Can you believe it?!! This has to be my perfect holiday! Doing what I love most, in a fabulous location. Exploring and being taught to go faster by a world class skater.

A little apprehensive of my level at first, I was a SpeedCamp virgin. Other participants were well initiated in the world of racing on skates. I was relieved though to find that skaters were at varying levels.

The skating in Mallorca in 2006 was unbeatable. Smooth tarmac and quiet roads. We went on some lovely skates - mainly through fields and open grassland, sometimes coming out by the sea.

Residence was in the friendly Ivory Playa in Porte d’Alcudia which is right on the beach and has a bar and pool to chill out by too. This is important if you’ve been taking your skating seriously. But how serious you are is up to you. I deliberately tested myself by trying to keep up with some of the faster guys (phew).

The itinerary was mostly drills and instruction in speed technique in the mornings. If you’d not done much speed work before, then recovery, D-shapes, pulling, pushing, double pushing, gliding, set down, falling…..the wealth of jargon and schools of thought attached to ‘Technique’ becomes your own language very quickly. Barry who is an expert in sports science and has a way of explaining the bio mechanics of it all in a digestible format according to your level.

The afternoons we’d go off on a leisure skate or do some filming for video analysis later on. Watching ourselves in a video review proved an extremely useful tool for learning. Barry encouraged us to pick out and analyse aspects of both our own and each others skating so that we become more aware of how we skate and what we can improve.

Since SpeedCamp Mallorca (link), I have vastly improved my speed. This is not fitness related but due to learning the how to get the most out of my stride. I am constantly aware of what my body is doing when I skate (and I also watch others closely to see what they can improve on too).

A month later I pulled off my very best inline marathon time and held my teams’ best average lap times at the Le Mans 24 hours race (link).

Many people have returned year on year as this kind of lifestyle holiday can be highly addictive.

Further info:
Linda@skatefresh.com
Tel: 07906 449 437
Website:
http://www.speedcamp.ca/mallorca_2007.shtml
Or email Barry direct on:
Barry@breakawayskate.com mentioning the skatefresh website.

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