Before you hit the slopes, get in-line

Back to the days of the roller rink, I literally needed a hand. I could stumble forward with a partner but in solo stints tended toward collisions and backward arm twirling. On the ice I was worse, liable for assault with a deadly skate or a knock on the noggin.

When I moved to California, I would see the in-line skaters on the beachfront bike path surging like superheroes among the cyclists and skateboarders. Eventually I bought a pair of cheap skates and tried it, though I never did much more than waddle. Stopping led to wrecks almost every time, especially before I figured out in-line skates have the brake pad in the rear. The worst was quarter-sized blisters that appeared on the arches of my feet afterward.

Even though I was a proficient skier, I was in pain and missing out in wholesale fashion on the cruising element of in-line skating. My enthusiasm ebbed while my blisters healed; I got exercise other ways, or not at all.

Then, as the prospect of alpine telemark skiing this winter made urgent a desire to get in shape, and with the mountains too far away, I seized again upon in-line skating as a cross-training activity to prepare me for the slopes. I set aside my do-it-yourselfer attitude and arranged a lesson with the in-line skating queen of Santa Monica beach, Debbie Merrill.

After a career on the road as a professional ice skater, Merrill settled in Southern California more than 20 years ago, eventually founding Skate Great USA, an in-line skating school. Her team of instructors, certified through the International Inline Skating Assn., has made the bike paths safe for leagues of skaters, not to mention celebrities in need of a crash course. Merrill taught Steve Martin how to “glide with pride” in the movie “L.A. Story,” in which she also appeared. If you see someone dressed like an in-line skating version of Evel Knievel, replete with red-white-and-blue outfits and helmets, that’s probably Merrill.

Merrill had me watch her instructional video the day before our lesson so I could size up the task before me. By the end of my viewing, I was able to conceptualize the drills she demonstrated. I even had the lingo down enough to nod knowingly when she remarked, “If you think about it, all you have to do to skate is incorporate the bend of the Swizzles, the pump of the Pumps and the glide of the 1-2-3s.”

Once I donned the necessary protective gear (helmet, wrist and knee pads), Merrill led me through the drills that on the video the night before had seemed so elementary. But I was all over the place, lopsided in my striding, falling backward and trailing one toe like a halfway figure skater -- possibly a vestige of my cross-country ski style.

“Where you going with that toe? It’s stride, glide and return the skate underneath you,” Merrill said. “Now let’s see you stop. Good! Well, you’re getting there.”

I was scared to trust the outside edge of my skates, preferring the knock-kneed stance that sets you on your inside edges (and probably causes blisters). My attempts to stop sent me reeling. So the first thing I learned was how to stand still with my skates in a T-formation. Then I learned how to keep my arms in front of me and balance on my left skate while braking with my right heel. Any wobbling? Lean forward to regain stability.

My breakthrough came when Merrill separated my skating into core elements, and I grew comfortable with sticking my butt out in a forward stance and putting weight on the outside of my skate. Then I could pivot to the inside edge and stride more efficiently for more speed.

Once I was comfortable using both edges of the skate, roller-blading’s connections to skiing became evident. The striding motion evokes the “skating” technique popular with cross-country ski enthusiasts, but an equal benefit arises from comfortably switching from edge to edge; for you skiers, this is similar to linking parallel ski turns. The final element is timing the sway of the arms to the strides.

“Just pretend you’ve got a hockey stick in both hands,” Merrill said. “You’re going side-to-side all the way down the ice.”

Before long, my hour lesson was up but I was zipping around, turning sharply and thinking I was ready for street hockey.

My subsequent skating outings -- without Merrill’s guidance -- were more about fitness than technique. At first my form was clean and I sped along without much of a warmup. Staying in a tuck position and skating fast can burn 450 calories an hour. In-line skating works a range of muscles including the upper legs, buttocks, hips and lower back, according to a study at the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Minnesota-St. Cloud. Arm swinging during skating can also tone the upper arms and shoulders.

After my sessions I could count on soreness in my lower body, but I mainly felt it while climbing or descending stairs.

As my workouts grew longer, my bad habits returned when I tired. Each day I skated, however, my legs were a bit stronger and my wind a little better. The more time I spend skating on the beach, the better I anticipate my skiing will be.

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Snapshot

There are numerous in-line skating classes offered in Southern California. Here are a few of them:

Debbie Merrill’s Skate Great USA

Classes in Santa Monica

(888) 866-6121

www.skategreat.com

California Skate School

Classes in various Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura county locations

(888) 880-7655

www.skateschool.com

BladeSchool

Classes in Burbank, La Canada and Long Beach

(800) 950-7655

www.bladeschool.com

The International Inline Skating Assn. maintains a website with a variety of information about in-line skating at www.iisa.org.