Beginner roller skating
Don't Skip the Lunge Turn on the Way to a Powerstop
The shortcut to a powerstop is landing on your hip a thousand times. A certified coach's order is the lunge turn, then the lunge stop, then the powerstop — and the first two are not stepping stones, they are useful stops in their own right that you will actually use. Skipping them is how the powerstop stays a fall with a name. Hills past my stops, I ride it out — Cass. From ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
There is a shortcut to the powerstop, and it consists of landing on your hip a thousand times. A certified coach's alternative is an order, and the order is the method.
Lunge turn, then lunge stop, then powerstop. In that sequence, each one builds the position the next one needs, which is why the last one stops being a gamble.
The first two are not stepping stones. A lunge turn and a lunge stop are useful stops in their own right — you will actually use them, on paths too narrow for a wide plough and at speeds where a T-stop takes too long.
Skipping them is what keeps the powerstop a fall with a name. The movement is not difficult because it is athletic; it is difficult because it asks for a deep, stable position that the two earlier stops are exactly what teach you.
One thing sits above all of this, and it is mine rather than hers: a hill I doubt I can stop on, I ride it out rather than brake. Trying to brake halfway down a gradient you have already misjudged is worse than riding it to the flat — Cass, a non-professional street skater.
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.
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