By Pharaoh, Thursday August 18th 2022
Backward skating drills for beginners. Yesterday’s Wednesday session with DJ Suave at Glenwood Roller Rink has my quads and calves sore. In my 8 years of skating, I’ve never ended a skate session with sore calves before. This is because of the new backwards drills that I started doing on Monday of this week. This explanation may merit a video demonstration but will come a little later. For the time being, those who seriously want to improve can read below to learn some easy drills and principles to practice.
Balance on one Leg
The first thing that I started to do with this technique was to spend more time balancing on a single leg. It’s important to do this going forward and going backward. Leading with your heel versus leading with your toes engages different muscles, mobility and different mechanisms for counter balance. You control the movement of your skate like you are standing on a tight rope. You need to develop the strength to control the side to side wobble of your skate.
Side to Side
There is a lot of side to side movement in JB Skating. If you want to develop that ease of movement with smooth controls, you need to be able to change directions and turn hard and fast. Think of your body on skates like a tall bus taking a sharp turn on a mountain side. That bus needs good wheel traction, a tight turn radius and a counter balance for the height. We don’t want it to tip over. Before I tell you more about the feet, I want to mention the upper body. The upper body needs to turn the opposite direction so that you can control your stability while you move through the turn.
Dig Your Feet, Don’t Slide
When we JB Skaters move on the floor, we often use our wheels as brakes. You’ll know when you hear that fast scrubbing sound, that’s the sliding that I’m talking about. It’s important to make sure that your wheels do not slide sideways while doing this drill. You need to mentally give your wheels a tire tread with differentials that keep them strongly planted through the entire curve. This drill is important to do when goin forward and when going backwards.
Work the Edges
There are different ways of losing balance and stability which can lead to a fall. One reason that we fall is due to a lack of edge strength on your wheels. Edge strength applies to both the inside and the outside of your foot. A lack of edge strength feels like your wheels are really thin and tall, like the shape of a bus. As you work those curving, turning drills they begin to feel like the extend far from the boot and you have an ability to get lower to the floor, like a sports car. Be careful when you do this because it will generate more speed and power.
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