Beginner roller skating
A Small Hip Bounce Keeps Quad Wheels Out of the Gaps
Wide quad wheels catch in gaps. A certified coach's fix for rough ground: drop into a deep scissor stance, one skate ahead, knees over toes, and add a subtle, continuous bounce from the hips. It keeps your weight light over the front wheels so they skim the holes instead of dropping in. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby, taught for inline and quad skates.
Wide quad wheels catch in gaps. That is the physical fact behind most outdoor falls on quads, and a certified coach has a specific answer for it that is neither speed nor courage.
Drop into a deep scissor stance: one skate ahead of the other, knees over your toes. The scissor lengthens your base front to back, which is exactly the dimension a quad lacks, and the deep knees put the weight where a jolt cannot easily throw it back.
Then add a subtle, continuous bounce from the hips. Not a hop, not a jump: a small rhythmic softening and lifting through the hips, the kind you would use to absorb a rumble strip in a car seat. Its job is to keep your weight light over the front wheels, so they skim the holes instead of dropping into them.
The opposite of the bounce is locked knees, and the coach is blunt about those. Locked knees and long pushes on bad ground trip a skater instantly. The bounce keeps the knees moving, keeps the front wheels light, and turns a surface that grabs into a surface that only rattles.
Technique from Asha Kirkby of Skatefresh, an instructor certified by the Inline Certification Program who also teaches quad skating. She teaches this rule to inline and quad skaters alike, and this page applies it to QUAD skates outdoors; the site's own skater does not practise quads, so nothing here is vouched for by her.
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