DANVILLE, CA--I am an IISA-Certified In-Line skating instructor
with a dirty little secret. (No, it's not about my bearings!) It's
embarrassing to admit, but nine months after I got my first pair of in-lines,
I still did not know how to use the heel brake! There are those who would
laugh wickedly, but most new skaters will heartily empathize. For those kind
souls, I'm going to share all of my best stopping tips, learned by giving
hundreds of beginners the one gift they needed most to enjoy in-line skating.
Don't feel lonely if you can't lay skinny scratch. Most people are discouraged to find they don't get the feel for stopping with a heel brake right away. Yet, when used with the proper form, it can be the most immediate and powerful stopping tool you'll ever need.
This article will start by describing the most effective braking stance, then focus on a sequence of drills that will dramatically improve your heel-braking skills. You will learn that stopping requires you to Scissors the brake ahead, Squeeze it on, and Sink behind it.
Liz
demos the heelbrake stop on video.
The Ready Position
The most effective heel brake stops begin from a solid ready position. To review: on a carpet or lawn, stand with feet shoulder width apart. Stand upright but with knees bent, so that your knee pads block the view of your toes. For better balance, raise your hands to waist level (still within view) and look forward, not down. Keep your shoulders directly above your hips and hips over heels. Do not lean forward or arch your back. Instead, curve your spine slightly so that your pelvis is tucked in. This brings your hips forward under your body, making it easier to extend the braking foot.
Although it seems the right thing to do, simply raising the toe of the brake skate is not the best way to stop. Rather, you must push that skate forward before braking. This is true for all types of heel mounted brakes, including cuff-activated brakes.
Now let's assume the scissors position. The brake skate is easily pushed ahead by sinking down over the supporting leg's knee - it won't go very far if your supporting knee is straight. Extend the braking skate ahead at least until that ankle is even with the big toe of the other skate (at high speeds, even more distance between skates is necessary). You are now in the scissors stance necessary for making your brake work. From the side view, your lower legs should make a wide-based triangle over the pavement surface.
Make sure your skates remain perfectly parallel with each other and no more than three inches apart. This ensures that as you slow to a stop, it will be in a straight line. If you angle the braking foot off to the side, you'll swerve that way. Anticipate just this, though, when you are first learning how to use the brake, because it really is a balance skill, and if you're new to in-lines, you will tend to tip toward the outside of the brake foot at first. Try squeezing your knees together to keep the skates closer.
Touch down
Standard Brake: After you extend the brake into the scissors position you have so studiously attained, then you can tip up your toe and touch the heel brake pad to the carpet or lawn. Push forward against it, being careful not to look down at your feet. (Sure as shootin', your upper body will drop forward if look at your feet when in motion.) At some point in the future you should be able to transfer all of your weight onto the heel brake and lift the other skate off the ground. At higher speeds, this is the weight transfer that is possible and sometimes necessary for an expeditious stop.
ABT Brake: As you scissors your braking skate forward, instead of lifting your toe, you must consciously extend your ankle and press your big toe down toward the pavement, the same way an Olympic diver or ballerina points the toes. Doing this helps you use your calf muscle to move the cuff of the skate backward as your foot slides forward, which is necessary to move the brake arm down so the rubber will begin to drag. If you don't feel the brake dragging as soon as you scissors your foot forward, lower the brake pad. You'll gain the cuff-activated benefits of balanced, easy stopping much sooner if you start out with the brake pad very close to the ground. You can always raise it later, once you've got the skill and confidence you seek.
Good one-footed balance is another skill that will lead to
confidence and success with your heel brake. In a slow glide, pick up a foot
and roll on the other skate as long as possible. If necessary, start with
short marching steps, and continue to lengthen the gliding time between each
step. Later, try moving the airborne skate to the front, side and behind as
you roll.
Make the approach
You need to be able to coast for at least 10 feet in the ready position to learn how to stop with the heel brake. On the pavement (and fully geared, please), take a few strides to build up your speed, get in a good ready position, and then relax into a coasting roll. See how far you can roll with both skates together. Practice until you're comfortable doing this. And don't look at your feet!
Scissors it ahead
Now let's add the scissors position. While coasting, extend your braking skate ahead. Hold steady and continue to coast. Bring the skate back under your hips if you lose your balance. Spend 5 or 10 minutes on this drill. Remember, keeping hands in view at waist level aids your balance. (Incidentally, this is the best position to glide safely and easily over nasty patches of pavement. In this stance, your wheels form a longer, more stable platform, and you are very close to the stopping position, should you need it.)
Still feeling shaky? Good one-footed balance leads to success with the heel brake. In a slow glide with both feet together and shoulder- width apart, lift your braking foot off the pavement and roll on the other skate as long as possible. If necessary, start with short rolls, but strive to lengthen the gliding time. Later, try moving the airborne skate to the front, side and behind as you roll, to increase the balance stimulation.
Engage the rubber
Now it's time to put the rubber to the road. Start out by only lightly touching down very briefly with the brake pad while coasting in the scissors position. Try to hear and prolong the light contact, but don't bother trying to stop yet, while you get used to what's going on below. Touch and then raise the brake several times over a long coast. (Standard brake users, lift and lower the toe several times in one long coast. Cuff-activated brake users, scissors the brake foot forward with pointed toe and all four wheels on the pavement, then withdraw it, repeating several times in a long coast.)
Squeeze it on
Notice how the brake may skip across the surface and how the sudden grab makes your shoulders pull forward. Here's an important fact of physics: when your lower body stops, your upper body wants to keep going!
To fight a skipping brake, make sure you increase the pressure on the brake pad very gradually. This is the hardest trick to learn once you've mastered the other braking skills. Squeeze on the brake the same way you do the brake pedal in a car as you approach a stop sign.
To fight the upper body's forward motion, tighten your stomach muscles in anticipation as you begin to add pressure. Concentrate on sinking down behind the brake as the pressure increases, as though you are about to sit on a stool, keeping shoulders above the hips. The moment your shoulders and head fall ahead of the heel brake, the lack of leverage makes it almost impossible to get enough pressure for an effective stop.
You should now be able to drag the brake lightly for at least five feet and deal with the resulting pull on your upper body, without losing your balance. (If you can't, you are moving too slowly. Pick up the speed of your starting coast.) Once you are gently braking in a straight line, widen the triangle of your scissors to press the brake harder and further ahead. With head and eyes forward, increase the pressure until you stop, avoiding that point where loss of speed equals loss of balance. The best way to apply that final burst of stopping power is to drop your hips back as you "squirt" the brake forward at the same time.
Stop on a line
Accept the truth: You will never be able to stop on a dime with the current in-line heel brake technology. However, you can stop wherever you want as long as you stay alert enough to plan ahead. Look for a line or crack on the pavement in your practice area. Approach it with varying speeds to experiment with what it takes to get your own personal body mass stopped on that line. This is the most important drill you can do from now on, and you should practice stopping on lines or cracks anywhere and everywhere until you gain the confidence and balance to skate in a world filled with intersections, pedestrians, cyclists and cars.
Practice, practice, practice!
An amazing and wonderful thing about in-line skating is that your muscles remember the movements that work better than the ones that don't. It really doesn't have to take several months to learn how to use the in-line heel brake. If your balance skills are weak, constant practice will make all the difference in the world. If you don't get it the first day or week, don't quit trying in discouragement: one day you'll try it yet again, and suddenly you will find yourself making a long black streak on the pavement whenever and wherever you like.
I hope this article has convinced you to continue to practice using your heel brake until you too, gain the liberation that comes with knowing you are in complete control. Eventually, you'll consider that little piece of rubber just as important to your safety as your helmet, wrist guards and pads.
So use it, skater, don't lose it!
P.S. Feel free to print and share this article with anybody you think needs the information. Also, if you're still having trouble, see my FAQ "Braking--I Still Can't do it!"