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Another newbie here - need advice on skating on quads, especially outdoors
Hi! I'm brand new here. I found this site by doing a search on Yahoo for skating advice.
I'm 35 years old, and getting back into skating after 25 years. For the most part, I use quads (indoors and outdoors), although I've tried inlines as well. There's a couple of issues I'm concerned with, and hopefully someone can give me some insight and advice:
1.) When I skate indoors (rinks), it often takes me 10-15 minutes to "get my legs" - I start out really stiff and rigid and really unstable, and only seem to skate better after trudging along for a few laps, sitting down to rest, and getting back up after a few minutes. This has been happening every time I skate indoors, regardless of how I feel or how long it's been since I've last skated. Is this normal for beginners, or near-beginners? Is there anything I can do to increase my odds of being able to get into the swing of things right away instead of having this weird spell? It's quite frustrating to think you're getting better, but then you step onto the rink and feel like you're starting all over again.
2.) I really struggle with outdoor skating. It seems to take a LOT more effort and energy to skate on asphalt or sidewalks than it does on a rink floor, which is most likely because a rink floor is slicker and therefore doesn't require as much energy to glide. My BF loves to skate outdoors, and I would really like to get better at it so we can skate together instead of being stuck at the rinks all the time. Why is outdoor skating so much harder than indoor skating? My legs "lock up" and I become really tired after just a few minutes of it. I know that some wheels are better suited to outdoor skating than others, and I've tried two different types of wheels - rock-hard wheels and a slightly softer wheel (sorry, don't know the exact specs). Neither seemed to make a difference. Are there exercises I can do to build up my legs and endurance so outdoor skating is easier?
Thanks for your help!!


Comments
More thoughts on Indoor and Outdoor Skating
Skating Outdoors
My attempt at giving advice
First of all, hi Cuteskater72 and welcome to the site!
For your first question, it's been a while since I was a beginner but what you describe doesn't sound unusual to me. Being able to make a quick transition to being comfortable on skates probably is mostly about experience, about getting the muscle and nerve patterns that you use for balance ingrained so deeply that they're there and ready to go as soon as you get up and start rolling. I'd say that some of that comes from skating often so that the physical memories are fresh from the last time you skated, and some of that just comes with the simple passing of time.
The latter of those is a point that I try to make a lot to beginners. Getting your legs to the point where all of this is second nature really is a kind of a growth process, and while it takes practice to develop it, growth also takes time. (And if you were born in 1972 as your handle implies, then I don't need to tell you that it won't come quite as quickly as it did when you were, say, half your current age. And I say that as someone a decade older yet!) But making progress on those kinds of things, on being immediately comfortable on my skates and being able to recover from stumbles over rocks and sticks and other near-falls outdoors, was something that I remember improving from year to year, and being especially surprised when I got better even after taking a couple of months off from skating. It seemed to come from time passing even more than from practicing.
For your second question, I think that wheel hardness could definitely be an issue. The usual indoor wheels are rated (for inline at least, which is what I know) at 90 or 92 durometer hardness. Outdoor wheels are usually in the range of 80 to 85 durometer, which is a pretty big difference. Particularly if the pavement is bumpy, the way old blacktop gets (we usually call that "gatorback") even an 80 versus an 85 wheel can make a big difference in how well the wheel rolls and how hard it is to skate. Some wheels roll better than others for reason other than hardness, but in general softer wheels do better on rough pavement and somewhat harder wheels roll better on smooth pavement, and indoor wheels are harder yet because rinks are smoother yet.
So I'd say (1) check your wheels and think about getting some outdoor wheels if yours are too hard, or even think about having two pairs of skates, one set up for indoors and one for outdoors, if you're going to be going back and forth a lot, and (2) look around for some smoother pavement--it makes a huge difference! Outdoor skating will usually be a little harder than indoors, particularly if the pavement isn't quite perfect and also if you aren't used to dealing with hills, but it shouldn't feel impossible.
Hope this helps, and good luck with your skating!