Freeskate Log

04 May 2024

Updated: 20 May 2024

Learning to Freeskate

Day to day progress of my freeskate learning

Crap, this is a lot more difficult than expected. Getting onto the board is more difficult than you’d think since it’s a weird angle
Went to a skatepark for the first time today, it’s a bit awkward but pretty chill, everyone kinda just does their thing
Managed to get rolling a bit by pushing off, the challenge here seems to be not looming at your feet
Basically impossible to pick up any speed on flat ground
Keeping your body straight is also a challenge at this point

Found a slight incline to get some speed from and managed to get some distance. This basically seemed impossible before this point, the pumping motion is terribly difficult, difficult to imagine being able to do this easily. Not looking at your feet helps a lot
The shoes you have seem to matter - you need good support on your back toes to kick off since it’s a really weird angle
Moving your shoulders makes a bit of a difference. Mostly just focused on trying to get my feet to do the in-out motion. Not super hard on one foot but a lot more challenging when trying to use both
Without being able to really pump it looks like I can get about a third of the way around the main area of the park - so making it all the way around is my goal for next time
Foot placement is super important for pumping. I’ve got mine centered on the skates in the same direction of the board

Wearing some shoes that are actually appropriate for this, helps a lot with the takeoff
Made some progress with the pumping, my legs are still a little sore from the last time so trying to stretch that out
Took off the edge guards since they seemed to be hindering my grip - this seems to had a positive impact on trying to get the boards to do what I want
Went over a lil crack and didn’t wipe out which was great
Keeping your legs together is tricky, bend your knees a bit - having your feet placed well also makes this easier - if your foot placement is bad you may as well bail since you’re not really gonna be able to do much
Counting as you pump helps keep your feet in sync - 1-in, 2-out, 1-in, 2-out, etc. this helps a decent amount - also I cannot emphasize enough - DON’T LOOK AT YOUR FEET OMW IT WILL SCREW YOU UP
Taking a break and coming back later or the next day does wonders for your muscle memory. Kinda crazy how much easier doing the same thing is after resting for a while

The session today for rained out after about 20mins just as i started getting into it
Feeling a lot more comfortable on the skates and little things feel a bit easier like picking up/putting down the skates as well as getting onto them - feels a bit like there breaking in somewhat as well
Was able to get into the flow a bit better, moving around feeling a lot better
The park was also fairly busy which I think actually helped me focus more on moving and less on what my feet were doing - got some practice turning as well which was good

Did almost an hour of skating today.
Managed to make it all the way around the park! That was my goal for the day
Since I managed to do that I tried to make it through the weird tunnel thing in the middle of the park - this was a bit trickier than I expected since it’s really curved on the inside which meant you can’t really pump while going through. Balance was also a bit weird because of the angle but I eventually made it through
Getting the hang of the movement and rhythm, can also consciously choose to use my back or front leg to pump
Moving up a slope is still really difficult but I think I have the hang of the flat ground which feels like progress
In general, I feel like swinging your arms helps a bit to keep your feet in sync as well as just help you feel less awkward overall
Doing some short warm up rides and taking a break can also help to just lossen up a bit
Seems like you just gotta keep on keeping on
Plan for next time is to work on pushing from the flat ground and making it all the way around from there - so picking up speed and going up the slight incline