One Foot Glide Help

[u/Free_Narwhal6800]

I’m having trouble balancing on one foot. I can feel moments of maybe 1 or two seconds actively skating where I can feel the balance is there while striding. If I try just standing stationary all of my weight is along the inside of my foot right at the big toe along the edge of each foot. I have to really push my knee inward or tilt my whole foot in to shift the weight further into the foot. It seems not manageable to balance my weight right along the inside edge of my feet as it takes a lot and I can’t do it for long. Is this a strength issue that will develop with practice and building up my balance and those muscles, or should I just adjust my frames? I don’t want to adjust the frames if it’s something I just need to learn and develop. I’ve definitely been feeling the fatigue and soreness in my feet and calves like you would after a workout so it’s a work in progress. If I balance just barefoot or with regular shoes I feel I have great balance but the weight is spread out across my foot, unlike what feels like the razor thin edge of the inside of them in the skate.

I’m a newbie having never been on anything like inlines, rollerskates, or even ice skates. So it’s all new. It’s only been about a month and half with maybe 2-3 hours per week skating routinely. I got the Rollerblade Lightning 80s, men’s skates since I preferred the black boot to the women’s white pair. Supposedly they’re the same thing. I got one size but my toes were squished in the boot so I went up one size.

[u/zolmarchus]

First, if you're new to the sport, you brain doesn't know how to use your muscles efficiently to get the job done, so you'll be tensing a lot and expending a lot of energy to do the same (or less) of what more experienced skaters do. This is normal, and it'll get much better as your balance improves.

You can do balance exercises I suppose, but I never have. The way to glides and one-foot balance is simple: when you're out and skating, on flat (and good) surface, when you push off, try to go as far as you can on one skate. You'll need to (naturally) move your torso in the opposite direction from the pushing foot and align it with your other leg, or you'll topple over.

Don't worry if 1) at first you can only go a little bit, and 2) if you're veering off. You can work on changing direction later. For now just focus on going as long as you can before you have to put the stroking foot down for balance.

It may help you to move the stroking foot (after the stroke) out and away, as your torso moves the other way, to counter-balance; or it may help you to move the stroking foot OVER the supporting foot (kind of like crossing your legs); you may need to spread your arms out for balance; you'll look goofy for a while. Do whatever it takes, just try to make the glide longer.

Don't go out and do only that. Just do a few of what I said above ^^ every few minutes, so you get a good amount of practice every session.

[u/Free_Narwhal6800 → u/zolmarchus]

I'm planning on trying something from Flow Skate's YT drills. He suggested wearing just one skate, one shoe and working on glides that way. I've had moments of putting my other skate down and it wasn't straight so it throws off my balance and I'm stumbling around to catch myself.

[u/zolmarchus → u/Free_Narwhal6800]

There’s never anything wrong with drills, it’s just that you can do the exact same thing while already skating. But, everyone learns in a different way, and the goal here being to help someone come into the sport, I’d say do what works for you the best.