It's a long time since I update some tips for fellow skaters, surprisingly there are people who will read my articles!
A lot of kids are overwhelmed by the sports called Freestyle Slalom when I showed them what is it about. They are so enthusiastic that they want to do it immediately!
This is a big mistake!
Out there, there are people who claimed that it's needless to master your basic skating, and you can do slalom or whichever advance skating in a short period of time. Have you heard of that?
Anyway, would you like to have a coach who don't know how to skate to coach you?
OK. You are going to say you can do, but is it stable and nice?
Oh well, if you believe or not, till now I'm still trying to perfect my edging, crossover, turning and many other basic moves. Besides, I'm still doing exercises to improve strength after losing muscles under some circumstances.
So, it's time to go through all the basics you've learnt, if you want to start slaloming, or starting halfway but find it very difficult to continue.
Please practise those (basic) moves that you think you cannot make it.
I know it's boring, sometimes frustrating. You need much effort to stir the determination and perseverance in order to really master the moves.
People are like this. They want result to be fast. They had totally forgotten what is Slow and Steady. Do you still remember the fable: The Hare and The Tortoise? How did the Tortoise won the race?
Let me give you more tips about skating basics:
- Crossover improves edging, balancing.
- Parallel turn improves edging.
- Swizzle improves edging, flexibility.
- V-walk improves balancing.
In slalom, edging, balancing, footworks and body movements are all very important. Same for the rest of the skating disciplines.
