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This week's tip:
Eddy's Intro to the Definitive Wheel Rotation Flow Chart
By Eddy Matzger
I love to make my wheels spin, but I am one of the laziest rotaters in the world. Being an inveterate heel carver, thanks to my first coach Dianne Holum, I end up low riding, with wheels the size of walnuts in the back and totally fresh ones still with the center seam in the front.
Because I carve an underpush on my outside edge before my regular stroke, my wheels wear relatively flat, so I don't get the typical cone shaped profile of most skaters. I'm a quad pusher, meaning I push twice per leg or four times per complete stroke (commonly referred to as the "double push"). This allows me to go longer in between rotations. When I do rotate, I always transfer the most worn rear wheel into the front position of least wear. Since my balance and power transfer is slightly better on my right side, that means I swap wheels from left to right skate too. Technically, there's no rotation or flipping involved, just a change of position, since the inside edge becomes the outside edge on the other skate. I never label my wheels or put a caliper to them to measure their diameter.
Before Dianne Holum fixed my bad habit of toe pushing, I burned out my toe wheels and had to move them to the back and vice versa. No more of that!
Dianne taught us agility and how to skate backwards as well, since you never know when you might have to avoid a crash or somehow catch a skate and twist around backwards. Over the years, I've discovered that it's possible to skate the quadruple push in reverse. The underpush is still focused on the outside edge, but going backwards requires that you push with your toes, not your heels, so it's a perfect way to wear the toe wheels back down to the same size as the back ones!
Use the flow chart to find out which method of wheel rotation is most suitable for you!
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Eddy Matzger is one of the winningest skaters in the history of inline racing and leader of the popular Eddy Matzger SkateFarm and Roadshows. He makes his home in Floyd, VA, site of the Skate Farm. When he's not skating in the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains, he's traveling around the globe, where he's in high demand as a teacher and coach. His longtime sponsor is Twincam bearings.
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