The difference between beginner and intermediate rollerbladers and advanced and experts is the ability to control the speed and direction when descending a hill. If you can slow yourself on a steep grade, with the exception of tricks, you've mastered all there is to master on inline skates. In order to slow down on a hill, you must be able to T-stop. Using your bumpers to slow down is both dangerous and tiring. It's not necessary for you to completely stop every time, but it is necessary for you to use the T-stop as a brake.
Step 1
Make slalom turns to slow yourself down without braking. Look straight down the hill -- down the fall line -- as you begin accelerating down from the top. Put your hands in front of your hips and bend your knees to between 25 and 50 degrees; the faster you're going, the more you bend your knees. Bend your elbows at the same angle you bend your knees, aligning the fronts of your shoulders, your knees caps and the balls of your feet.
Step 2
Maintain the position of your balance points -- shoulders, knees, feet -- on the same vertical plane, yet rotate your knees off the straight line to the right or left to begin carving in one direction or the other. Keep looking down the fall line of the hill by keeping your head and shoulders squarely pointed straight down the hill, even though your hips, legs and feet are rotating beneath you on the axis of your spine and torso.
Step 3
Shift your knees over your feet to the other side of your body to iniate a second turn; it's the change of direction that slows you down; it creates friction between the wheels and the surface of the ground. Though your hips, knees and feet change direction, keep your upper body still and pointed squarely down the fall line. Your knees and feet are moving right to left, but keep them on the same vertical plane as your shoulders.
Step 4
T-brake after turns using your downhill skate. With your upper body still facing down hill, initiate a turn. Once your knees and skates come around, -- your knees shift to the uphill side of your skates -- move your downhill skate behind you and slightly down hill so that it is at a 45-degree angle to the fall line. Turn your foot so that the wheels on your trailing stake are at a 90-degree angle to the wheels on the uphill skate -- the one you are riding on -- so your skates make an L or a one-armed T.
Step 5
Drag the wheels across the surface of the ground to create friction and slow yourself. Keep the knee of your uphill skate on the outside of your foot -- uphill from your foot -- to prevent yourself from turning downhill as your brake. Set your trailing foot back beneath your knees, initiate a turn in the other direction, and drag your downhill skate to slow yourself while keeping your uphill knee outside of your uphill skate. Put your foot back beneath you, initiate a turn, and drag your downhill foot. Repeat this process the entire way down the hill.
References
Image Credit
John Foxx/Stockbyte/Getty Images
I've always rollerbladed on and off and never learned how to T-stop. I'm practicing now but I can only stop with a T-stop if I'm going below a certain speed or I spin and fall.
There's a short but very steep hill with a road at the end near my house that I want to go down because it's so convenient to the shops. I can come to a complete stop on it using my heel brake but I can't even get into the T-stop position before I feel like I'm going too fast without it. The hill is a narrow bike path with plants on either side and I can't figure out how to safely get down this hill without just walking in the plants or using a few mm of my heel brake.
Every resource I read says to learn to T-stop for a faster more effective brake than the heel brake but it just seems less effective to me, particularly downhills. To use the heel brake hard I almost sit on the ground with my brake foot straight out and my other foot below me, which I've never seen anyone else do in rollerblading videos.
I've also considered getting the brakes that you install and pull the cords to brake, does anyone have any experience with those?
Respect Hills ... Or Pay the Doctor Bills (By Robert "the hill diver" Burnson) Going up hill is a slog. It's the heavy lifting of inline skating. But it's pretty safe, as long as you don't suffer from vertigo. Going down hill is just the opposite. It's as easy as dreaming — no heavy lifting. But it will land you in the hospital in a heartbeat. Hills Are Not Your Friends One of the most important things to remember if you are starting out inline skating is to stay away from hills. They are not your friends! They may seem fun and even safe. But they will hurt you when you least expect it. Sure, eventually you will be sailing down hills with abandon. But before you try even a little one, you have to know what you are doing. Which means being in full control of your speed, which means knowing how use your heel brake. Hills Are Sneaky The thing about hills is that they do all the work for you. Once you start rolling down one of them, gravity takes over and before you know it you are flying. This is exhilarating, and you may get away with it a few times. But sooner than later, you are going to hit a bump or for no reason whatsoever lose your balance — and down you will go. And when that happens, it is not going to be pretty. The Rule For Hills So here's the rule: Don't go down hills until you are ready and never go down a hill faster than you're ability to control your speed. That means don't approach hills as though you were riding a roller-coaster. You are riding your ability. Don't go beyond it. What To Do If You Find Yourself on a Hill? But what if a hill should sneak up on you? What if you are skating along and all of a sudden you feel the pull of gravity and realize that you are starting to go faster than you can handle? First of all, try to slow down using your brake — assuming, of course, that you know how to use your brake! If that doesn't work (which is likely if you are already going too fast) try to get to the dirt or grass at the side of the pavement. When you reach the side of the trail, start running as fast as you can. Otherwise, you will fall forward as soon as the grass or dirt slows down your wheels. If you can't get off the trail, try to fall on your pads. If you can skid along on them until you stop, you will dissipate the impact of the fall and maybe walk away with nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises. OK. By now you should be developing a healthy respect for hills. Good. ... Now read the rest of theTop Seven Mistakes of Beginning Inline Skaters. | Links: • The Beginners Guide • Skating Downhill and Surviving by SkateFAQ | |||||||||||||||||||
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