Skateboarding

What is it?

Skateboarding is a fun recreational activity that develops balance, co-ordination, strength and technical skills.

Safety message

Skateboarding should only be carried out in a safe environment, free from traffic in an area that is supervised. Participants must wear appropriate protective clothing while skateboarding, for example, helmets, elbow and shin guards.

Ideas/Aims

· Participants should have their fitness measured before taking part in the sport and then at regular intervals during the programme, to see how much they have improved.

· Research how fitness levels are measured and tested.

· Visit professionally made skateboard facilities and see how they differ from one another.

· Develop different skills in skateboarding and learn different techniques.

· The Ollie - this is when the skateboard “pops” up with the skateboarder-like a jump.

· Pop Shove-it - similar to the Ollie, except that the board turns half a revolution side ways.

· The Kick Flip - this involves popping the board up like the Ollie however, with this trick the board is ‘flipped’ rather than being shoved around.

· Manual/ Wheelie - this is performed whilst riding along on the rear two wheels of the board, and involves skill with balance.

· (Variations of the above) with many of the tricks above, the same trick can also be performed with a turn making the trick more varied. Depending on how much one turns when performing the trick-half a turn would be a 180, one complete rotation would be a 360 and so on. For example an Ollie 180 would be an Ollie with which after half a rotation is made would land with the tail of the board at the front. Whether the 180 is frontside or backside depends on which side you face when standing on a board and which way you turn. Turning in the direction which your front foot would move behind you would be a frontside-ollie and vice versa.

· 50-50 grind - this trick is performed on metal bars, rails, curbs or virtually anything with a hard edge. This grind involves one to Ollie onto the edge, landing with both trucks on the top edge of the curb or rail. This trick too has many variations

· Boardslide - similar to a grind, this trick is also performed on a rail or a curb. However this involves sliding along the underside of the board on top of the chosen surface. Other variations of this trick include nose slide, tail slide etc.

Review/Assessment

The assessor should measure the participant’s fitness at the start of the programme and again at the end and they should discuss the improvements that have been made. The participant should explain to the assessor the merits of different protective clothing and should explain why it should be worn. If possible, the participant should show the assessor the different skills that he/she has learnt.