Introducing:

SKATE TIP OF THE WEEK
Inline secrets from the world's top skaters and coaches

This week's tip:
Learn to Swerve
By Eddy Matzger
(June 23, 2006)

You never know when you'll need to take evasive action, so learn to be nimble in the face of unpredictability. I've been in Shanghai, China, for a month, where there's mayhem in the streets. Anything goes. Cars, bicycles and pedestrians weave this way and that in seemingly random fashion.

Looking first before changing lanes or entering the flow of traffic must be considered a sign of weakness here, because no one does it. That's why I'm thankful to my original skate coach Dianne Holum for preparing me to face the real world by making me practice drills like: threading the needle through randomly spaced cones; flipping around from forwards to backwards skating and then backwards to forwards again; quick back and forth starts and stops in between two lines; and even jumping over real or imaginary obstacles.

Slaloming through stopped traffic, jumping over grates and changing course quickly to avoid human and man-made projectiles has never been so fun!

---

Eddy Matzger is one of the winningest skaters in the history of inline racing and the leader of the popular Eddy Matzger Workshops. He has been teaching children to skate this month in Shanghai as part of a TWINCAM-sponsored program. He will compete Sunday in the top division of a 64K bike race in China. (He'll be the only one skating.)

He plans to return to the United States next month to prepare for a full schedule of inline skating events and marathons. In the fall, he will defend his titles in the New York 100K and Athens to Atlanta Road Skate.

- Go to Eddy's web site.

Related reading
- Beginners Guide to Inline Skating.
- Beginners Guide to Outdoor Racing.