Part 4: Motor City Madness

Motor City Madness, the Wolverine's Thanksgiving Invitational: a Planet Preview

Part 4: Interview with Wolverine Coach Robb Dunn

Robert: Is the technique used in indoor racing different than that used outdoors?

Robb: Yeah. In indoor, you are skating on the sides of your wheels almost exclusively. The top skaters are leaning over almost all the time. They are leaning over so far that they are "booting out," which means their boots are hitting the floor.

Robert: Do indoor racers use the double-push stroke that is so important to outdoor racers?

Robb: On the corners, indoor racers are leaning way over; and even on the straightaways, they are still leaning slightly over. So there's not a lot of the double-push. The only time you might see it is at the end of a straightaway. But otherwise, they are totally leaning over their skates, similar to what you see in short-track ice skating.

Robert: What's happening with the sport of indoor inline racing these days? Is it growing or shrinking?

Robb: We've had about three or four years in the shrinking direction.

Robert: Has it been dramatic?

Robb: I wouldn't want to say dramatic. But the sport has gotten very expensive, and there's more and more out there for kids to do these day, so it's become a tougher sell.

To keep the sport healthy, we've got to have coaches who are in it for the long run and are determined to make a go of it. We've got to make sure we are offering programs that are stable. All of us coaches have to work on this.

The sport generally goes in cycles. But honestly, the last four of five years, it has been alarming.

Robert: That would turn around, I suppose, if inline skating became an Olympic sport.

Robb: In a New York minute ... it certainly would.

Robert: Do you think that will happen?

Robb: You know, I don't know. I had this same conversation when I was skating.

We have a lot of our top athletes going over to ice skating to try to reach that dream. But I don't know if having Chad Hedricks and Derek Parra becoming the top ice skaters is having a positive effect for us or not.

People can look at inline skating and say, "Hey, this sport has some great athletes. We should put it in the Olympics." Or they can say, "Well, heck. We can take the inline athletes and change them to ice skaters to make our Olympic team great." ... I'm not sure what is happening. I just hope that someday it benefits our sport.

<<< Part 1|2|3|4|

Discuss:

Some skaters love skating indoors; others would rather be flash frozen ... How abou you? ... Add your comments here!