Aggressive Inline Skate Tutorial

Aggressive inline skating encompasses a wide range of skating styles and is pursued by professionals and amateurs alike, sometimes in a park, sometimes on the street. No matter the trick, aggressive skating requires firm grounding in the basics of skating, a good sense of balance and protective equipment, especially when learning how to skate.

  1. Speed

    • Ultimately, doing tricks at speed will best showcase your skills. Developing the ability to skate fast comes from practice, balance and confidence in your ability to slow down. Work on balance by doing static and moving leg lifts, lifting one skate off the ground and standing on the other, keeping that position for a few minutes, then changing legs. Practice the stride; the stride should be done almost exclusively from the legs, moving them out to the side and back, instead of straight back. If your arms move, move them forward and backward, not side-to-side; the latter throws off balance.

    Stairs

    • A fancy-looking trick you can do once you have good speed control is to ride down stairs. Riding stairs needs to be done faster, rather than slower, if you want to make it all the way down. Keep your weight fairly evenly divided between your skates, and the skates close together. The toe of one skate should be near the heel of the other. The other key to success with stairs is to be relaxed. If you get too tight, you are practically guaranteed to fall. When learning to skate stairs, start slowly, with small sets, before progressing to the big sets.

    Stalls

    • Stalls are important to learn before trying more advanced tricks such as grinds. A stall involves skating up to something such as a rail or a curb, jumping onto it, staying in place, then jumping off. When doing stalls and rails, strive to land between the middle wheels of the skate. Get the feel of it by stepping onto the curb or rail with the wheels in the proper place, then practice doing it at speed. Practice stalls going forward and backward, and with 180- and 360-degree jumps. Once you can land those, grinds will be easy.