From:"Jeff Higgins" <jhiggins@...>


Kathy,

Please keep trying. The sport needs more dedicated skaters like
you...regardless what you wear on your feet.

Not all coaches are ostriches, some simply don't know how to teach
inline skating and are afraid to admit it, so they drum up some
indefensible excuses. And as you discovered, some are pretty wild.
One elite coach actually said to me "If you were skating for me,
you'd be skating on quads, period." Needless to say I am not
"skating for him".

Anyway, here's how I approached both of my current coaches (team and
solo), who expressed some reluctance at first. I gave them an "out".
I told them I would take the responsiblity of my performance from the
boot-top to the floor. In other words, I promised to figure out what
I have to do to make "those things" (my skates) do what the coach
wants...the coach is there to monitor everything else. After some
adjustment we each learned our new roles, and so far, it has worked
out very well.

To help others, I am keeping notes on what I've discovered about my
"half" of the bargain.
You can read some of them at
http://www.rollerskatersgazette.com/
click on the articles under "INLINES"
and my skate configuration discussion is at
http://slumberland.org/artskate/index.html

Good luck and good sk8ing

Jeff
"Jeff Higgins" <jhiggins@...>
********************************************************************


From: "Brian Mielke" <brianm@...>


> I am finding that artistic inline skating seems to
> have more popularity outside of the United States, or
> at least outside of Texas as far as competing goes.

I think you're right about this. But it's true not just for inlines.
Artistic roller skating on quads is also more popular outside of the
UnitedStates, at least that's what I've read/heard.

> I am an adult who was very interested in competing on
> inlines until I started looking for a coach/club, and
> was met with a less than enthusiastic attitude.

I'm not surprised. Most artistic coaches learned on quads, and don't
value inlines. If you're set on learning on inlines, then you
probably shouldn't be taking lessons from these coaches anyway, since
they probably don't understand the inline skate.

> One coach I spoke with said that inline skating was on
> it's way out, it was keeping quad roller skating out
> of the Olympics

People may say this, but I don't think it's true. The general public
doesn't know that (quad) artistic skating exists, and thus there's no
money in it. And it's soo close to ice skating, and I think the
general public sees more skating than they want to see on TV. In
addition, the USARS doesn't seem to do anything to really promote the
sport of roller skating either. IMHO, this is way more important
than the existance of inlines.

>, and USARS judges "frowned upon" artistic inline skating.

Yes, I'm sure that's true. Most of them probably skated ( or still
skate )on quads.

>Another coach told me jumping and spinning was for the younger
>athlete, and if I was interested in competing I would need to do so
>on quads.

That doesn't make sense. Using quads won't make you any younger!

> Oh well, their attitude has not affected
> me, and I plan to purchase a pair of PIC skates very
> soon, much to the dismay of my husband, who can't
> understand why I need yet another pair of skates. I
> hope your message gets a lot of response, as I too am
> interested in what other skaters are doing
> artistically on inlines, and personally feel that this
> sport is far from finished. In the meantime, I will
> continue to ice skate.

Part of the problem is that inlines are being associated with the
USARS, just because the inline format has wheels and is a roller
skate. But in actuality, ice skates are also "inlines" and thus
inlines resemble ice skates more than quad roller skates. Maybe the
USAFSA should start to cover inlines too. Most USARS skaters/coaches
use quads, and to them quads are superior, and inlines are for
recreation and speed. ( Personally, I agree with this, at least from
a freestyle perspective. )
However, I also ice skate, and from that perspective, I can
understand why somebody would want to skate on PIC skates.

-Brian
"Brian Mielke" <brianm@...>

--- In EIFSA@y..., "eifsaweb" <eifsaweb@y...> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am very interested to know of skaters who were intending on
> competing on Inline this year at World Level.
>
> I have a site that is very popular for Artistic skating and I would
> like to hear from people who skate inlines as I am planning a
feature
> about the Inline invasion in 2002.
>
> If any skaters who do Inline Artistic are competing, drop me a line
> or reply to this post. I would like to know the type of equipment
you
> are using, how you find spinning, what sort of technical items you
> are doing and how you find skating on inline and how you expect the
> sport to progress in the future.
>
> If you can answer any of the above, I would love to hear from you.
If
> you have pics, that would be great also to include in the feature.
>
> My site is found at http://www.jaysonsutcliffe.com
>
> I look forward to hearing from you!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jayson, Australia
> info@j...
> http://www.jaysonsutcliffe.com