Skate skills:

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

This week's tip:
Pass It On

By Eddy Matzger
(Sept. 15, 2006)

When you're done with a race, don't just take off your skates and disappear into your usual circle of friends.

For the love of the sport and its future, go find someone you don't know yet and turn them on to inline skating by offering them a tip or giving them a demonstration.

Maybe you're good at stopping, doing the double push, or hawking the line. Or maybe you can share a valuable lesson about perseverance or how to train more intelligently. It'll make you and your new found student feel important and good for something.

Conversely, if you're in need of a tip, don't be afraid to approach another skater who you look up to or who looks like they know what they're doing. No question is too insignificant or stupid, since everybody was a total beginner at one point or another.

It probably would give them great pleasure to show you a thing or two because everybody's an expert at something and explaining something to someone else always makes things clearer in their own mind.

When I was just getting bitten by the inline bug in 1988, I remember receiving unsolicited advice from Dutch skaters like Jan Eise Krompkamp, Tamo Brouwer, Andre Klompmaker, and Henri Ruitenberg. They would see me a little dejected after being beaten so badly in the races and offer me some suggestions on how to improve.

Whether it was a little lesson about carving, crossovers, or strategies for staying with the pack a little longer, their lessons lifted my mood and gave me plenty of hope for the future.

---

Eddy Matzger is one of the winningest skaters in the history of inline racing and the leader of the popular Eddy Matzger Workshops.

He's just back from China, where he "ghost" skated (with the blessing of the Chinese federation) in the Suzhou World Inline Cup, finishing 11th overall.

This weekend he's in Duluth, Minn., for the 11th annual Northshore Inline Marathon. When he's not globe-hopping, which isn't often, he makes his home at the Skate Farm in Floyd, Virg.

• Go to Eddy's web site.
• Skate Tip of the Week Archive.
• Beginners Guide to Outdoor Racing.
• Beginners Guide to Inline Skating.