I wanna skate like I can walk
From T.Hsu on rec.sport.skating.inline
I wanna skate like I can walk
So you want to get really good at skating and you don't want to get into a specialized discipline? That's like doing things the hard way. It's way easier to just join a single minded skating group.
Aggressive
After a year or two of aggro, you'll be able to cross uneven railroad tracks, backwards, at 16+ mph, while holding a conversation, and think nothing of it. Rough terrain is simple when you can land a 360 gap jump onto a 2 storey stair flight.
Speed
After a year of outdoor speed skating, 500' vertical climbs and 40 mph down hills become everyday, trivial events.
Indoor
Pick up indoor speed skating for a year, and you'll do more crossovers than most skaters do their entire lives.
Hockey
A year of hockey and you'll turn, sprint, and stop faster than practically all of your non-hockey friends. Plus, you'll pick up this sixth sense awareness of everyone and everything around you. Avoiding checks and slap shots every 15 seconds does wonders for keeping your head up and your eyes constantly scanning your surroundings.
Figure/Cones
Both figure skating and cones will force you to improve your balance (especially on one foot) and backwards skating more than any other discipline. Plus you'll learn either crowd pleasing jumps or jaw dropping footwork in the process.
Reality
The reality is, without an environment that rewards tedious practice, you're just not going to do it. And all skating skills require tedious practice. But put the practice in the context of something else, say race training or a hockey game, and suddenly, it's not tedious anymore.
