Beginner roller skating
On Quads, Take the Shortest Line Across Bad Ground
Cobbles and broken tarmac are among the most intimidating things outdoors, on quads especially. A certified coach's first rule: gain as much momentum as you can on the smooth part, then angle your line to cross the rough section by the most direct path, so you spend the least time on bad ground. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby, taught to inline and quad beginners.
Cobbles, broken tarmac, a strip of paving that has heaved: a certified coach calls these among the most intimidating things a skater meets outdoors. On quads, whose wide wheels catch in every gap, they are the reason many people never leave the rink.
Her first rule is about the line, not the legs. Gain as much momentum as you can on the smooth part before the rough section starts. Momentum is what carries a wheel over a gap instead of into it, and the smooth ground is the only place you can build it.
Then angle your line to cross the rough section by the most direct path. A strip of cobbles crossed straight is a few metres of bad ground; the same strip followed at a shallow angle is twenty. The goal is to spend the least possible time on the surface that is trying to catch you.
This site has already said that rough ground wants tempo, not power, and that you should accelerate towards the rough patch rather than away from it. The shortest line is the third piece: speed before, short quick steps during, and a route drawn so that "during" is as brief as the ground allows.
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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