SkateFreestyle Slalom Retreat

London

When I first heard of Naomi's week long slalom retreat, I leapt at the chance to take part.  Up till now I've not really skated much slalom, and yet I'd be one of the first to acknowledge how good slalom is at working skating skills.  It's loads of fun too, I just haven't been hooked by the slalom bug up until now, and of course spending a lot of time on speedskates doesn't do anything to encourage slalom fun!

Most skaters who know me expect me only ever to wear lycra and speedskates, and are shocked if I turn up at the park in jeans.  Many are simply dumbfounded if I then also wear my Mission Wicked Light hockey skates (they're actually heavier than my Bont speedskates).  I used to skate almost purely in hockey skates and play a lot of hockey badly, so I'm often surprised by this reaction, forgetting that this was some time ago.  My hockey skates are a reasonable solution for slalom skating with their strong stiff boot and short 231mm rockered frames, perhaps not too far behind some proper specialised Seba slalom skates.

The view down the line...
 

The Programme

The plan of action was as follows:

Monday evening

Layout of the week's activities, review of any video of skaters, and setting of goals.

Tuesday - Friday

Each day was composed of roughly four sessions, and ran from 09.00 till 17.00.  That seems like an awful long time to be skating, but for me, the time passed quickly, much too quickly for my liking unfortunately.  The breaks between each session were well timed, and gave plenty of time for social between all the hard skating.  Coffee and either chocolate fudge cake or chocolate brownies seemed to be the popular option, even more so for the dogs that came past each morning looking for handouts on their daily walks!

The days were roughly arranged as follows:

• Learn a new trick/skill.
• Tea/coffee break
• Work on style, including elements such as posture, fluidity, smoothness, amplitude, and weight transfer.
• Lunch
• Technical analysis and video review (off skates, at lunch)
• Further integration, including combinations (usually with a tea break in the middle)

Lunchtimes were spent once in the Dell Restaurant in Hyde Park, twice at the very popular Wagamama's in High St. Ken., and Friday lunch and afternoon in the Vic, looking at videos, reviewing our own videos from the week, talking about all sorts of slalom related stuff, etc.

Physical toughness

I found the week pretty easy, but then I'm used to teaching skating all day, plus I do a fair amount of cycling.  I did take public transport to the venue though, as I wanted to be well rested to help the speed of my learning.  For most of the sessions, I found I quickly got really zoned in and focused on the skating skills, and as a result I ended up skating much harder than I thought.  This kept up my body temperature, it was pretty weird wearing only jeans and a t-shirt in the park during November, some of the time.  Like everyone, I certainly had a few achy muscles by the end of the week, but it was all good ache and happiness.

The relaxed nature of the retreat was great in that it allows for you to work on skating at your own pace.  Get a little tired and sore, and it's not a problem to slow down and spend a little time chatting with the others, and learning from each other.  Sometimes it was great to work with the others at my level, watching each other and giving feedback.  At other times I preferred to zone out and focus on my skating, the sort of focus that has you "coming round" after an hour of solid concentration with no idea what happened to all the time whilst you were frantically working away.

Skill Levels

I thought it was really interesting how the retreat had skaters of all sorts of slalom experience, and that it worked so well having such a wide range.  This was from me, with virtually no slalom experience, to a member of Team Skatefreestyle.  I like doing this sort of thing myself, since I think it's good experience for the less experienced to interact with top skaters, and to set their goals and expectations.  I think this sort of thing is part of the reason why Hyde Park has such a high level of skating skill in all the disciplines.

We were divided into three main groups, with relative newbies to slalom, medium-experienced slalomers, and the top end.

Learning Fun

I thought Naomi was super enthusiastic and did a great job of inspiring us all.  You can really see her passion for slalom shining through, and that translates to having a great time on the course, and learning loads.

Naomi has a little bit of a reputation with her sense of humour, which is perhaps why the block of flats she lives in is known as "skatebitch towers".  It's actually quite fun though, and not very mean at all.  I even caught her giving out the occasional "love sandwich", which in teaching terms is that way of giving praise with a chunk of constructive criticism in the middle, shocking behaviour really from Naomi!  Luckily once in a while there was a bit of old-school Naomi back, with comments such as "My camera was offended!".

More seriously, it's all in good fun and I'm sure you'd enjoy the course and her humour as much as I did.  The lessons are well constructed and in great technical detail, although that detail is exposed only when you're ready to absorb it.  She really does know how to break down a tremendous number of different skills and tricks in an easily accessible manner that allows for everyone to progress according to their own skill level and learning methods.  I saw lots of excellent monitoring of skaters going on, and adjustments to what they were doing to give the best and most important improvements first.  I liked the fact that there was plenty of time to practice new skills, but also that Naomi came round often enough to feed in a new refinement to keep me busy.

Conclusion

I had an extreme amount of skating fun during this week.  It was as much fun as a Sardinia Experts-in-Speed week of speedskating.  I loved the lightbulb moments where something Naomi taught me clicked and my skating took off, and there was so much time and so much skating during the week that I was lucky enough to have many of these moments.  Not that I was even slightly bored with my own skating, but I really feel so invigorated and inspired!  I could kick myself for not doing something like this years earlier.

Of course I'm a little biased too, in that Naomi is a good friend, but even so I wouldn't give such a ringing endorsement to anyone unless it was well deserved.  I thought the course was good enough that I want to go away and practice a lot, and go on the course again.  I'm sure to book and pay for the next London slalom retreat, as it's a great holiday, loads of fun, and a brilliant way to progress quickly with expert tuition.

Next Slalom Retreat?

Is Miami in Florida, joined up with the Miami Great EsSkate.

Skatefreestyle Miami Slalom Retreat page and booking info.

Comments from others on the course

"a fabtastic course Naomi.... challenging but fun and Naomi's passion for skating is of gigantic proportions and totally infectious. this girl knows her stuff. thank you Naomi."

"A very enjoyable course. Naomi instils a great enthusiasm for slalom and freestyle in her lively and passionate teaching style. Her obvious delight in the sport (or is it an art?) made me want to learn more and try harder even when my body wanted to give up. She is also one of those rare teachers who can not only show you how to do something and explain it, but was also particularly good at analysing what I was doing wrong and explaining how to go about correcting it. She could also 'show me' what I was doing wrong by demonstrating a move incorrectly. Very impressive. The memory of this course will hopefully help when I come to practising on my own.

Links

Naomi's website: http://www.skatefreestyle.com/

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