Rollerblading Uphill and Downhill – Tips From Experience

Equipment

The first thing to prepare is good safety tools. When practicing skating skills, you can not rule out the possibility that you may fall or get some accidents. Thus, these tools are very necessary as they will serve as lifesavers who protect you from getting serious injuries.

One of the most important safety equipment is the helmet. The helmet must be the right size and solid. Therefore, it can hug your head tightly and do the protection. On the other hand, add some secure pads to your knees and elbows. Thus, you can avoid getting bumps, bruises, and scratches while skating.

Especially for the beginners, we recommend you buy a couple of wrist guards. With these safety gloves, the scenario of hurting your hands each time you fall will be perfectly minimized. When you can master your skill and control the basic movements perfectly, you can take those gloves off. Otherwise, wear it for all the time you skate.

The Basic

We repeat again, rollerblading uphill and downhill is a hard technique. If you are not able to control the basic movements, don’t try to practice this skill. The basic movements that we talk about are how to keep balance and how to move around. When you can control your motion and feel comfortable while skating, it means you have mastered the basics. And then you can continue to learn the harder skills.

Fighting the Fear

Mind preparation is also important to help you learn this hard skill. If you feel that you can not make it, you can never do this technique successfully. Therefore, fight back the fear and practice much. You will then receive a good result.

Besides, you can also try wearing a speed counter GPS. Typically, beginners are often scared because they feel like they are going too fast. But with this GPS, the skaters can know exactly what their speed is and keep calm while skating.

On another side, you can try talking to yourself the sentence: “I have known the basic.” or “I can make it” every time you practice so that you will have the motivation to stand against fear.

Warm-up

Of course, you need to warm up in order to move flexibly while skating. Try to move all joints on your arms, feet, and neck. In addition, you can start by doing some simple techniques or walking with roller shoes slowly before increasing the speed and doing hard skills.

Turn Out Your Toes

While you are skating, turn the front of your feet out more and make a herringbone pattern with your roller shoes. This action will counter the drag in the opposite direction. As a sequence, you can go uphill easier.

Lower Your Knee

Lowering your knee means also that you will focus energy on your feet to go uphill. Besides, when you bend the knee, you can be able to keep your body balanced better.

Swing Your Arms

Swing your arms can not only counter the drag but also increase your energy output. However, you must know how to swing your arms correctly or else you will get tired soon.

You may ask how to do the correct movements of arms, right? Just imagine that you are walking fastly on a sidewalk. The arms will come from the back to the front and again from back to the front. To put in another example, think about a boxing battle. Swing the arms while skating is like swinging the arms to attack your opponent’s face.

Practice Fitness

Fitness plays also an important role in rollerblading uphill. As you can see, you need so much power to get to the top. Training fitness, you are able to improve your health, stamina, and energy. Believe us, getting uphill will be really quick and easy with a powerful body.

The popular fitness training for you is running. Just try to get uphill and then go downhill without the roller shoes. Remember that this training is not for 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 – 2 days. You will have to practice it regularly. The more you train, the stronger you are.

Practice at a Low Height Firstly

When practicing, you can skate from a low height. For example, you can walk up the hill until you are about 1/3 of the way from the bottom of the hill. From here, you can start skating with your existing technique comfortably. In addition, to make it easier to practice, you can stand on the grass to facilitate the practice of downhill.

Do the Right Techniques

Skating downhill is a lot easier than going up hills because of the lightweight. However, if you practice the technique incorrectly, you may be injured.

First, place hands on your knees and keep your knees at a 90-degree angle. By lowering the center of gravity, you will be able to effectively balance. Remember to keep your feet shoulder-width apart. This helps you feel more confident, more stable than having the two feet too close together.

Next, put the weight towards your heels. This is extremely good for skaters who often stumble. Why is that?

If you put weight on your toes, when you fall, your toes will bump into your shoes. At that time, the toe will be swollen and it is difficult to keep on skating. Even, your head will hit the ground, which is very dangerous. On the other hand, the focus on the heel will help you fall safely because the butt will fall to the ground in front of the head.

Remember, this practice takes time. So you can not rollerblade a big downhill on the first day. Keep practicing and you will get a rewarding result.

Stop the Rollerblading in a Good Way

Beginners always have difficulty while skating, especially stopping. But don’t worry because we will give you 3 braking methods to avoid getting unexpected accidents.

• Method 1: You need to practice the technique of stopping on a flat area first. Then you will know how to control the speed and balance everything.
• Method 2: You can try this method. Go practice with a friend and ask him to call “Stop”. At that time, you must stop as quickly as possible. It will help you practice reflexes and be proficient while rollerblading in similar situations.
• Method 3: Must be persistent! You need to take the time to try to practice them because you will never be able to succeed the first time.

A good tip when practicing foot brakes is to use your hands. When starting to brake, you should practice the habit of spreading your arms out first. By that time, your body will tend to lean forward. If you fall, your arms will support you and prevent you from being injured.