May/June 2004
A SKATE LOVE AFFAIR - Pt. 1
- con't from last issue - This is for all who love the sport. If you have love for anything you will treat it with the utmost care so let me give you my love affair with roller skating. Since I can remember I’ve always loved the sport, it has been my friend and my lover for decades. My relationship with roller skating is one of everlasting, just by virtue of me caring for it the way I do and the only thing that keeps me from being a fanatic, you’d have to look real close not to say that I am a fanatic, but I do have time to give skating a breather. The seriousness about skating is the following: If you do not have a skating partner, as the old saying goes ‘you are dead in the water.’ You must have a skating partner to reach a level of euphoria. Now those of you out there who might be reading this, I want you to understand something. I’ve skated long enough to have experienced a lot of different things in reference to this sport. I’ve had times I’ve skated so wonderfully, so beautifully and it took 3 times for that to happen to me to know that it wasn’t me. I was either (1) in the spirit, no I know I was in the spirit but at one time I didn’t know what it was. I became big headed about it, I thought I was the cat’s meow, ‘boy I gotta be the best in the world.’ Well, I got news for you - that wasn’t even the case, not even close. I had been given something that was very spiritual and got it confused with my selfishness and my ignorance about what I was doing. Those of you that might have experienced something like this, be it a night of skating with or without someone, I’m sure at some point you might have got that same feeling because I”m sure it happens to us at different times in various other sports or various other things. What I’ve learned from all of this is that you’re only as good as the last time that you did it so if you understand that, if you get that down, you’ll always have fun, i.e. don’t get too big for your britches and you’ll be just fine. You might use this in other walks of your life, 'don’t get too big for your britches.' If I was asked the question, ‘would you rather be smart or intelligent?’ I would chose to be intelligent which would make me smart enough to know not to be too damn smart. So the crux of this whole thing is, and I only speak for myself, you have to understand the skate, what equipment to have, you can’t just have skates on. If you’re racing, you should have racing skates, if you are dancing, you should have dance skates. You must be able to meet the sport head on, don’t be lazy about it. Know what trucks to use, what cushions to have, know how to adjust your skates. ...[Rental skates] don’t come with instructions, they come with hope that if one skate is going north, the skate on the other foot is going north also instead of southwest, taking you along with it. I was one of them, I wasn’t given instructions but what made me different, I wanted to know, I wanted to find out why and how. I needed to know because I had this love for roller skating so deeply. I think the love affair that I’ve had over the years has gotten me to whatever point I’ve gotten to and that’s why I use the term... advanced beginner. That’s what I will always be. I don’t think there’s anything else for me. I’ve found knowing about euphoria and the gift I was given ... made the difference, not only with roller skating but with many other things in my life, I’m just an advanced beginner. Sure, I’ve developed a style and I’ve been somewhat of a thief which I refer to as a leech. What do I mean by that? Because I’ve leeched other styles and developed them in my way. Do I recommend this? If you’re swift enough, sure, but make sure when you do that you take all the components, don’t leave anything - so you can work it. At any given time in a skating session, I might skate any one or all of the four different styles that I know or that I thought enough of to develop in the first place. So anybody out there who might read this can be flattered because I took their particular style to learn for myself. - To be continued - Do you have a specific question on the above information or the Jammin technique? Ask Bill |
| QUESTIONS Q. I am currently taking skating lessons (group) at the Lywood Skating Rink in Lynwood, IL. I am having a difficult time leaning to "feel the inside and outside edges." On top of that I purchased my first pair of skates and found out that they had abosultely "no roll" I have had the wheen loosened a little but not to much so I won't have so much "shimming." I've been told I have terrible ball-bearings. I'm taking the skates back to the place of purchase, what can I do to keep such bad investments from occuring in the future? A. Here’s my reply to any and all. When you are purchasing a pair of skates, the trick is to know what kind of skates you are going to get for what activity. If you are going to learn to dance, then you need a particular plate, boot and wheel. Depending on the style you are going to learn, you have to have the right wheels to address the floor properly. Anyone that uses a technique such as the one I have developed, if you’re gonna use any lateral moves such as plows, hockey stops or anything like that - other than a toe stop- you have to be on a wooden floor, preferably... You have to know exactly what you are going to do and you have to get the equipment based on that. There are three types of wheels I would recommend, they have different types in terms of durometer, meaning what is in the wheel to make it have the various types of performances. One is the Fomac, a brown wheel, dark brown on the outside edge and as you go to the inside of the wheel it’s lighter brown. Then you have an All American Plus, there are two types, the old original [one] is a very hard durometer. What I mean by hard is, versus the new All American Plus, if you were to do a hockey stop with the weight of a person over 150 pounds, it’s going to flatten the wheel, especially if the stop is three to four feet long. That means you would have to be going pretty fast to go four feet before you stop. It will flatten the wheel of the new All American Plus, so I don’t suggest that wheel if you are at that weight. If you weigh lighter, say from 100 pounds down, which would be a teenager depending on the teen because some weigh 200 pounds - we have to go by weight not age, at the same time you could be 40 and weigh 115 pounds. What we have to look at is how much do you weigh if you are going to use that wheel in that way to keep from flattening the wheels because of the design of the wheel or what goes into the make up of that wheel, you can’t use it for lateral stops. I recommend three wheels. If you’re lucky enough to get a pair of All American plus of yesteryear, which means the old ones in good condition, if not new. You are all right at 200 pounds because they won’t flatten. They have a Pacer wheel which I think is just an All American Plus with another name, or the Fomac. Then you have cushions. They have cushions that vary, the way you know the variance of cushions is they have a red stripe, white stripe or green stripe, to my knowledge. Those stripes represent the softness and hardness of your cushions. You have single action, double action and triple action trucks based on the various types of skating one might do. You need to find out as a skater, which truck, which cushion, which wheel, and I didn’t mention bearings yet, but you have to pick your bearings also. There are cheaper bearings and there are more expensive bearings. Cheap can be good in the right spot, expensive can be good in the right spot. All the equipment I’ve mentioned are good in their right spots, so you have to be knowledgeable of what to buy.. A lot of people buy skates on impulse, they buy them because they look good, because they are shiny, because they don’t know any better and those are all the wrong reasons. You have to be knowledgeable about anything....you can’t be impulsive if you are going to keep yourself from going back and arguing with the salesman. Get the information, find out, ask. Find out what it is you need for what you are doing, get a knowledgeable person, not somebody that is there to make commission, somebody who knows about the product that they are selling you. But you have to have some knowledge of what you are buying so the two go together but you gotta find your match which would be somebody who is into what it is that you want to do - that’s the person. Any other person, they are going to sell you something but what is that? Be aware, as the old saying goes, ‘buyer beware.’ That only means you have to know what it is you are after, do not expect the salesperson to do it for you, they can sell you the merchandise but you have to know what merchandise to have them sell you. My answer is, know what it is you need and then you will be all right and you will spend that money once. If there is any more information you need, I would be more than happy to help. |