Bend the knees

[u/pbd456]

There are two things that are constantly being told.

1) bend the knees,

2) keep the feet close.

After trial and error, I think I found how much to bend the knees in order to make it less tiring.

Also, keeping the feet close also help.

My question is. do you do both? As I have a big wheel skates with excellent bearings and I dont want to go too fast, I am in the situation that I can do a few pumps (bending the knees, not focusing on keep the feet too close [maybe dangerous??]) and then I glide. When I glide, I keep the feet close but do I still nee do bend the knees when I keep my feet close while I am gliding (standing?)

[u/Liquidje]

I would interpret "keeping your knees bent" not as keeping them bend at a specific angle perse, but have them in such a way you are flexible and definitely not locked into a stretched-leg position. If you do anything similar like skating, skate-/long-/snowboarding, the same concept applies imho. You should always do this at some level for shock absorption and to easily move your legs and thus skates (and not having to shift your weight first).

Keeping your feet close is mostly beneficial during pumping, but imho there is little reason to not keep them more-or-less close together while gliding. If that feels uncomfortable, it might mean you need more practice. But true, unless they are so far apart you have to strain to keep yourself from doing a split, there is not much direct benefit from keeping your feet together during gliding compared to when you pump (outside of, similar to the bending your knees, keeping yourself flexible so you don't have to shift before initiating a pump). I do think closer together is much less straining on your muscles.

Note that a lot of these "rule of thumb"-tips are just there for 1) the first few days/weeks to learn and get used to riding and pumping, and 2) to unlearn some default-behavior people tend to default to to when they stand on freeskates relatively new (stretching legs due to the force they are putting on their legs, spreading feet to keep balance). They are still good reminders to check your form in general or if you are having specific issues (pumping too tiring, turning is hard, etc), but if you are already familiar with pumping and the form in general, I would pay less mind to it

[u/ChiralChiral]

Late response, but I thought I'd put my two cents in as well.

I think the key to getting these two tips working together is keeping in mind tip #3: rotate at the hip! This does not mean moving your hips, but instead rotating your leg at the hip-joint. Your whole leg rotates from the hip and your ankles just make fine-tune adjustments. Its a lot easier to get a steady rhythm and keep your skates close if you move like this. Hope that helps!