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

This week's tip:

How to Hawk

A finish line master talks about the eagle hawk

By Jessica Smith
(First published on July 26, 2006)

You never know what's going to happen at the finish line. Sometimes, you get stuck behind a wall of skaters. Other times, the leaders let up just before the line, thinking they've already won.

When that happens, hawking is your chance to win.

I've lost races by failing to hawk at the line or by letting up before the finish line.

So a while back, I made up my mind to skate to the line and hawk whenever possible.

Learning to Hawk

I started learning to hawk when I was 11 or 12. My coach, Robb Dunn, always had us working on it.

In the beginning, it was hard. And there was always the risk of falling, which happened to me once when I was hawking for a gold medal at the World Championships. I ended up with the silver and a big bump on my head.

Here's how to learn to hawk:

• Warm up and do some groin stretches.
• Start skating.
• Once you reach a steady pace, balance your weight on your forward skate and lower your body closer to the ground. (This doesn't work if you're going slow.)
• Now push your back skate to the rear. Your toe wheel is the only one that should be touching the ground.
• Practice this until you feel comfortable.
• 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 much as possible.

In a race, save your hawk for the last possible moment. It's a great tool to have in your bag of tricks and could mean the difference between winning and and finishing out of the money.

...

Jessica Smith has been skating since she was a toddler in Melvindale, MI. Coached by the legendary Robb Dunn, she won her first spot on the U.S. Junior World Team when she was only 12. She went on to win 13 junior gold medals and 12 senior gold medals. After recovering from a broken collar bone at last year's World Championships, she started training on ice in hopes of making it to the 2010 Olympic Games. This winter, she emerged as one of USA's top short track skaters.

Related reading:

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