Downhill Skating: Technique

The core course. Where the speed actually comes from, why pushing harder is the wrong answer, and how to rebuild a stride around elastic recoil instead of effort.

Lessons
24
Length
5h 13m
Level
Intermediate
Access
Lifetime

CA$249

  • 24 lessons · 5h 13m
  • Lifetime access

What you will cover

4 modules · 24 lessons · 5h 13m · 1 free to preview

Posture, before anything else6 · 1h 8m
  • Why 'get low' produces slow skatersFree preview11m
  • Finding your true hip hinge14m
  • Shin angle versus sitting down12m
  • The rib-to-pelvis relationship10m
  • Self-filming: three angles that show the truth8m
  • Posture audit — do this before module two13m
The spring6 · 1h 21m
  • Stretch-shortening cycle in plain language12m
  • Loading without sinking15m
  • Recoil: the part nobody teaches14m
  • Ground contact time and why it matters11m
  • Bounce drills on flat ground16m
  • Common ways the spring gets killed13m
The downhill stride6 · 1h 17m
  • Falling forward on purpose13m
  • Heel pressure through the rocker15m
  • Recovery under the hip, not behind it12m
  • Arm swing that adds speed10m
  • The floating elbow9m
  • Putting the full stride together18m
Changing direction6 · 1h 27m
  • The Y-angle explained14m
  • Hip twist and tilt instead of plant-and-push16m
  • Crossovers that keep the spring loaded15m
  • Tight turns without losing speed13m
  • Transitions in traffic12m
  • Direction-change circuit17m

About this course

Most skating instruction treats speed as an output of strength: push harder, get lower, hold the edge longer. Watch the fastest players in the world on slow motion and almost none of that is what they are doing.

This course rebuilds the stride from the ground up around the stretch-shortening cycle — the same spring that makes a good jump feel effortless. You will spend the first module unlearning the posture that makes the spring impossible, and the rest of it loading and releasing it on demand.

Everything here works on rollerblades on a flat surface. Ice is useful; it is not the prerequisite.

Your instructor

J

Jordan Vasquez

What learners say

★★★★★ 4.3 · 4 reviews

★★★★★

Good material, but pace yourself

The content is the best I have found anywhere. My complaint is with how much there is: twenty-four lessons sounds manageable and it is really a three month project if you want any of it to stick. I stalled twice. Worth it in the end, but go in knowing that.
Tomas Lindqvist
★★★★★

Works fine for a forty-four year old beer leaguer

I am not chasing anybody down. I wanted to stop being exhausted by the second period and that has happened. Four rather than five only because the first module assumes more body awareness than I had — I ended up doing Edge Work Foundations first and coming back.
Sam Okafor
★★★★★

I was teaching the opposite of this

I coach U15 and the hardest part was admitting that what I had been running for years was making my players slower. The progressions are ordered well enough that I could take them to the group almost as they are.
Bethany Lange
★★★★★

Two months and I am quicker over the first three strides

I had been told to get lower for fifteen years. Unlearning that was uncomfortable and it took about six weeks before anything felt natural, but the difference off the line is not subtle. My coach noticed before I told him I was doing anything.
Marek Dvorak

Start this course

CA$249

  • 24 lessons · 5h 13m
  • Lifetime access