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Beginner roller skating

A Wider Pizza Slice Makes You Go Faster

A Wider Pizza Slice Makes You Go Faster

Toes out, heels in: the pizza slice shape is how you get moving from standing. What nobody explains is that the width of that slice is a throttle. A narrow V gives gentle, controlled propulsion. Open it wide and you accelerate harder than you meant to, which is how a first session ends up feeling out of control. If you pick up speed too fast, do not change the movement — close the angle. Inline technique, from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.

Toes out, heels in, the shape of a slice of pizza. Every skater starts this way, and every beginner tutorial shows it. What almost none of them mention is that the shape has a setting, and that the setting is the difference between a calm first session and a frightening one.

The width of the slice is a throttle. Keep the V narrow and the propulsion is gentle and easy to control. Open it wide and the same movement, done with the same effort, sends you off considerably faster.

This matters because of what beginners actually do when they are nervous. They tense up, they widen their stance for stability, and the V opens with it — so the more cautious they feel, the harder they accelerate. Then they are moving faster than they can handle, and they conclude that skating is not for them.

So if you are picking up speed faster than you want, do not change the movement. The movement is right. Close the angle. Bring the toes back towards each other until the acceleration is something you can live with, and let the speed come later once you have somewhere to put it.

It also works the other way. On a hill, into a headwind, or from a dead stop on rough ground, opening the slice wider is exactly what you want. Inline technique, from Asha Kirkby of Skatefresh, an instructor certified by the Inline Certification Program. She teaches inline skating, and that is the discipline this page is about.