Advanced In-line Skating

I have been an In-line Skating fanatic since I saw my first pair of In-line Skates back in the late 80’s. I loved to Ice Skate but I was bored with skating in Indoor Skating Rinks, so I hadn’t ice skated with any frequency, for about 5 years, prior to purchasing my first pair of In-Line Skates. I kept seeing people skating in these new In-line Skates more and more and I couldn’t wait to try them out. I had tried Quad skating outdoors and I didn’t care for the way Quad skates felt on outdoor pavement, especially if it was rough. These new Inline Skates looked like they might be more fun and easier to control on outdoor surfaces. At the age of 50, I felt a bit adventurous going into a Sports Authority and purchasing my first pair of Rollerblade Lightning Skates, and all the safety gear, but I had always been an excellent ice skater and I figured if anyone could learn this new style of skating, I could. After a few sessions, I was hooked on these new skates. I can remember skating in a parking lot for hours; just doing crossovers and slalom turns. Any parking lot or street or any smooth surface large enough, became and Ice Rink, that was available 24 hours a day and the cost of admission was zero!

Now that I could skate outdoors anytime I wanted to, and these In-line Skates felt like a combination of ice and roller-skating, I wanted to learn everything about them. I found a new magazine called Inline, and after buying the first issue ever, I immediately subscribed to it. Inline had articles on How to In-line Skate, Road Tests on In-line Skates, Reviews of new skates and skate related products, articles on improving you skating technique, articles on repair and maintenance, and pages and pages of advertisements for skate related products. I learned a great deal from reading this magazine for years and years. Unfortunately, Inline Magazine ceased publication about 5 years ago, and that valuable source of Skating information is gone forever.

About the only way to learn about Inline Skating today is via the Internet or by reading books on Inline Skating. Most of the books that are currently available today were published back in the early 90’s when the Inline Craze was in its heyday. For this reason, most of the books that are currently available are out of date as far as the technology that is available in today’s Inline Skating market. Not having a good up to date source of information about buying and learning In-line Skating becomes a real problem for the beginner.

I was presently surprised, when I picked up a copy of Advanced In-line Skating by Liz Miller. Liz is an IISA certified Instructor, and has several books that she has authored on Inline Skating. These books are available right from Liz’s own web site, which is another good source of In-line Information. http://www.getrolling.com/lizbooks.html#ais . The Advanced Inline Skating was copyrighted in 2000, and is just about the most up to date book on Inline Skating currently available. This book is aimed at the Inline Skater that has some experience with Inline Skating, but can also be useful for the beginner, because all of the basic information that a new skater needs to start Inline Skating is covered in the first few chapters. Liz has another book that is primarily aimed at the beginner, called “The Beginners Guide to Inline Skating”. I haven’t read this book, but I feel that you would not make a mistake in purchasing the Advanced In-line Skating even if you were just about to buy your first skates.

Liz begins Advanced In-line Skating covering topics like Shopping for Skates, Equipment Maintenance, Safety Gear, and she also discusses important topics such as how to clean your bearings and rotate your wheels. She explains wheel profiles, wheel durometers, bearing ABEC ratings, how to take your bearings apart and clean and lube them, skate hardware and tools that you will need, and just about everything that an Inline Skater would need to know to buy, and properly maintain In-line Skates. If you own this book, you will have all this information right at your fingertips, just by opening the book to the appropriate section. The quality of this book is Excellent. The photos are clear and up to date, the paper is very high quality, and there are many illustrations and photographs of different aspects of skates and skating techniques. Liz devotes a great deal of space to the safety aspect of Inline Skating. I think many skaters have quit skating due to injuries they could have easily avoided just by wearing the proper safety gear, which Liz recommends. She discusses how to wear a helmet properly, what to do for “road rash”, how to choose a skate bag. All the information a skater needs is here, in a logical order.

The next few sections of the book detail how to learn the proper way to skate. Subjects covered include the proper way to develop a good skating stride, how to turn, stop, skate backwards, learn crossovers and just about every facet of In-line Skating technique there is. She spends a great deal of time on the topics that provoke the most questions, like heel braking for instance. She shows the theory, how to do it, and tips on things to practice to make you a better skater. Clear photos of the body position that you should use for each subject are included, so that if you are learning without the benefit of an instructor, you will be able to visualize what you should be doing. From the heel brake she moves on to all the different braking methods that one can learn and each one is covered in detail.

After covering basic skating, she then goes into each of the skating specialties that people choose. Fitness Skating, In-Line Touring, Skate to Ski, Freestyle, Skate Dancing, Cones, Aggressive, you name it. If it’s something that people do in Lines, it’s in this book. Liz tells you how to begin to learn all these different methods of skating; she gives the reader names of clubs and web-sites, with information on the different specialties. It’s all here in one, very well written book. Liz even includes chapters on Roller Soccer, Roller Hockey, Roller Basketball, Racing, and Downhill Racing. She discusses in detail, the equipment and skills you will need for each specialty, and how to begin learning that specialty. Liz includes comments from many experts in these different skating disciplines, in this book, which adds a great deal of depth to some of the topics.

I would recommend Advanced In-Line Skating to anyone that is about to buy a pair of Inline Skates, or wants to improve their skating, or even to someone that has been skating for years and years. If you have a friend or relative that is interested in In-lines, this book is the perfect gift. It will be a book that he or she will refer to again and again. It will get them started in the right direction without wasting valuable time or money in the process. If they are already skating , this book will help them improve, in a form of recreation and exercise that they can enjoy for their entire life. I have been skating for over a half a century and I personally found this book to be a valuable source of information, and I am sure that you will too.

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