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

This week's tip:

Learn to Hawk
Learn how to hawk from an inline skating champion

By Jessica Smith

You never know what's going to happen in a race. Sometimes, you can't get around the skaters in front of you. Other times, racers don't sprint all the way to the line.

Hawking is your chance to beat them.

I know. I used to lose a lot of races by not hawking or sprinting all the way to the line. And those kind of races always stick in my head and annoy me.

So a while back, I made up my mind to hawk as much as possible.

I started learning to hawk when I was 11 or 12 while working with my coach Robb Dunn.

Learning to hawk is hard. And there's always a chance you could bust it. (I fell once at Worlds hawking for gold. I ended up with the silver and a big bump on my head.)

Ready to learn? ... Here's how:

1. Warm up and stretches. Particularly stretch your groin muscles.
2. Start skating. Once you get up to speed — this won't work going slow — bend your forward knee and push your back foot to the rear. In this position, only the toe wheel of your back skate should be touching the ground.
3. Practice until you feel comfortable.
4. Then gradually work on pushing your front foot forward.

Remember: the goal is to get as low as you can with your feet spread apart (forward and back) as far as possible.

In a race, save your hawk for the last moment. It could mean the difference between winning and losing.

...

Jessica Smith won her first spot on the U.S. inline speed skating team when she was only 12. She went on to win 25 gold medals at World Championships (13 as a junior, 12 as an adult) and become one of the top female marathoner in the world. This year, the 25-year-old native of Melvindale, Mich., is training for a spot on the U.S. longtrack ice skating team.

Related reading:

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