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By Francisco Ramirez As it does every four years, the Winter Games have sprinkled gold (not to mention cold cash) on our sister sports: ice speed skating and short track. This in turn — also as usual — has inspired many skaters and their parents to think about moving to the ice. This is not surprising. You're not going to become a spokesman for Pampers (Chad Hedrick) or fly to Africa with George Clooney (Michael Cheek) as an inline skater ... unless, of course, inline finally wins entry into the Olympic Games. But before you make the leap, here's some things to think about: Do you have the right stuff? The list of former inline skaters who have competed in the Olympics is long and growing longer. About a dozen of them competed last month in Vancouver, including Chad Hedrick, Jordon Malone, Jilleanne Rookard, Heather Richardson, Alexis Contin, Shane Dobbin and Roger Schneider. If you look at their resumes, some patterns emerge. Most had big, successful inline careers before they switched to ice. They were world inline champions or dominant figures in the World Inline Cup. What that tells us is that they had already developed high levels of fitness, technique and discipline before they moved to ice. But what it's easy to forget is that lots of other inline skaters tried but failed to make it to the Olympics. (I'm not going to name names.) What's the moral? If you're great on inline skates, you may also be great on ice. If you're mediocre on inline skates, forget it. Ice burn Parents, beware. Ice is not nice on the pocketbook. You're going to pay a lot more for ice speed skating training than for roller speed training. The reason: ice time is about 10 times as expensive as roller time. Is inline good training for ice? Something I've noticed is that inline skaters seem to transition to ice faster than ever these days. KC Boutiette and Derek Parra took about five years to make the switch. Chad Hedrick needed three years and the new crop of young inline-to-ice skaters (e.g., Jilleanne Rookard and Shane Dobbin) seem to be managing the trick in two. This may have something to do with the evolution of inline skates. When Boutiette became the first inliner to move to ice, we were skating on 80mm wheels. Now, we're on 110s. The big wheels have changed our technique. We're higher off the ground and have more weight to push. As a result, we have learned to be more patient and let ourselves roll. This has replaced the old short, choppy inline steps with a technique more like long-track ice skating. This may explain the recent inline-to-ice success of Harry Vogel and Alexis Contin. Before 110s, both tried switching to ice but were less than successful. After their disappointment, they returned to inline and found themselves on 110mm wheels. Then they gave ice another try and this time found success — in record time. It may or may not be the bigger wheels. But one thing seems apparent: inline speed skating is excellent training for the ice. As the Olympic commentators repeated: inline skating is resistance training for ice skaters. So should I switch my kids to ice?
No one can make that decision for you. But here are my thoughts: Take them to the ice rink occasionally so they can develop a feeling for the ice. But encourage them to stay on inline skates. Let them enjoy a fulfilling inline career — and see where it takes them — before making the leap to ice. Besides, allowing your kids to spend a few years with four 100mm wheels on their skates might be their ticket to the Games. March 5, 2010
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Related reading: • Skate Tip of the Week Archive
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Francisco Ramirez is a speed skater and coach based in Hackettstown, NJ. He started on quads in his native Colombia and won a junior national championship, on inlines, in 1995. A week later, he immigrated to the United States, where he opened his first of several small businesses. He has been a member of the High Gear, Unity and Canariam speed teams. Currently, he manages K2-Empire Speed and coaches Excel Speed, which is based at Excel Skating Center, the rink he owns in Hackettstown, NJ.