For the last two years, Iron Octopus Fitness has been creating “The 12 Days of Skatemas.” It’s 12 videos designed to help you improve your overall skating. Sometimes they’re on-skates skills, sometimes they’re off-skates exercises, sometimes they’re something else entirely.
However, in the spirit of the season, the decision was made to open up “The 12 Days of Skatemes” and get more coaches, skaters, and coach/skater combos to share the drills they love to help them improve.
The first and second day of #Skatemas2019 are the MOST WATCHED and COMMENTED on videos from Skatemas’ past. Today is the most popular skill from Skatemas 2017; the skill that people still come up to Prime (of Iron Octopus Fitness) and tell her it improved their game.
Cue the hype.
TODAY’S DRILL FEATURES:
Hard N Sharpe from Bristol Roller Derby
Hard N Sharpe (she/her) is a skater and coach with Bristol Roller Derby in the UK. She’s been skating since 2014 and is a jammer for the Bristol Women’s A-Team and a jammer or blocker for Bristol Allstars OTA Team depending on where she’s needed! Sharpe is a full-on rollerskating addict and when she isn’t playing roller derby, she’s hitting the ramps.
GET COSY WITH YOUR TOESTOPS!
I love my toestops! That’s not in place of good edgework, by the way, that’s also an essential roller derby skill, but toe stops have a special place in my heart. If you want to dance down the line, put on a sudden burst of speed or want to to a cheeky hop 😉 toe stops are your friends. But first up you want to get comfortable on them from both static and rolling. So tighten up those screws and get on your toes!
PREGRESSION: Slow and steady.
First, just find a comfortable stance to be in which allows you to be on your toe stops.
Next, move your weight from one foot to the other, get used to how it feels to have to transfer that, build up to lifting your feet off the floor as you transfer your weight like walking on the spot. The more comfortable you feel, exaggerate it! The bigger the better.
Next, have one foot in front of you and one foot behind, like you have frozen mid-walk. With a little jump, switch your feet so the other one is in front and the other one is behind…like a super robotic running man! As you feel comfortable doing this, make the switch faster and experiment with lifting your knees higher.
Now you’ve found your balance and you can practice accelerating on your toestops. Get low, feet staggered and try running.
You want to stay low, take big strides for maximum acceleration, and straighten up after 3 strides if you can. Staying low and letting your bodyweight be slightly in front of your skates is the key to this.
PROGRESSION: Get rolling.
To level up these skills, add in some rolling!
Practice your running but from a steady rolling start. As you get confident with moving from rolling wheels to your toestops, do it faster and gradually build up to max speed. I like doing this before training. It’s an incentive to kit up faster so I can have the track!
You can also add in some sideways action. This is great for squeaking past a wall when they haven’t quite gotten to the line. Start rolling and step your inside foot across as though you are about to do a crossover, but instead plant your toe stop. Rotate your hips so they are sideways and continue forwards sidestepping on your toestops. After a few steps return to your wheels and get your hips forward again. Remember to keep your hips sideways whilst ounyour toe stops to make you as narrow as possible. As with all these, build up your speed as you become comfortable.
If you want to get all of the tips, tricks, and videos for #Skatemas2019, you can grab a PDF housing EVERY video, EVERY trick, and EVERY skater featured here 👇👇
