LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4070

Hey All,

I've now edited the video, here you are:

http://www.londonspeedskaters.com/videop/lsst-technique-session-20040424.wmv (25.3MB)

username: videodownloads
password: lottaediting

Comments to follow - they also take a lot of time. If you don't want to download a file this large, you can always give me a blank CD-R and I'll burn it to CD for you.

Cheers,
Mike.

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4070

Hi All,

Thanks for joining us on this technique session, I had a lot of fun with you guys. Some very impressive skating happening here! As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to post them here or pm me for an explanation.

I'd also recommend having a read through the comments on others so you can see some different things being done well.

Cheers,
Mike.

Peter C
Good:

Wicked deep underpush.
Great outside edge.

Things to watch:

The ideal set-down would be nose-knees-toes - i.e. I think you're setting down somewhat wide and outside your body's centreline.
I'd like to see calmer shoulders with less left/right rotation - it is only slight though.

Rick
Good:

Really good fall with the hips, no wonder you're so fast.
Excellent outside edge on set-down.

Things to watch:

There's not really any underpush, although everything's there and in good balance, ready to extend a push across your centreline.
Setdown is just slightly too much across your centreline - see Etienne's comments.

Etienne
Good:

Also a super fall with the hips!
Lovely extreme outside edge on setdown.

Things to watch:

There's no underpush yet, although everything's there and in good balance, ready to extend a push across your centreline.
Setdown is too far across the centreline - remember to land your skate directly beneath your nose and belly-button. As with Rick I think landing slightly wider will give you a little more space and a little more time to make the underpush happen.

Doug
Good:

Same as for Rick and Etienne, good use of the hips, super outside edge on set down.
Nice fast foot movement, and good to see a small underpush starting to happen!

Things to watch:

Your upper body bounces up and down a little too much - try to keep your head steady in space. This will happen less as the amplitude of your underpush increases - you're straightening the knee well during the underpush, but some of this is going up/down (=wasted motion) rather than sideways (=power) into the underpush.
More knee bend will give both a bigger normal and underpush, and will bring more speed.
I think your right leg normal push is noticeably bigger and stronger than your left leg push in many strides, and recommend you do scooters to check and fix this. Why not come to the next free fitness class where we do lots of these? (i.e. the one that's the last Sunday of the month for 1 hour in front of the Albert Memorial)
Look where you're going a bit more!

Olivier
Good:

Super smooth economical skating motion.
Good use of the hips.

Things to watch:

There's very nearly an underpush there, so keep working on the drills, especially hawking the circle.
Try to calm down your head and shoulder movement a little more still.

Alex (Xia)
Good:

Good outside edge on set-down.
Good use of the hips.

Things to watch:

Try to push more forwards with each normal push.
Setdown is too far across your centre-line - it should be below your nose and belly button. See Etienne's comments on this and the underpush.
Try to calm your head and shoulders - they should be almost unmoving.

Christophe
Good:

Super smooth action.
The underpush is happening!

Things to watch:

Bigger amplitude on the underpush needed, and more straightening of the knee during the underpush will help generate more power.
Try get your knees touching between every stride.
Need more fall with the hips, for both normal and underpush. It's noticeably better here than with the classic push video we did two months ago.

Danny
Good:

Good kneebend.
Powerful stride with a heelcarve.

Things to watch:

A little too much upper body movement.
Try to get your knees touching between every stride.
No underpush yet, but keep working on the drills - it's not far away.

Tom
Good:

It's amazing how far you've come in such a short amount of skating, keep up all the practising, it's having a very noticeable effect.
Excellent fall with the hips and a superb heel carve.

Things to watch:

Your skates set down pointing to the outside. The goal is to land them pointing straight ahead, and then either turn them in for a double push, or turn them out for a normal push depending on what you want to do.
No double push yet, but keep working on the underpush drills, and it will come.

Adam
Good:

Fall with the hips.
Nice calm head and shoulders.

Things to watch:

No underpush yet, but you're confident on your outside edge so keep working on those drills and it will come.
Your skates set down pointing to the outside. The goal is to land them pointing straight ahead, and then either turn them in for a double push, or turn them out for a normal push depending on what you want to do.

JB
Good:

Great, you got the underpush!
Nice to see the fall with the hips from the underpush feeding into the normal push. That's key to the dp.

Things to watch:

Try get your knees together between every stride.
One underpush is bigger than the other - right leg is better. Work on increasing the amplitude of both underpushes.
Set-down is very slightly wide - see PeterC's comment.

Roger
Good:

Outside edge on setdown.
Knees together during every stride and a good fall with the hips.

Things to watch:

No underpush yet.
Keep your hips and shoulders square on to your direction of travel.
Your skates set down pointing to the outside. The goal is to land them pointing straight ahead, and then either turn them in for a double push, or turn them out for a normal push depending on what you want to do.
Setdown is too far across the centreline - remember to land your skate directly beneath your nose and belly-button. As with Rick I think landing slightly wider will give you a little more space and a little more time to make the underpush happen.

Naomi
Good:

Great smooth technique, and a good big underpush.
Good fall with the hips, and clearly an efficient and powerful stride.

Things to watch:

The ideal set-down would be nose-knees-toes - i.e. I think you're setting down fairly wide and outside your body's centreline.
Like PeterC there's a tiny amount of left/right shoulder rotation, probably related to the wide setdown.

Kay
Good:

Very smooth upper body.
Super fall with the hips and an excellent set-down.

Things to watch:

No dp yet, but don't be afraid to push yourself with Eddy's drills, you have very good balance and are quite confident setting down on an inside edge.
Push more forwards, a lot more forwards as that will help you get a heel carve.

General points:
Setdown - amazingly the set down for the double push is exactly the same as that for a classic push. Think of the scooter position where your gliding skate is nose-belly-button-knees-toes aligned with your legs forming a perfect right-angled triangle. The only difference is your skates then steer toe-in for a double push, or toe-out if starting a normal push.

Bee-line - this setdown also leads naturally to Eddy's bee-line - straighten out your skating line so there's as little weaving sideways as possible.

Some double push links on Eddy's website:

Eddy double pushing from the front.
and from the side. Impressive amplitude huh?
Dan Berger's powerful double push.
Another depiction of the dp stride.
More tips - well worth reading if you haven't already.

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4070

Comments anyone? I'd really appreciate feedback from everyone on the session, the video footage and my comments thereon. That will help me improve the next session and I can use it to improve myself as a teacher as well.

I certainly noticed some interesting things about my own skating that I can work on now.

Two things I'd like to do differently on the next session is either not use the beach or use it much earlier so that it's less busy and we don't block people as much. Secondly I want to stay the whole time at the same location so we don't get that disruptive break in the middle that we had when we moved over to the albert memorial.

I do really like being at the beach, especially because it gets us so much publicity. This would be a great time to hand out LSST leaflets to skaters.

Christophe · Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 1621

So would we be using the Beach but at a much earlier time then? (I did find it very hard to concentrate on the drills with so many people skating past us. I agree that we took a bit too much of the road ourselves).

If not @ the Beach, then I could suggest another training location, huge playground inside Finsbury Park, flat, nice tarmac, fences, very long and very wide.

I still have the same problem as per the previous sessions, one week-end later I've forgotten what drills we did, so it's kinda harder to work on anything in particular... though that video does help with general stance and stride.

Thanks Mike for the time and effort you put into this. Now is time to come out and race with us too... Wink

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

My usual problem persists with straight framed skates....limited underpush there is on but it is so short that I may as well not bother. Should have done it in my FSKs but the Twisters were just so new.

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4070

LOL! You should have done it in your speed boots and frames, Rick. The drills and dp are much too easy for you in short framed skates like FSKs and Twisters.

Thanks for the feedback! I think the sessions will have to be Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens since that's where I'll be during the day, and I haven't got the time for a trip out to somewhere else. So that leaves us times and location to play with. I'd suggest either earlier in the day and/or in a different place. I prefer Serpentine Road because it's often drier than the Albert Memorial, so maybe we can go with 10-12. Any other suggestions

You're always welcome to make notes during the session to help you remember drills. I'm not going to publish them though because I don't think that's what Eddy would want.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

I couldn't I still had big holes in my feet after wearing them 6 days earlier in Hamburg. I popped them on for a few laps on Sunday at Tatem Park but it was still painful. Better now though.

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

thanks for the video Mike,
it is really good to see my self like that and teh comment are spot on, it is obvious how I'm cheating by puting my skate on the outside edge on set down, setting down more central will certainly help a lot.

for the location I would appreciate a place were I can park for free (sundays or saturday afternoon...)
Alex

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

Sundays on the road just out side the park there are single yellows all over which are free on Sundays. Saturdays I don't now anything close to the park where you can park for free. I always train it to central London on Saturdays.

peterc · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: M3 somewhere

Saturday pm, it's free in Belgrave Sq which is rather useful...

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4070

Nice find Peter, thank you very much!