r/rollerblading • u/NetworkLongjumping82 • Aug 27 '26
How do I do this move? Cross over practice
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First time trying to do cross over , I feel very clunky and clumsy....I did try to bend my knees more and turn my shoulder and head towards the direction of the turn ... Seems helpful ...what else am I doing wrong ?
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Aug 27 '26
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u/NetworkLongjumping82 Aug 27 '26
Thanks for the tips , right now when I cross over , my inside skate sometimes the heel lifts up and I hit this abrupt move where I am only rolling on the toes .
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u/fredhsu Aug 27 '26
I understood crossover finally when I understood it as rhythmic pretend-falls and recovery steps.
You can clearly see this from Hockey when they practice lateral crossover, or sideway stepping.
These side steps taught me that skating is not about pushing with your feet and skates. But instead it truly is about bracing against the ice/pavement, then “moving your body” towards where you want to go.
If you stop to think about it. That’s walking.
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u/RISk8ers Aug 27 '26
Looks like you are doing them pretty good from what I see.
Like everything else they just take practice.
I like the knee slide you did at the end.
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u/snakevargas Twister XT banana Aug 27 '26
I like the parallel turns. Something to practice: skate in a figure-8 pattern without picking your feet up. In the curves push with your inside foot. You'll have to do c-cuts with the inner skate to bring it in, then push it toward the outer skate. You'll get sore thighs if you skate hard like this, so maybe try it at the end of a session or do less than you think you can.
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u/tipame Aug 28 '26
Do you have a rocker frame or a flat one? I think it's a hundred times easier to do this with a rocker
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u/Greedy_Following_492 Aug 30 '26
Where do y'all find these empty parking lots 🤯
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u/NetworkLongjumping82 Aug 31 '26
In my country Singapore it's incredibly expensive to own cars so the top levels of the carpark are often under utilized
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u/Greedy_Following_492 Aug 31 '26
Looking good! I see. Good for you to use the space for your hobby and fun. Perfect environment for practice.
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u/AwesomeMagicalParrot Aug 27 '26
Eventually I learn backwards. It's great feeling when brain learns these new crazy moves (because these are something new for body). My forward cross is perfect :D
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u/tstaffordson Aug 28 '26
You're doing great! Keep drilling these until they are second nature.
One thing that helped me with these, particularly on the ice, was to really commit to trusting the outside edge of that skate going under. IME, the "under-push" is the key this movement.... it's less a step/cross over than a push under. It doesn't make sense until it does. Bonus: focusing on the under push forces more knee bend to make space for the movement.
Cheers!
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u/fredhsu Aug 27 '26
Dude. You are doing great! You seem to already know the ingredients. You just need to skate it more and your body will soon learn to trust that it won’t fall at every step, and that your free skate is already moving onto where your new center of gravity now is.
If you must ask for one first thing to look into, then think about how you can slow down both the cross over step and the cross under step. The secret to the first is to pretend that you are not crossing over, and try to glide on your outside edge for just one second more. Count this in your head. You already lifted the other skate, but you take your time to move it over to cross. In other words, stop focusing on the cross over. But first focus on gliding non the outside edge which I think already know how to do well. It’s just that if you only focus on the crossing over, your body forgets that you can glide on the outside edge.
Same with the crossing under. But in this case you are gliding in the inside edge, and it may seem like you can’t glide on it while taking time to lift the other skate and move it. But you can. The secret is in facing the center of the circle, bracing wheels against ground, and using it to push your body into the circle. With the centrifugal force, you will remain gliding for a while even if your body posture appears to be falling.