How to Skate Crossovers in Roller Derby

Video Transcript

"In this clip we'll learn how to do crossovers. Crossovers in roller derby are very important. This is what gets you all of the speed that you need on the corners. In order to do a proper crossover on the corner, you're going to actually cross your skate in front of the other, push off with your hind foot and then cross again. I'll demonstrate, but in order to really learn the crossover, there's a few things that you're going to need to practice first. What you need to do is mentally tell yourself its okay to cross your feet. It's by doing what's called a figure eight sticky skate. Sticky skate is when you're skating with all eight wheels on the floor. You never pick up your feet. This is the sticky skate figure eight. You're going to cross one foot in front of the other, very slowly, to convince yourself its okay to cross your feet. Once you've got that down, then you can start picking up one foot and putting it in front of the other. I'll demonstrate now the crossover. When you are able to do crossovers that will get your speed around the corner. When you get really good at it, you can start doing what's called a running crossover. I'll demonstrate that for you. All of the crossovers are very important in the game, especially if you're playing the Jammer position. The Jammer has to be really fast and she has to catch up with the pack. So, learn those crossovers."