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Rollerblading?
But how to manage steep downhills? SO different from skiing in that regard. I just tried out some new ‘blades in Central Park the other day and made a complete idiot of myself the first time I hit a steep downhill. The heel brake was not cutting it! I had to bail on to the grass.
The grass stop - that is it's accepted name- is a perfectly acceptable form of stopping.
In fact, when you proceed to get rid of the heel brake, when you graduate to big wheels and shorter boots, it will become a preferred way of saving money through saving your wheels.
That said, Central Park doesn't really have any San Francisco-level downhills, the heel brake should have been functional at an only-mildly-scary level unless the surface was wet or sandy/gravelly.
First, check your ready stance (front to back balance) - because that's always the first thing to check.
Second, check your scissoring. For maximal heel brake effectiveness, the heel of the braking foot needs to be directly in front of the toe of the gliding (back) foot. The more the braking foot is to the side of the gliding foot, the less well your heel brake will work. (A diagonally worn brake pad is one very quick giveaway of a beginner skater's ability limits).
Practice scissoring, gliding with one foot in front of the other. Eventually you will get to where scissoring will be your default move on steep downhills, simply because when you have a good scissor a minor branch or minor divot in the road cannot knock you out of your front to back balance. Scissoring also eliminates speed wobble - unstable engagement of the front wheel's precession- and so it is triply useful.
Inability to get a clean scissor indicates one of three things - in descending order of likelihood they are: a) skates too big b) skate frame out of alignment c) skater has alignment problem and can't stack chin-groin-knee-ankle on top of each other. If you think it's (b) it's probably (a). If you think it's (c) it's almost definitely (a). (b) is generally diagnosed by massive stabiliser muscle cramps 3-4 miles down the road in otherwise perfectly fit, capable skaters.
Once you have a clean scissor, to brake well the heel brake needs to be a) engaged b) powered. Engagement and powering are not one move. Engagement either flicks the toe of the leading skate up or, on ABT skates, lowers the cuff of the leading skate. Powering means sitting, hard, directly in between the two skates. Not on the front and not on the back but in between.
The more you separate engagement and powering, the better your heel brake will work. This is particularly true of wheel sizes >90mm and of...downhills.
So, to recap, to your question 'How to manage steep downhills' the answer is:
- review ready stance, make sure your elbows are not behind your torso or flopping about, keep your knees soft
- scissor, deep and clean
- separate heel braking into two distinct components of engage and power-sit.
Advanced tactics - a tool chest:
- Keep your feet active on downhills. Static gliding feet are lazy, slow, paralyzed feet. Static feet create helplessness and panic.
- Scissor into a lunge turn. Practice this move, practice it lots. It's a lot quicker to turn out of danger's way than to come to a stop. Think red light at the bottom of the hill - whatcha gonna do?
- Grass stops work
- Gliding wedges are a good way to scrub speed, keep feet active, and even out pointy wheel wear esp. on back wheels.
- At slower speeds, with limited pavement, and with big wheels, a spin stop is more effective than a heel brake stop
- If you are going to the trouble of wearing your bulky, sweaty, stifling, stinky knee pads, use them. The soccer goalie stop is a good stop.
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Awesome!! Thanks!! And yes, I am definitely wearing all my padding, especially the wrist guards, since I’m a professional violinist! No desire for a broken wrist!!!
About that...wrist guards do protect hands -everyone should wear them along with a helmet - but the case for a generic wrist guard protecting wrists is very weak, and the gauntlet type is not necessarily more protective than the slider type.
If you are absolutely, professionally serious about wrist pro, consider a spring-backed wrist guard like the Flexmeter. And wear it *tight* - loose wrist guards break arm bones.
I have a pair of the Flexmeter. They are pretty substantial for protection. I have not fallen hard on them yet, but there is a lot of support there. I have slipped a bit twice and caught myself on my hands with no pain or injury to the wrist. I absolutely rely on my hands working to do my job, so skimping on protection to save $$ there makes no sense.
Yikes! I will definitely check that out.
By the way, do any of you know ski gloves with good wrist protection?
Nope. but I expect you will get better results googling for wrist protector SNOWBOARD gloves than SKI. It's a classic beginner snowboard injury.
Understand, your profile indicates you are a violinist so your hands are your life. I taught a violinist a few years ago. I recommended she not use pole straps just in case of a fall. Also recommended that she wear snowboard wrist protectors. They fit under your gloves and support and protect the wrist. You’ve had a few recommendations.
Here’s a couple of more:
The Flexmeters look really good. In your position I’d probably go with them. I’m going to keep them in mind for future recommendations.
https://demonsnow.com/store/Flexmeter-Double-Sided-Protective-Snowboarding-Gloves
https://www.exploringelements.com/review-LEKI-trigger-s-system/
https://www.exploringelements.com/review-LEKI-trigger-s-system/
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Thanks for the suggestions!
I use my skating wrist protectors with a snowboard the 2 times i've snowboarded !
Not sure what you mean by grass stop. Once I came over the crest of a hill and a family of 5 appeared in front on the paved path.. No time to stop before a gruesome ramming into them.
So I turned onto a large patch of grass, flipped and rolled over several times to a stop. No injuries to anyone including myself !
Conventionally, the idea is to run one's own speed out
Your technique is more commonly referred to as 'landscaping'.
LOL! I think I’ve done my fair share of grass roll stops, too!Conventionally, the idea is to run one's own speed out
Oh, pictures, PLEASE!!!
I wish I'd known about these when I was snowboarding. I was at mammoth and did the classic thing of getting lazy on my board, caught my toe edge and bam pile driven into the ground. I don't know how I didn't break both my wrists. I definitely majorly tweaked both thumbs and they weren't quite right a long but somehow I didn't break anything. Last time I made that stupid mistake that's for sure.
^ you got any miles in yet? You've missed SkateDC but both Big Apple and Skate Boston have enough time left for you to get up to speed.
Don't wait until tomorrow - you'll need tomorrow for extra miles
Don't wait until tomorrow - you'll need tomorrow for extra miles
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