Skating can be a great form of exercise and an awesome activity to do with your leisure time. However, some people may not be satisfied with just casually skating or going to skate park. Some people may want to bump their skating up to the next level. One great way to extinguish your desire for adrenaline might be to try downhill skating.
Downhill skating is actually quite a popular sport and many people are beginning to flock to it because its nearly unmatchable amount of adrenaline it provides. You can reach very fast speeds while skating on hills and you can also take corners at break neck speeds.
Downhill skating can be very dangerous however and as with any other sport, there is always a risk of getting injured. This risk is heightened when certain safety guidelines are not met and negligence is taken on the part of the rider. Helmets and other important equipment such as gloves are extremely important while downhill skating.
Downhill Skating
The following are some tips on how to enjoy and yet cope safely with skating hills:
- Perhaps learning how to stop effectively and safely would the first concern to concentrate on. When the skater is able to do this without sustaining any injury, more difficult maneuvers can be tried. Tightening the trucks with the front trucks looser than the back one should always be done, as the back ones usually start to wobble after some use. This is important to help minimize wobbling at fast speeds.
- Staying calm and in complete control of all the actions executed while on the skate board is also something to master as the confidence will allow the skater to focus well and enjoy the experience. Learning the various techniques of being able to bail out or abandon the ride without sustaining any injury is also something to be learned.
- Crouching at higher speeds will help to give more stability than the standing stance would. Keeping your legs loose and yet weight out evenly on the skateboard will help to keep your balance. Exercise slowing down tactics once there is contact with the ground after any air lifting moves. The idea is to not outrun the hips because if the run is too fast it forces a forward fall. Scrutinizing the hill’s surface before actually attempting it will give the skater all the necessary assisting information to ensure a smoother and more enjoyable experience is forth coming.
If there are more speed wobbles than the skater is comfortable with, it is advised that you apply more weight over the front and back trucks as this will smooth them out a bit.
Never try to do something that you are not comfortable with. Practice makes perfect and if you practice enough you will be able to skate any hill, eventually. If you try and do something out of your skill level you have a very high chance of being injured, especially when it comes to skating down hills.
Strategies for Skateboarding Faster
When a person uses the right techniques in the correct location they can reach some truly remarkable speeds on a skateboard. One important thing to remember is that if you are trying to use a skateboard for the means of going fast, it is probably a better idea to go for something like a long board instead of a classic or street board.
Long boards can be a bit more expensive but you will notice how much faster you can go on them. It can be a bit tricky to master the skill of turning corners at fast speeds, but with enough practice you will be able to do it in no time at all.
The following chapter will go over the basics of skating faster and will provide you with some tips to help you improve your technique.
Go Faster!
There are some very simple methods you can adopt when trying to put more speed into your skating experience. Some of these would require some physical execution while other would be more to do with the mind.
The following are some tips on how to create more speed for your skate boarding experience:
- Perhaps skate boarding with people who are more competent in the sport would help the individual to be inspired to push the boundaries and aim for faster speeds. By observing these more advanced skaters, the individual will be able to gain valuable insight on how to create the elevated speeds desired.
- Choosing to skate outside the individual’s comfort zone is also another way to push for higher standards and faster speeds. By practicing more and incorporating all the tips learned and observed, the skater will be able to fine tune their skating skills until the desired skills are achieved. Having sound knowledge of all the ways to better the skating techniques will also help in the quest to achieve higher goals.
- Bending the knees is also another tip that can be used to create faster speeds on the skate boards as this helps to elongate the stride more effectively. The bent knees will allow the skater to reach out and push much faster during the skating stride.
- In order to keep the speeds consistent, the skater would be advised to bring the feet back closer to the middle once the launch into the skating motion is executed. This will not only help to prolong the ride but will also allow for the speeds to be picked up.
- Arm movements are also pivotal to the speed increasing strategy. Swinging the arms about too much will cause unnecessary friction that will eventually cause the slower speeds, thus the individual should try to maintain a more aerodynamic position.
