SKATE TIP OF THE WEEK
Inline secrets from the world's top skaters and coaches

This week's tip:

Golden Rules
Three things to work on every time you skate

By Joey Mantia
Jan. 18, 2008

I always tell people that skating is 90 percent technical. If you have strong legs but weak technique, you're like a powerful car without wheels.

That's why it's so important to work on technique.

Even after years of training, there are still a few technical challenges I try to work on every time I skate.

1) Arm Swing

Your legs follow what your arms do, so practice bringing your hand up in front of your face on each forward swing and fully extending your arm on each back swing.

2) Knee Bend

The lower you are, the farther you can extend your legs.

When skating indoors or on a small track, pretend that you're sitting in a chair as you move down the straightaway. Then try as hard as you can not to lift up as you go around the corner.

3) Ankle Support

I always try to focus on keeping my ankles nice and firm when I skate. If your ankles aren't firm, and give as you push, you lose power.

There are several ways to practice good ankle support. Here are four of them:

• Skate with your buckles loose and your laces untied.
• Jump in place on one foot at a time.
• Balance on a trampoline on one foot at a time.
• If you have access to a gym with a half ball, balance on the ball, one foot at a time, while lowering and raising yourself into the skating position.

My coach Renee Hildebrand used to always tell me, "Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect."

This is especially important when you are working on technique. If you don't focus all your attention on it, you won't get the results you are looking for.

...

Joey Mantia is the world's top inline speed skater. At last summer's World Championships in Colombia, the 21-year-old Florida native won seven gold medals and — for the second year running — the overall title on both the track and road course. In addition, he popped over to Europe last summer for three World Inline Cup races and won two of them, despite the fact that unlike the other top skaters, he was competing without the benefit of teammates. Now living in Olympia, WA, he works and races for his sponsor, Luigino Racing. He plans to continue inline racing this year; however, eventually he would like to give the ice a try in pursuit of his dream of winning an Olympic gold medal.

• Luigino web site

Related reading:

• Skate Tip of the Week Archive
• Beginners Guide to Outdoor Racing
• Beginners Guide to Inline Skating