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

This week's tip:

Banishing Burnout

By Kathy McSparran
July 27, 2007

It can happen to even the most zealous skaters. One week they can't stay away from the trail. The next, they'd rather have a root canal than keep an appointment with their skates.

It's called burnout. You might think skaters would be immune — after all, skating is more fun than just about anything else you can do with your clothes on. But burnout is indiscriminant. It can hit anyone and is partial to those involved in things like skating that inspire out-sized portions of passion.

So how do you know if you've got it?

The classic symptoms are lack of interest and exhaustion. But if you're not sure, take the following quiz:

The Inline Planet Burnout Quiz!

1.) Are you spending more time with Sponge Bob Square Pants than your favorite training partner?

2.) Have you started filling your CamelBak with gin and tonic instead of Gatorade?

3.) Did you "accidentally" use Super Glue the last time you lubed your bearings?

4.) Is the thought of road rash, or better yet, a broken leg, beginning to sound attractive.

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you're in trouble.

Rx

So what should you do?

Skip the root canal and go for the root cause. Maybe your training goal is no longer an inspiration. If your goal (losing weight, winning your age division, etc.) has ceased to motivate you, change it, at least temporarily. That may be all you need to get rolling again.

Here's what happened recently to a skate buddy of mine. He was trying to shed some weight to improve his race performance. But nothing was happening. Then his apartment complex hired a cute young lifeguard. Suddenly, the weight came off effortlessly. He had switched his focus from competition (ho, hum) to romance (hubba, hubba!). Whatever revs your motor (beating a rival, eating dessert guilt-free, or looking good at your class reunion) can help pull you out of the burnout blahs.

Rediscover Your Inner Rink Rat

Another way to banish burnout is to rediscover the joy of skating. Think about how children approach it. They don't set goals, they just want to have fun. Adults, on the other hand, tend to set goals for everything and that can transform life, even skating, into one long chore.

That doesn't mean you should banish goals altogether. It simply means that you should make at least some of your skating about nothing more than fun.

Not sure how to rediscover your inner rink rat? Here's a list of ways to recapture the magic:

• Join a group skate. (For a list of group skates, go to the Group Skate Mapper.)
• Explore a new trail (Look for routes, or map your own, on the Skate Route Mapper. Works best with Firefox.)
• Participate in a skate weekend, like Skate Boston or the Big Apple Roll. (Find events on the Event Calendar.)
• Skate to work one day a week.
• Attend a skate workshop. (Find workshops on the Event Calendar.)
• Combine skating with another sport: roller basketball, roller soccer, skate juggling, kite skating.

And then there's my personal favorite: Skate in a skimpy outfit and celebrate the fact that truckers still honk at you despite your advanced age!

...

Kathy McSparran is director of the Phoenix Inline skate school and writes the Inline Planet's Skate Coach column. She holds holds five IISA teaching certifications: Level 1 (Beginners & Advanced Beginners), Level 2 (Intermediates & Advanced Intermediates), BladeFitnessTM, Freestyle Dance and Fitness Inline Trainer.

• Kathy's Skate Coach archive

Related reading:

• Skate Tip of the Week Archive
• Beginners Guide to Outdoor Racing
• Beginners Guide to Inline Skating