Aggressive Skating
Aggressive skating or aggressive inline skating is the term used for those jumping, grinding, sliding and flipping ‘stunts’ you see on television performed by highly skilled aggressive skaters. Aggressive skating is also known as aggressive inline skating because it is actually a variation of inline skating or roller skating we used to know.
Aggressive skating uses special skates which is especially designed for risky skaters who wants to use street and park structures including half pipe in doing their stunts.
Tricks in aggressive skating are not for everyone. The skaters you see perform tricks train long and hard to be able to perform well. Thus, you should not try aggressive skating without proper training.
Before you start with aggressive, it may help to learn inline skating first. Inline skating involves forward and backward strokes. Inline skates have bigger and harder wheels; it also has a braking system that beginners will be able to take advantage of.
Practice your forward, backward and turns. Try to increase your speed as much as you can. You may start a few turns, jumping and spinning. Slowly increase the number of tricks you perform. When you feel you are ready for the more aggressive and risky stunts, then do the following:
Buy a pair of aggressive skates. They are different from regular inline skates. Most often, they do not have stoppers and thus you may need to train yourself before you embark on aggressive skating on the street, or in the park.
Get safety gear, even if you are trying the regular, recreational skating, wearing protective gears such as helmet, and knee and elbow pads will help you avoid accidents.
Wear loose clothing made of hard materials; this will allow you to move easily while the hard material will protect you if you fall.
Find a safe place to practice, not in the middle of the street, your own backyard or an indoor space may be good.
Visit a skate park to get a feel of things. I am sure that upon seeing aggressive skaters do their stunts you want to start immediately.
There are different disciplines under the aggressive skating theme.
Street
Park
Vert
Street discipline is where you use street or campus structures as obstacles for your tricks. You can jump, turn, spin, grind and slide. It may not need much of flying or flipping but this is still a good ground to start aggressive skating.
Park discipline is where a skate’s park incorporates the indoor and outdoor skate obstacles. You will be free to use them in your aggressive skating tricks. In a skate park, you will see many aggressive skaters and thus you will need to observe them to know what to do and the possibilities of danger that this sport entails.
Vert is the discipline where the “X” games tricks are involved. You will do real stunt, flips and even fly with your aggressive skate. It is exciting to watch aggressive skating stunts but when you see skaters hitting the ground, it feels differently.
Of course, as mentioned above, these skaters have trained long and hard, and so you need to practice and train yourself to avoid accidents that may harm you.
Final note, do not skate alone, if you want to practice aggressive skating, tag a friend along, at least if an accident does occur, there will be someone to call for help.