Fitness and Speedskating

by Blake Dempster

Blake Dempster, a well known speedskater in the Park, passed this article to LondonSkaters.com.  He holds monthly clinics in the park on improving your fitness skating stride, searching for more powerful and more efficient strides.

I went to one of Blake's clinics on Sunday 27th May, and can heartily recommend it.  Blake had me skating noticeably more efficiently in half an hour, but of course I've a long way to go still to get most of the benefit out of my Salomon 5 wheel skates.  This fitness clinic isn't limited to those with 5 wheel skates, by the way, as the principles apply equally to 4 wheel skates.

Blake mentioned that now he's doing the double push, he pretty much only has competition from the bikes while he's training in the Park - then again, he's pretty fit!

This is Blake's post about his fitness clinics:

"Come to Blake's group fitness skate in Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens at Mount Gate (near the Serpentine Gallery), 12 noon last Sunday in month April-Oct (in 2001, 29/4  27/5  24/6  29/7  26/8  30/9  28/10) unless raining steadily.  You need to be able to look after yourself on your skates, otherwise beginners are welcome (they're free of bad habits which take a lot of time to undo).  We'll learn some simple drills to deconstruct the technique.  We'll concentrate on going, not stopping (you can learn that elsewhere).  Free."

Over to Blake for the article:

SKATING SCIENCE.  Skating harnesses Newtonian physics: force produces motion, the maximum available force is equal to your weight.  A skate is a machine that discards all but LATERAL FORCE, ie force that is square to the wheels, and converts that into acceleration in the direction of the wheels.

SKATING TECHNIQUE.  To maximize speed, maximize lateral force.  Here's how:

1. Get moving, then
2. BALANCE your weight, ALL of it, on the HEEL of the push skate (there's too much force for the ball of your foot, plus, having your weight back means you glide over bumps).  For that you have to ALIGN your wheels (neither on the inside nor the outside edges, don't flex your ankle), heel, knee, HIPBONE (crucial for balance, it's close to your center of gravity) and eye.
3. Unleash your most (by far) powerful muscles, your glutes (butt) & quads (thigh): BEND YOUR KNEE and push DOWN THROUGH THE WHEELS.  Standing vertically, you'd bob up and down; but you don't stand vertically, you:
4. FALL SIDEWAYS onto your other skate, the fall puts an angle on the push and lets your muscles convert your weight into lateral force.  The lower your fall (ie the more bent your knee when you land), the more the lateral force and the longer it's applied (and, as a secondary benefit, you're in a crouched position which has less air resistance).  The moment of truth is when you:
5. PLACE YOUR SKATE, it needs to be under your body, not out to the side (optionally, you can then double push, by leaning out and pushing in, as an extra stage - the same issues arise).

SKATING EXPERIENCE.  The technique takes a bit of time to learn, but every time you skate your have lots of skating strokes to be working on.  Have patience, and give your support muscles time to develop - you won't be aware of them, but they're needed to hold you in position.  Don't try for short-cuts, and don't believe any homespun theories or tips that don't square with the science.  You'll develop a simple repeating action in an exercise which is unequalled for fun, fitness, staying injury-free, doing till you're 105, producing endorphin-euphoria (the take-no-drug-high), getting away from the TV, enjoying big city parks, etc.

author:  Blake Dempster May 2001 v1
acknowledgements:  FaSST, Matzger, Ryan, Publow, (Hedrick)

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