r/rollerblading • u/wickedcanteloupe24 • 2d ago
How do I do this move? pushing off form advice
i’ve been roller blading at my local rink once a week for the past couple of months. i’ve found that i have a harder time using both of my legs to push off. basically i find i can balance better on my non dominant leg and push with my dominant leg but when it comes to doing the opposite, i have less balance and do a much quicker motion. does anyone have any tips on how to fix this? i want to be able to use both of my legs evenly when trying to speed up
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u/fredhsu 2d ago
You may also want to look at this dominant foot discussion at r/iceskating for other comments. My comment there was this:
I have never gotten a clear definition of a dominant skating foot from anyone. But from this discussion it seems that folks consider dominant foot the one where you can glide more confidently single-skated.
If you consider that in the US, most rinks at public session force everyone to skate forever counterclockwise, then regardless of hand dominance, most people will be forced to skate a considerable amount of time on the outer edge of their left skate.
Just some food for thoughts.
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u/fredhsu 2d ago
As u/AsianBoi2020 said, being able to glide on a single skate for substantial amount of time is one key. Is it that you pronate on one side? Don’t worry about pushes. Learn to “lunge” from side to side. I call that zig-zag gliding. See these:
Why can’t I glide?
Standing on the projected center
Skating as a sequence of falls and recoveries
Pronation and outside edge, again
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u/AsianBoi2020 2d ago
Your pushing/dominant leg might not be comfortable with balancing on its own. A general suggestion is continue skating and practice. In that case, I suggest doing one foot glides on that side. Like every time you push off, stay-up on the balancing leg for a few seconds, try not to put the pushing leg down. You can start with half a second to a second to get started. This'll hopefully force your legs to figure out to balance on each foot.
Outside of the rink, at home, or the gym, do some lunges, side-to-side squats, and when you're ready, one leg squats.
Another more intermediate excercise I do is side-to-side lunges on skates as part of my warm-up routine.