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Igor Semyonov
Igor Semyonov Chairman of the Board of Directors of ARMZ Mining Machines. Professionally engaged in skateboarding for a year
Skateboarding brings together an incredible community of people who are passionate about the same activity, but completely different in age, beliefs, appearance and social status. And it's never too late to start doing this sport – we tell you how to stand on the board as an adult.
1. Learn more about skateboarding
Anyone who plans to get into skateboarding should learn more about how this sport has developed over the past 50-60 years. It has quite an interesting history. Borden. Skateboarding And The City: Invented in California in the 1950s by surfers who were unable to do what they loved during the absence of waves.
Skateboarding quickly began to gain popularity, and by the 1960s, the number of boards sold in the United States was in the tens of thousands. In Russia, its popularity began to grow rapidly only by the mid-90s, when the first specialized stores opened and international competitions began.
Today, skateboarding is not only a hobby for many people around the world, but also a real Olympic a sport – it was included in the competition program of the Olympic Games – 2020 in Tokyo.
To feel the spirit of skateboarding and become part of the community, it is important to understand what philosophy stands behind it. And this will help you to study its history.
2. Determine how you plan to practice
You can master this sport at any age. The main thing is to find time and choose the appropriate format of classes.
If, due to a busy work schedule, you are limited in time and are determined to make progress in the shortest possible time, sign up for a specialized school or hire a personal instructor. Classes with it will give faster results and avoid mistakes.
I recommend contacting a person who really loves skateboarding and can instill this love in you, and not turn the process into coaching and training.
If you find it difficult to adapt to someone else's schedule and you consider skateboarding more as a hobby and distraction from work – ride with friends. You will independently try different chips, spy on other riders and exchange experiences with them. After some time, through trial and error, you will be able to find your own style of skating.
3. Schedule your workouts
Finding time to exercise isn't always easy, but try setting aside an hour before or after work at least twice a week: physical activity is a great way to clear your head, among other things.< /p>
The body of a skateboarder must be flexible and hardy, so it is important to pay attention to general physical fitness, especially exercises to strengthen and pump the muscles of the legs. To do this, alternate classes on the board with regular workouts or combine them.
For example, I work out three times a week in the morning, before the start of the working day. Usually it looks like this: my coach and mentor Egor Kaldikov and I ride for about an hour in the agreed place, after which I go to a fitness center near the office and add some more cardio there. And then I get to work.
It is also worth adding sports muscle massage and exercise therapy to your schedule so that the body has time to recover between workouts. And for those who are not physically prepared, my trainer recommends that you first work out on balancing platforms in order to pump small stabilizer muscles.
4. Prepare mentally for the fact that you will fall
And many times. Skateboarding is not the most harmless sport. You need to be prepared for this, but you should not fixate on negative thoughts. Try to take failure as calmly as children do, because falling is normal, it's part of progress.
Adults are often afraid to make mistakes and look ridiculous, but there is only one way to fix it: just get on with it.
While skating, discard all unnecessary thoughts and focus only on how you will balance after landing, because this is the main task in any trick.
This is what my mentor says: “I would like a person to understand: we do not train, we catch fun. Skateboarding is an antidepressant and a cure for any adversity.”
5. Get Protection
Protective equipment will help you avoid serious injury. It is definitely needed for all beginners, regardless of age. A standard kit may consist of a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads and gloves.
Specialized longboarding equipment, protective shorts and accessories are also available from specialized stores. But I would not advise putting on everything at once – it will simply make it uncomfortable for you to ride and balance on the board.
Over time, when you learn how to group correctly, it will become clear how you fall most often and whether there is a need for additional accessories.
6. Set realistic goals
When you have to combine a hobby like skateboarding with a busy work day and family, you want to achieve results as soon as possible, immediately move on to complex flips – tricks with jumps. After all, from the outside they look incredibly impressive.
But it is better not to take on impossible tasks so as not to provoke injuries.
Mastering difficult jumps always happens gradually. First you need to learn how to keep balance, then you need to perform an ollie Basic jump on the board without using hands or auxiliary objects, and only then, improving basic tricks, you get close to complex kickflips A trick with board rotation around the longitudinal axis, rotation is set by the toe of the leading foot and grabs A type of trick in which the board is grabbed by hand.
7. Get inspired by other athletes
At some point, it began to seem to me that all the tricks in skateboarding have long been known and mastered, but this is not so. This sport continues to develop, and I watch with great interest modern athletes – Russian and foreign.
And I recommend that you also follow a variety of championships in order to discover new names for yourself, it is better to join the community, and also stay up to date with new trends in sports.
I especially advise doing this to those who still doubt that skateboarding can be started at any age. Check out the viral video of a skateboarder from St. Petersburg, who is 73 years old, or the inspiring story of the Japanese Yoshio Kinoshita, who decided to stand on the board at the age of 79 and still skates with young riders.
I would also advise subscribe to these YouTube channels:
- Yegor Kaldikov's channel,
- the official channel of the Street League Skateboarding series of international skateboarding tournaments,
- account of one of the most famous skateparks in the world The Berrics,
- the official channel of Thrasher, the main skateboard magazine.
Among those who have reached great heights in Russia and abroad is Maxim Kruglov, Ksenia Maricheva, Maxim Yezhov, Lilia Sukhankova. On the Internet, you can easily find videos with the performances of the guys, and to see them with your own eyes, track events and tournaments – for example, on the official website of the Russian Skateboarding Federation.
Cover: Lifehacker
