- 1). Obtain Bladerunner Fury aggressive inline skates. Aggressive skates resemble snowboard boots with wheels attached to the bottom. They have wide soles, no brakes and a groove between the second and third wheel. Other models of Bladerunner skate---such as the Pro 78, Blaze or Phaser---are not designed for aggressive skating and might break if you try to do tricks on them.
- 2). Practice balancing on the skates by keeping your feet shoulder-width apart, keeping your knees slightly bent and your weight slightly forward toward the balls of your feet. Get used to walking on the skates by taking tiny steps and gradually shifting your weight from heel to toe.
- 3). Push off one foot and glide on the other. Start with your toes pointed out at 45-degree angles. Put your weight on one foot, then push off and glide on the other foot. As you set the first push-off foot down, begin transferring your weight from the gliding foot to the push-off foot, and begin gliding on the push-off foot. Repeat the push-glide pattern until you're comfortable skating smoothly.
- 4). Brake by dragging one skate perpendicular to the direction you're going in, then progress to hockey stops by suddenly shifting both skates 90 degrees.
- 5). Learn to skate backward. From a standing position, point your toes together. Push outward on both skates, slowly turning your feet so they're facing straight ahead. Once they're pointing forward, begin pointing your toes away from each other and pulling your legs back together. When your feet are against your hips again, begin pointing your feet forward, then point your toes together, and repeat.
- 6). Practice the basics of rollerblading until you're comfortable skating forward and backward and doing hockey stops.
- 7). Jump in the air while coasting forward. Practice clearing cracks in the sidewalk, building up height as you get more comfortable. When you're comfortable jumping over cracks and small objects, practice jumping up and down curbs.
- 8). Execute 180s and 360s. A 180 is a half-turn in midair; a 360 is a full turn in midair. Practice doing these standing still, then moving. Rotate your shoulders slightly in one direction to wind-up for the spin before jumping. As you jump, rotate your shoulders in the opposite direction so you turn in the air and complete the spin just before landing.
- 9). Grind on low ledges and curbs, starting with frontside and sole grinds. A frontside grind involves locking the space between the second and third wheel of each skate onto a curb or rail. A sole grind involves locking the sole of the back skate onto a curb or rail. The front skate locks in at the space between the second and third wheel. Practice these formations by doing stalls, where you approach the curb from a perpendicular angle, hop and lock your skates in the proper formation without grinding, then hop off. As you get comfortable jumping in and out of grind positions, practice doing them in motion by approaching a waxed curb at an angle.
- 10
Keep practicing the basic tricks, trying them on or over higher and more difficult obstacles such as staircases and ramps. As you become fluent in the basics, begin adding another half-rotation to your spins to do 540s, learn more complex grinds such as unities and makios and begin doing combinations in and out of grinds.
previous post
next post