What to Practice - May 2024
I love this time of year. Summer is just around the corner and so is one of the very best times to skate!
We are going to do things a little bit differently this month. I'm not going to give you as many things to practice because I really want you to focus in on a few very particular things.
If you are in Southern California, you can buy tickets to this month’s in-person Workshop on Crazy Legs here! We are also working on crazy legs as a main skill this month, so we’ll get lots of practice on that!
Everything that I mention in the video and text below can be found within my Membership on ThatNicoleFiore.com or the Membership on my YouTube channel. When you join the roller skating membership, you also get access to all of the mind|body|soul videos: mindfulness, off-skates workouts, as well as early access to the podcast. Please check it out and let me know if you have any questions at all. You can find links to each video at the bottom of each section.
Week 1:
Planks (core)
Heel-Toe Manual
PRACTICE:
Dribble/ Slingshot
Planks (core) & Heel-Toe Manual:
We are going to do an off-skates workout from the mind | body | soul section, focusing on our core. Our core is extremely important in keeping us still and in control on skates!
Our skill this week is the Heel-Toe Manual. A manual is a balancing skill. You can do Toe Manuals, Heel Manuals, Heel-Toe Manuals. This week, I want you to focus on that Heel-Toe. We use this balance a lot. It's kind of shocking how much we use it: heel-toe spins, grapevine, crazy legs, dribble, toe spins, etc. A lot goes into learning manuals - most of all…patience. Ps - I love my toe stops. I wear my toe stops all the time and I wear my toe stops while I do all of this toe work. You don't need to remove your toe stops, but you totally can if you do prefer to skate without them. There's no right or wrong way about it. But when I'm balancing on my toes, I don't need to go so far onto the toe that I hit my toe stop. I balance on my axis (the bar that connects your two front wheels) and I suggest you learn to do the same. The key is to create that muscle memory so that you can hit the perfect balance point every time.
Practice:
For our practice this week, we are going to be doing the Dribble, also known as the Dribble/ Slingshot. This skill can be a kind of stationary moonwalk, or you can add an inner edge and rotate side to side. It's a really fun dance move and a really useful in-between move. What I mean by that is sometimes you need a skill to do when you’re thinking of what to do next. I often use the dribble for that! The dribble also balances on the toes! It's not really a full balancing move on just the toes, like the manual is. It uses balance on the toes one foot at a time, so you always have one sturdy foot on the ground. It's a nice little warmup for everything else that we're about to get into this month.
Where to find these videos:
Planks (core): mind | body | soul page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Heel-Toe Manual: Skills page (heel-toe section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Dribble/ Slingshot: Skills page (dance section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Week 2:
Beginner/Intermediate Choreography — Rollin by Calvin Harris
PRACTICE:
Toe Manuals
Beginner/Intermediate Choreography:
This song is a viiiiiibe. It’s like a pre-summer warmup and uses a lot of skills! Beginner/ Intermediate Choreography is for everyone! All levels! We will work on toe balance, easing into it one foot at a time, kind of like noodle legs (another fun dance move). We will also work on a cross behind, a heel to heel transition, the dribble, as well as those heel-toe manuals that we already worked on last week. So, there is a lot happening, but remember it's kind of a slow vibe. Don't feel rushed. Don't even feel that you need to do the choreography to the exact beat. You can take as much time as you want. This choreography leads us directly into our Advanced Choreography, which is going to be in Week 4.
Practice:
Now for our practice this week, I want us to work on our Toe Manuals. Instead of balancing on the heel and the toe, this week I want you to simply balance on the toes. When balancing on your toes, you don't have to go soooo far. Find the balance point that works best for you. I recommend doing one foot at a time, just like our Beginner/ Intermediate Choreography introduced. Eventually I want you to go to both toes. Please keep your knees bent when you're doing this and really pay attention to your core. Go back to our drills that we did in Week 1 with those planks if you need/ want to!
Where to find these videos:
Rollin Choreography (Beginner/Intermediate) - Choreography page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Toe Manuals: Skills page (heel-toe section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Week 3:
Drills 4 (toe-stop balance)
Crazy Legs
PRACTICE:
Toe Spins
Drills 4 & Crazy Legs:
Let’s do Drills 4, which is on toe-stop balance. Although we're doing a lot on our toes this month, not necessarily on our toe stops, I really want you to feel that placement on your toes as well. Whether you practice all of this month's content with toe stops or without, I want you to put some toe stops in for these drills. You can also do this on toe plugs if you're very careful. You need something to anchor you into the ground more than just your toe wheels. Think about your core when you are doing this. That is the key to almost everything. A strong core keeps us really still and in control when we are on our skates. Wheels like to roll! So we need to have something centering us, keeping us anchored, and keeping everything together.
Our skill this week is Crazy Legs! Crazy legs take a lot of practice and a lot of patience. It says it in the name…they are crazy. It doesn't matter if you've been skating for two days or 22 years, crazy legs can be very challenging for every skater. We've been working on that toe balance and this is very useful in crazy legs. It's something that we don't really think about too much because we're not needing to fully balance on the toes for the entire thing. And that is actually something I want to remind everyone. I often see people who have been practicing crazy legs doing the entire thing on their toes, but you don't need to stay on your toes the entire time. Take it one step at a time. I start by focusing on the pattern with my feet and then combine things to make the actual crazy legs happen. Take your time!!
Practice:
Now for our practice this week! I want us to do our toe spins. Heel-toe spins are what we usually do when we are learning how to spin on skates, after we get comfortable with a general two-foot spin. A heel-toe spin allows us to spin faster and get more rotations. We can also use that same technique on the toes. In a toe spin, we balance on all toe wheels! In writing that sounds a little intimidating, but I want you to try this out. I want you to take your time, just like the crazy legs. Toe balance unlocks so many fun things on skates.
Where to find these videos:
Drills 4: Drills & Workouts page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Crazy Legs: Skills page (dance section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Toe Spins: Skills page (heel-toe section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Week 4:
Advanced Choreography — Rollin by Calvin Harris
PRACTICE:
Traveling Crazy Legs
Advanced Choreography:
This week I want us to focus on our Rollin’ Choreography, this time the Advanced version. Like I said earlier, the Beginner/ Intermediate Choreography flows directly into the Advanced Choreography. No matter how wonderful of a skater you are, I always want you to start with the Beginner/Intermediate and then move onto the Advanced. This choreography uses a lot of skills and that is why I love choreography so much. I like to use choreography to teach us skills. Concealing our practice with dance moves is a whole lot more fun than drilling things over and over again. This choreography uses toe spins, crazy legs, traveling crazy legs, the dribble, a backward edge rock over, a snake walk, and a version of the corkscrew spin. And it’s such a good vibe!!
Practice:
Now I want you to work on Traveling Crazy Legs. Regular crazy legs stay in place while traveling crazy legs move side to side. You can also edge crazy legs backwards! I have a skills class called edgy crazy legs that explains that a bit more! But back to traveling crazy legs. Instead of staying stationary, you move one foot a little more and kind of play catch up with the second foot. This skill is used at the end of our Advanced Choreography and is so much fun to learn!
Where to find these videos:
Rollin Choreography (Advanced): Choreography page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Traveling Crazy Legs: Skills page (dance section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Alright, that’s it for this month! I hope you check it all out. All of the skating skills I talk about are included in the Roll With Me (On-Demand) Membership and can all be connected to one another. We’re honestly never out of things to practice or learn on skates! It’s pretty amazing. Even if you feel that you are a master at these things, I want you to revisit them. And if you have no idea what any of these skill titles are, that is totally okay. I will explain everything in each video. You have to start somewhere and I would love to be help you along the way.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know if you would like further guidance. You can book in-person private lessons or online private lessons!
If you prefer a roadmap from A to Z of everything that I believe every skater should know, The Roller Skating Foundations Course is also available! The course is literally everything (your solid foundation) to do whatever you want to do on skates.
At the end of each month, I want you to take a moment to look back and see how far you’ve come. Did you learn something new? Did you progress? Did you surprise yourself? Do you have new goals for next month? Take a moment, breathe, roll your shoulders back, lift your head high, and tell yourself you’re doing a great job. Because you are.
If you would like to submit your progress for our Community Progress Video, submit your vertical video here. Submissions are due on the last day of each month.
What was your favorite part of this month? What was the hardest for you? What kept you going? Leave a comment and/or send me a message! If you are practicing on Instagram, please tag me and #quadsociety! I love to see and share your progress! Lastly, don’t forget about the wonderful community on the Discord. Everything is better with friends!
