Beginner roller skating
Heel Stop 2: Flip Your Back Skate Onto Its Toe Wheel
A certified coach's heel brake variation: from the normal heel brake position, flip your back skate up onto its front toe wheel and stay steady by pointing that foot inward. Practise the toe roll first. She says the heel brake works on hills sooner than any other stop; mine wasn't powerful enough for a real stop and hurt my shin, so I take it off. From ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby; account from me, Cass, a non-professional street skater.
Most people meet the heel brake once, in its standard form, and never learn that there is a second position for it. This is that second position.
From the normal heel brake stance, flip your back skate up onto its front toe wheel. Point that foot slightly inward to stay steady; the inward angle is what stops the raised skate from wandering while the braking foot does its work.
Practise the toe roll first. Rolling along on the front wheel of one skate, with the rest of that skate off the ground, is the prerequisite position — trying to find it for the first time in the middle of a stop is not a plan.
The coach's view: the heel brake becomes usable on hills earlier in your skating than any other stop, which is a real argument for keeping it while you are learning.
My experience differs, and both are published here because both are true at different stages: mine was not powerful enough to actually stop me when I needed it, and braking hard with it hurt the front of my shin on legs that were not yet trained for skating. I take it off. I am not saying a beginner should skip it — it is there for a reason. 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. Personal account from Cass, a non-professional street skater — not a coach, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
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