How to do Knee Slides in Roller Derby

Video Transcript

"In this clip we'll learn how to do knee slides. In the game of roller derby, chances are you will be hit and knocked off your feet. This is something that, if you have the proper safety gear on, and if you know how to fall properly, you shouldn't be afraid of. In fact, a lot of girls kind of look forward to it. One of the ways that you can fall and protect yourself is by learning to naturally do a knee slide. This is something that a lot of women have a hard time with at first. Mentally our bodies are not prepared to throw ourselves on our knees. You have to learn to protect your, or to trust your gear because your gear is going to protect you when you fall. There are some basic knee slides that you'll learn when you join a derby league. One is just a single knee slide, another is a knee slide and turn, and then finally there's the double knee slide. And if you get really good, you'll learn how to do what's called a Superman. I'm going to demonstrate the knee slide. But first I want to talk to you about how to prepare yourself for the knee slide. You don't want to tense up because if you're holding yourself really tense and going into this knee slide, you're probably going to pull a muscle. So you need to be relaxed, and you need to just have fun with it. Start with dragging a toe. You're going to go down into a kneeling position and allow yourself to simply slide. Once you're in that position of the knee slide on the ground, you're going to rock back on your hind skate, get up on your toe stop, and push yourself off without touching the floor. It's very important not to touch the rink floor when you do a knee slide because if you're in the middle of the pack, someone might roll over your fingers and that would not be fun. Let me demonstrate to you the basic knee slide. After the basic knee slide, is the knee slide and turn. This is basically the same thing as a knee slide, only you're turning your body completely around. This is handy if you get knocked backwards in a bout. You can turn yourself around, get right back up and join the pack again. Let me demonstrate the basic knee slide and turn. "