540

Question
I`ve been skating for about six months. People say I`m really good for the amount of time that I` ve been skating. I cannot seem to get a 540, I either don`t spin hard enough, stop myself in mid-spin, or I do it, but I trip every time.  Is there a certain way to land? Or is there a technique to the spin? Also what kinda wrist guards do you recommend? I jacked up my wrist while skating and have been out for a month, and now I will never skate again without wristguards

Answer
The 540 is a really hard trick to get down.  As for the actual in-air spin, what you want to do is always look over your shoulder in the direction you are spinning.  Your upper body will follow your head and your legs will follow your upper body, and you should come around nicely.  This is the explanation that Cesar Mora gave on TV, and he can do a 1260, so I'd trust his techniques.  When you land, since you'll be landing backwards, you need to be careful.  To soak up your landing when landing backwards, you can't lean forwards or backwards, you'll fall either way.  When you land, bend at the knees and drop into a sitting position.  Try to keep your center of gravity centered, and absorb the impact with your knees and hips, which you obviously know by now.  You'll need to be careful, since with such a large amount of spinning as you have in a 540, your body will want to keep turning, even once your skates are on the ground.  To remedy this, once you complete the spin, keep your head up and look straight forward.  Let your lower body soak up the impact, and ride it out.  Your head is in charge of your body.  Your body will always go in the direction your head is facing.

As far as wristguards, there're various ones you can get.  Harbinger makes a pair of gloves with extra fabric that wraps around your wrists.  Triple 8 makes the Helping Hands, which have pads that protect your hands, but little wrist support.  Or, you can get the normal splinted wristguards that are made by every company out there.  However, you may find that with the splints in your wristguards, doing grabs will become almost impossible.

My suggestion is to learn how to fall correctly.  Ideally, you should be able to minimize the impact on your wrists quite substantially.  The thing to keep in mind is never let one part of your body take all the impact.  When you fall, your hands will shoot down.  This is natural, and hard to avoid.  Try to be on your hands as little as possible.  Hit on your hands really quick, then roll and take the impact with your shoulder and the whole side of your body.  Though you might get some more scratches than you might like, you'll avoid messing up your wrists again.  Also, I find that most of the time I can tell when I'm going to fall, and can plan ahead to make it hurt the least amount possible.

Hope all this helps!

-Justin
[email protected]