LondonSkaters Freestyle Club

Interview with Naomi Grigg

By BigSteev

There’s something new and exciting happening in London to help improve your skating. It’s the formation of the LondonSkaters Freestyle Club (LSFC). I went along to their first session and spoke to one of the founder members, Naomi Grigg, to see what all this new club is about;

So Naomi, what made you decide to put together the LSFC?

Well, to be honest we’ve seen the way that the LondonSkaters Speed Team (LSST) has boosted the speed skating community both in terms of the number of participants and the level of performances and we felt that it was a format that we’d like to nick and adapt to promote freestyle skating in the UK.

and do you envisage the club having similar success in terms of boosting the profile of freestyle skating and the ability of those participating over a similar short time frame?

Definitely, already we’ve seen lots of people coming forward who may have been reluctant before because they can now see a way of getting the help and training they need.

Who is the club for? Is it for accomplished skaters? or beginners? or what?

It’s for everyone, but particularly for beginners. It can often seem very intimidating when you’re starting out to approach some of the better skaters or even to try things when they’re around. We want to break down this ‘barrier’ and encourage more people to get involved. We have a demo team which we use to bring Freestyle to the public and it also gives our better skaters motivation to improve, and opportunities to gain experience in displaying their skills so it's good practice for competition.'

So as a beginner, what should I expect?

We’ll be having practice sessions every Saturday (except July 22 - SkateLondon) from 2-4pm at the beach on Serpentine Road, where you can get tips and assistance in all areas of freestyle (slalom, sides, jumps etc) as well as some more formalised instruction from expert coaches in the hour before that. We can help with everything from making your first simple run through a line of cones, to putting together a competition run. Also one of our founding members, Phil Downer, is an IFSA (International Freestyle Skating Association) judge so can advise on how competitions are run and scored.

You mentioned SkateLondon there. Will there be time to help people think about their runs for that? or is it a bit close?

Oh no, we’ll still be able offer assistance both for SkateLondon and for any other competitions that will come after it.

Sounds great, so how do I go about joining?

The easiest way is to come along to a practice session and say hello. We’ll sort you out with a membership form and introduce you to people. Otherwise you can download an application form from our website http://www.londonfreestyle.org/ and send it in to us.

And how much does it cost for a year?

£30

And for that you get what?

Well in addition to the coaching that we just discussed, you get a club T-Shirt, you get discounts on any training courses run by our coaches, you get discount on wheels and, hopefully, there’ll be some more stuff to announce soon.

Well, that sounds great. Thanks Naomi and may I wish the club every success for the future.

LSFC sessions will take place from 2-4pm every Saturday (except July 22) at the Beach, Serpentine Road, Hyde Park.

Links

LondonSkaters Freestyle Club website.

Naomi Grigg's SkateFreestyle.com website.

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