How to Sprint in Skates! (Double D Tutorials)

What is up skate fam? Welcome to the Double D Skating Sprint Tutorial. I'm your host David LaLiette and behind me here is my skate training partner Dustin Briley. We're going to get you started by teaching how to take the first five steps of your basic sprint. This sprint can be done in inline or quad skates as the general principles apply to both. Dustin will begin with two demonstrations of what not to do. First, do not start with your legs straight. As with most skating motions, the sprint requires the knees to be bent for balance and extension. Notice how he has to shuffle a bit to get started and his first step is lacking in extension. Second, make sure to land on the inside edge of each step. Here you see Dustin lands with his balance in the center of the blade, which eventually transitions to the outside edges, throwing his rhythm off and stifling acceleration. I usually start in the V about like this. I usually start about like I say about right here. Not too low but just bend my knees and keep the upper body straight. Here we will show you the proper way a sprint can be executed. Upper body engaged, core tightened, knees slightly bent, each step landing with your balance on the inside edge of the foot. Two important things to note. Each step should be accompanied by a swing of the opposite arm. When the left leg steps forward, so swings the right arm and vice versa. Skipping the arm swing will decrease your stepping power by half and make balancing during the sprint extremely difficult. Also, make sure not to cut your steps short. By stepping flat footed, not only will this make your sprint awkward, it will also keep you from completing the final phase of each step, the toe flick. The toe flick ensures you squeeze every last ounce of explosive power out of your sprint. To flick your toe properly, land with your weight distributed evenly from heel to toe. Then roll your balance to the ball of the foot, extending your push all the way to the end of your toes. It's the same concept as running in your shoes, but combined with a stride motion balanced on your inside edges. The final step is to practice. Practice, practice, practice. Start out by doing the motions slow and learning to control them until they're second nature. Then do it faster, and faster, and faster. It's always more important to practice correct execution before attempting such an advanced move, but stay headstrong and keep a mental checklist of all the things you need to do in order to make your sprint most effective. And lastly, don't give up. With hard work comes great rewards. Thanks for watching our sprint tutorial. If this video helped you, please give us a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel. Don't forget you can catch all our upcoming tutorials as they release by clicking the bell next to the subscribe button. If you have any questions, be sure to leave them in the comment section below, and Dustin and I will see you the next time we lace up.