
What I mean is that, for example, it's easy peasy to ride a scooter on one foot because you can easily turn the scooter's front wheel when you start to fall, thereby regaining your balance. But on inline skates, I find that I'm not adept enough to turn the skate in a way that would help me maintain balance. Is it a matter of balancing good enough that you don't have to turn to keep from tipping over?
Comments
Everyone will give a different answer. Here's mine.
> ...balancing while the skate goes in a straight line...
Not exactly. The key point is to "retrieve" your skate under your body weight (your center of gravity). Don't think to do the contrary (to shift your body towards the skate).
> [on] a scooter ... you can easily turn the ... front wheel
Right! On one skate it's the same, but... without handlebar.
The recipe:
- get some speed you're confident with
- airplane: extend both your arms sideways
- start one-skate attempts on your stronger foot
- before lifting the other leg, your weight should already be 95% on the skating leg. Take 1-2 seconds to gain the stance, don't hurry.
- lift the unweighted foot a little bit
- as soon as you feel you are losing balance to the left/right, try to turn your skate slightly in that direction (CCW or CW)
- the arms help to counteract the steering force you apply on your skating foot. They will accidentally rotate a bit CW or CCW.
- about the free leg, don't worry very much where to place it (in front, behind, tight towards the other). This will come later.
A knowledge of forward crossovers may mentally help: sideways falls can be avoided doing a last-second crossover.
If this is not your case, find a friend willing to stay next to you, beside your skating-foot side. He/she's mostly a "psychological help". Skating on one foot, try deliberately to fall towards your friend. This way learn to manage the feeling and the apprehension to fall sideways, and to find your own ways to get out of troubles.
Your feedback is welcomed.
Skater8, one foot glding is not a manner of being balance enough that steering is unnecessary. One foot gliding always requires small steering corrections, just like riding a scooter or bicycle does. In fact, the next step after getting straight line gliding is one manoeuvring. Set up some cones and manoeuvrer around them on one foot. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. You are still having trouble with straight lines.
Start gliding with both feet on the ground in a full scissor . Shift weight increasingly onto the front skate and then left the trailing skate off the ground entirely. On the leading/only skate, shift weight toward the rear wheel. With low loading on the front wheels you can then pivot on the back wheel. This is the essence of steering on one foot with a flat setup. Alternatively, you can rocker your skates but, eventually, you will want to be able to manoeuvrer with the wheels flat.
I found that as a beginner, I didn't have the ankle/foot strength in order to use my foot to "steer" underneath and catch my balance. Really, It'd be difficult for most people to build that one footed strength/dexterity without first being able to gather your center of mass over the balance foot. Follow @ese002 's guidance on progressively shifting weight to a single foot until you're comfortable gliding around. Don't be afraid to use your arms and off-leg to help yourself balance. It'll look funky at first with your limbs wiggling around, but once you're able to spend some time comfortably on 1 foot you can develop finer balance skills over time. Definitely follow the direction of keeping your weight on the heel. You get a lot more power doing so which is necessary leverage to maneuver your single skate effectively.
And remember as Stoppard says, you gotta drill it to kill it!